White Rose Histories

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com August 14 - August 18, 1942. Summary: Hans Scholl forgets Josef Söhngen’s birthday. Söhngen is disappointed that he does not hear from Hans, since he has grown fond of him. Magdalena Scholl writes Hans and asks him and Werner to submit a clemency petition from the front lines for their father. Hans’ instinc...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com August 14 - August 17, 1942. Summary: Sophie Scholl acts independently of Hans and Alex in their absence. She entrusts Hans Hirzel with 80 Marks ($640) of their money, requesting that he use it to buy a duplicating machine and produce leaflets. She tells him there’s more where that came from, that she will...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com August 12 - August 14, 1942. Summary: Willi Graf decides he will not sit and be miserable. Together with others from the HVP, they clear a place on the edge of the forest where they can read and write. The hard physical labor makes him feel better. Hans Scholl pens a very strange diary entry that bounces fr...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com August 8 - August 12, 1942. Summary: Willi Graf hears about the “really bad” air raid in Saarbrücken. He cannot think of anything else. He has not received mail from his parents in a very long time. The weather turns miserable, raining, leaving muck and mud. Nevertheless, Hans Scholl sets out on long walks,...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com August 1 - August 7, 1942. Summary: Fritz Hartnagel’s promotion to Captain comes through. Now that he has the rank he’s wanted for so long, he wishes he did not have it. He would rather turn his back on the entire system. He throws the obligatory promotion party, buying lots of booze in the hopes that every...

August 6 - August 7, 1942. Summary: Hans Scholl’s younger brother Werner appears at HVP Plankenhorn. He is assigned to the TVP near Ržev, which is very close to the worst of the fighting. Werner takes Hans out for a late-night stroll. He introduces him to Russian farmers. They drink vodka and sing Russian songs “as if we were in the middle of peacetime.” The Russian military breaks through German...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com August 4 - August 6, 1942. Summary: Hans Scholl, Willi Graf, Hubert Furtwängler, Alexander Schmorell, and Raimund Samüller receive their specific duty assignments. Hans and Willi are assigned to an infectious diseases ward at HVP Plankenhorn, while Hubert, Alex, and Raimund go to another section of the HVP....

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com August 3 - August 4, 1942. Summary: Robert Scholl’s trial for perfidy takes place in Ulm. Judge Cuhorst, the same judge who had given Hans Scholl a lenient sentence for his §175(2) offenses (sexual assault of a preteen male under his command) hears Robert Scholl’s case. Prosecution relies on the testimony o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com August 1 - August 3, 1942. Summary: Two different (German) perspectives on the war in Russia. Peter Hirzel says that as his tank division travels south through the Caucasus Mountains to the oilfield wars, Georgian soldiers defect to their side, saying, “Stalin no good, Hitler no good, you and me home to Mam...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com July 27 - July 30, 1942. Summary: Christl writes his younger brother Dieter Sasse on his birthday. He encourages him, knowing Dieter is struggling to survive Reich Labor Service, with its coarse tone and harsh dealings. He includes the same sentiment he had expressed to Angelika a couple of weeks earlier, t...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com July 29 - July 31, 1942. Summary: The five soldier students — Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, Willi Graf, Hubert Furtwängler, and Raimund Samüller — continue their eastward travel towards the Russian front. Willi Graf says they are living in the day. He reads Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey i...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com July 26 - July 29, 1942. Summary: Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, Willi Graf, Hubert Furtwängler, and Raimund Samüller spend a little time in Warsaw. They cannot see the deportations that started on the day they left Munich, because an 11.5’ brick wall obstructs the view of the Warsaw Ghetto. Note: In eac...

In keeping with goal of introducing a wider audience to critical members of the White Rose circle who have been mostly overlooked in the “legend,” this segment is free. Eugen Grimminger made the work of White Rose resistance possible. He deserves our honor and utmost respect . July 27, 1942 (with flashback for Eugen Grimminger). Summary: Robert Scholl worries he will be imprisoned following his up...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com July 23 - July 27, 1942. Summary: The same day the soldier students leave Munich, headed for the Russian front, Adam Czerniakow — head of the Judenrat in the Warsaw Ghetto — suicides. Czerniakow had asked Nazi bigwigs if rumors about deportations East were true. They had all emphatically denied those rumors...

I am making all three segments of Chapter 10 free to all readers. I want you to get a good glimpse of the humanity of these students, how they could have fun together, their dynamics in a group setting, simply their silly, serious selves . July 22 - July 23, 1942. Summary: Hans Hirzel enjoys a number of one-on-one conversations with White Rose friends at the farewell party. Alexander Schmorell dis...

I am making all three segments of Chapter 10 free to all readers. I want you to get a good glimpse of the humanity of these students, how they could have fun together, their dynamics in a group setting, simply their silly, serious selves . July 22, 1942. Summary: Manfred Eickemeyer is annoyed and surprised when around thirty people show up for the farewell party. Sophie has brought black tea, Hans...

I am making all three segments of Chapter 10 free to all readers. I want you to get a good glimpse of the humanity of these students, how they could have fun together, their dynamics in a group setting, simply their silly, serious selves . July 19 - July 22, 1942. Summary: Willi Graf decides that Oscar Baez is all right, though he still worries about his sister’s nuptials. He heads back to Munich,...

July 13 - July 18, 1942. Summary: Fritz Hartnagel’s unit continues its slow but relentless march towards Stalingrad. His company was hampered by the missing automobiles that remained at their old location, 300 miles away. Fritz flew that distance to check on status of repairs, but as they landed, the tail skid of the plane broke. One car was ready, so he returned under cover of night. Only that au...

July 15 - July 18, 1942. I am making this a free podcast-post, so you can get to know Otl Aicher, Christoph Probst, and Alexander Schmorell a bit better. You will understand why I admire the courage and strength of these three young men so much . Summary: A Russian mamuschka befriends Otl Aicher, giving him five cooked red beets, letting him know she had witnessed his humiliation. When he returns...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com July 15 - July 18, 1942. Summary: Hans Hirzel’s pendulum swings back in the other direction. Now he is no longer certain that White Rose leaflets are true. He tells Franz Josef Müller about “seditious leaflets” he has received and shows one to Kurt Glöckler, who advises him to turn it in to the police. He b...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com July 15, 1942. Summary: Fritz Hartnagel writes Sophie Scholl that he finds it odd and comforting that he can turn to her. “It’s like a clear, starry night over a village destroyed by gunfire.” Eduard H., a student on leave from the Russian front, visits Professor Kurt Huber. Huber asks about forced steriliz...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com July 11 - July 15, 1942. Summary: Hans and Sophie Scholl spend the weekend in Ulm. Inge queries them about the leaflets. Sophie laughs off the question, saying all students had received the leaflets. Inge joins her siblings in Munich for a few days. Lisa Grote - a nanny and a dissident in Munich who had bee...

There is an old proverb that children are always taught anew: Pay attention or pay the consequences. A smart child will only burn his fingers once on a hot stove. In the past few weeks, Hitler has registered successes both in Africa and in Russia. As a result, optimism grew among the people on the one hand, while consternation and pessimism grew on the other hand – and this with a rapidity that is...

“Salus publica suprema lex.” All ideal forms of government are utopias. A State cannot be designed strictly theoretically. It must grow, mature, just as an individual person will. However, one may not forget that at the beginning of every civilization, a prototype of the form of government existed. The family is so old – old as mankind itself – that out of this initial communal being the logic-end...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com June 30 - July 10, 1942. Summary: Fritz Hartnagel tries to tell Sophie how much he loves her, without telling her that he loves her. His insecurities shine through clearly as he tempers his declarations with the reality that she can never love him back. He receives a second letter from Sophie, describing he...