White Rose Histories

About White Rose Histories

Reading White Rose histories aloud, 10 minutes at a time. Starting in media res, with Volume II. deniseelaineheap.substack.com (https://deniseelaineheap.substack.com/s/white-rose-histories-audio-books?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Denise Elaine Heap

Category

history · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Jun 2024

Latest episode

12 Sept 2024

Latest episodes

85 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Sept 2024

   Chapter 18, part 4: Loosening a Stitch on the Eagle

   This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com (https://deniseelaineheap.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7) October 18 - October 19, 1942. Storybook: The soldier students in Sosnovka are treated to a corny, slapstick movie starring Marte Harell. The movie — Opernball, or Opera Ball — attracts the town’s young people. Willi Graf is puzzled by the comment of one young man, who says he wants to see the war. Willi later reasons that that fascination with war is likely owing to the fact that Russians have known nothing but war. (Goebbels’ propaganda has been effective.) Hans Scholl receives a letter from Josef Söhngen and immediately replies. He tells Söhngen that they are leaving “day after tomorrow,” so he will see him soon and they can talk. Hans repeats his earlier comments about his love for Russia and knows that he will be drawn back to that country. Sophie and Inge Scholl put together a Christmas wreath for Fritz Hartnagel. Sophie complains that the wreath did not turn out very well, because Inge laughed too much and Waldemar “just sat there like a spectator.” Carl Muth writes a letter to Otl Aicher, reminding him to love “Fatherland and Volk,” while simultaneously looking forward to a quick end to the war. He tells him as well about Robert Scholl’s soon release. Muth then turns his attention to Hans Scholl, penning a fatherly letter to Hans. He reminds Hans that nothing is more powerful than a man who prays (St. Chrysostom). Winter arrives in Sosnovka. The soldier students shiver in houses where snow and rain drips from the ceiling. Despite a good punch drink — assuredly spiked with rum — they are lethargic. Hubert Furtwängler is still ill. They need him! 2007 update, Fritz Hartnagel and Sophie Scholl Fritz expresses his concern over the approaching winter. He is staying busy, preparing for that season. He is losing control of his company, since German brass has decreed that individual mess halls be shut down. All companies in the area share the same “casino” or mess hall, which hampers Fritz’s ability to lead his unit. He tells Sophie about a debate he had with his Commanding Office and lieutenants from a nearby company. They argued that Nature is good. Fritz says that the primary law of Nature is self-preservation. In war, he writes Sophie, the strong win and the weak are eliminated. He finds that good. But: Fritz is staring down two issues. First, his most intelligent officer is going on leave to study, leaving Fritz shorthanded. Second, it has started to snow. Why this matters: * Willi Graf was certainly not a weak human being, certainly he was far more intelligent than the average German. Yet even he bought into Goebbels’ propaganda about Russians, failing to recognize the warlike tendencies of his own country. In 2024 and in our own country — whether that is the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, wherever you may live — it is far easier to recognize “warlike tendencies” of other nations, than it is to confront our own. * When I first worked through the 2005 edition of letters (Fritz Hartnagel and Sophie Scholl), the letter where Fritz argues a Darwinian view of Nature surprised me. It’s a shame Sophie’s letter in response did not survive, since she always argued an idealistic, naive view of Nature. Which side of that debate would you come down on? Why? White Rose History, Volume II (https://www.exclamation-publishers.com/products/white-rose-history-volume-ii-journey-to-freedom-may-1-1942-october-12-1943), pages 224-227. Notes and references available only to paid subscribers. Note that I will “restack” these posts. If you wish to comment and are not a paid subscriber, you may do so when I restack. Thanks!

2. 

   11 Sept 2024

   Chapter 18, part 3: Loosening a Stitch on the Eagle

   This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com (https://deniseelaineheap.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7) October 15 - October 17, 1942. Storybook: Sophie Scholl and Otl Aicher seem to operate on the same frequency. Their letters in mid-October 1942 independently express similar thoughts and desires. Sophie writes Fritz that he will surely breathe easier when everything is behind him. Hans Hirzel contacts Sophie once she is back in Ulm, asking about planned resistance activities. She tells him that a new leaflet will be drafted once ‘the boys’ are home. Hans Hirzel commits his support to their cause, but asks for two code phrases that can be transmitted by letter or phone should a dangerous situation arise. Sophie and Hans Hirzel settle on “Hans has a sore throat” as the first, and a reference to Gerhard Ritter’s Machtstaat und Utopie [Dictatorship and Utopia] as the second. Manfred Eickemeyer returns to Munich to check up on his studio. Everything is in order, just as he left it in July. He again leaves the second set of keys with Mr. Mayer, his super, and returns to Cracow. The brilliance of autumn enchant the soldier students. Willi Graf notes an optical illusion - the sun makes it appear that the villages and churches have moved closer together. Days in Sosnovka settle in to a comfortable routine of medical rounds, chores in the homes they are billeted on, and skat. When rain keeps them indoors, they drink coffee, play skat, and talk big. News that the start of the winter semester has been moved back, permitting them a real vacation once they are home, makes them all quite happy. Hans Scholl - still away from his friends on the front lines - writes a “sympathy” letter to his sister Inge. He does not mention Ernst Reden by name, but he tells Inge he’s there for her. His letter likely does not comfort Inge, since Hans dwells on a bizarrely negative view of autumn to ‘make her feel better.’ Inge is a terribly fearful person who is afraid of everything (according to Otl). Hans’ depressing words would not assuage her grief, but rather intensify it. According to a Page of Testimony in Yad Vashem’s registry, a Jewish man named Berul Fridyland died in mid-October in Sosnovka. His presence in the town, as well as his death, remain a White Rose mystery. Was he the silver-haired man with the carcinona? So much remains unknown… Hubert Furtwängler takes to his bed, ill. Nightly skat games continue without him. Willi Graf still loses. No reading or serious conversations. Skat rules! Why this matters: Focusing on a single topic here: Berul Fridyland and Sosnovka. Without Russian and military history scholars, it will be difficult to get a full picture of what “our” White Rose soldier students witnessed on the Russian front. Especially Willi Graf’s extended service in 1941 through April 1942, and Fritz Hartnagel’s deployment near Stalingrad, and Otl Aicher’s service in the Caucasus and near Baku. What did these young men see and experience? What of their correspondence and conversations are we missing? At this point, I would be happy if someone would locate the complete military records of Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Otl Aicher, Fritz Hartnagel, Hubert Furtwängler, Raimund Samüller, Franz Josef Müller, Heinrich Brenner, Rudi Alt, Adalbert Grundel, Wilhelm Geyer, Manfred Eickemeyer (Generalgouvernement), and Jürgen Wittenstein. The few pages we have from Willi Graf’s files are eye-opening. And it’s only three or four pages from how many dozen or hundred? Emphasizing this to say: It is almost silly to keep writing about White Rose topics unless and until archives are open. If you want to help us force some of these blocked or “missing” archives open, please contact me (https://www.white-rose-studies.org/pages/contact-us). The more of us working for the full story, on behalf of historical accuracy, the more effective we will be. We need grant writers, translators, project managers. And that’s just for starters. In the meantime, all we can do is speculate (which is hardly the optimal solution). In this case: Were our White Rose soldier students in the same Sosnovka where Rode Fridyland nee Epshtein sat shiva for her husband Berul? White Rose History, Volume II (https://www.exclamation-publishers.com/products/white-rose-history-volume-ii-journey-to-freedom-may-1-1942-october-12-1943), pages 221-224. Notes and references available only to paid subscribers. Note that I will “restack” these posts. If you wish to comment and are not a paid subscriber, you may do so when I restack. Thanks!

3. 

   10 Sept 2024

   Chapter 18, part 2: Loosening a Stitch on the Eagle

   October 14 - October 15, 1942. Storybook: Josef Söhngen receives Hans Scholl’s September 11 letter. Hans’ letter delights Söhngen so much that he immediately responds — on his personal stationery, not business! He is pleased that Hans opened up his inner being for Söhngen. Söhngen agrees to send Hans the Dostoevsky books he requested, but argues that the truly great Russian writers were Pushkin, Gogol, and Turgenev. He finds Russian literature too much of a “sinister puzzle.” Söhngen asks that when Hans is back in Munich, he will save an evening for him when they can discuss Russian literature. He also tells Hans Scholl that the September bombing raid damaged his store windows, and he has not been able to replace them yet. Wood covers the empty frames. And, he attended a Bach concert given by the great pianist Wilhelm Kempff (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fFoEMORGYE), a concert Hans undoubtedly would have attended with Söhngen had he been in Munich. Söhngen concludes the letter by asking Hans to “tell the other two hello as well,” and Werner too, “if he will accept [his greetings].” Despite Söhngen’s extensive postwar explanations of this letter, he never said who the “other two” were, or why he doubted that Werner Scholl would accept his greetings. After the war, Söhngen said that their correspondence did not adequately portray how “warm” their friendship was. During interrogations, he claimed that he was only interested in Hans Scholl’s mind and did not know he was “sexually tainted” (gay). It’s not only likely, but probable, that Söhngen enjoyed Hans Scholl’s company because Hans was intellectual and gay. Meanwhile on the Russian front, Otl Aicher is diagnosed with jaundice. The front line doctors send him to a field hospital in the rear. Since Otl is ambulatory, he is pointed in the direction of the nearest railroad track and told to catch the first train heading west. In the middle of the season’s first snowstorm, a German locomotive materializes. Otl realizes that they will be transported to the rear in a boxcar that had recently delivered munitions to the front lines. Otl cannot sleep, so he watches for railroad station signs to mark their progress. Once he sees Armavir, he knows they are in Armenia, safely distant from Russian oilfields in Baku. He is still in the USSR, but feels oddly free - and human. He uses his pocketknife to loosen a stitch on the Nazi eagle that adorns his cap. Otl hopes that it will get loose enough to fall off - his heart needs a sign! Why this matters: There is no doubt that Josef Söhngen spoke the truth when he said that the surviving correspondence between him and Hans Scholl did not adequately convey the warmth of their “friendship.” As you will see in a later chapter, Hans Scholl’s final, loving words were for Josef Söhngen, not one of the many women whom Hans Scholl used as “beard,” and treated horrendously in so doing. The telling of true White Rose history has been hampered since 1945 by an older sister (Inge) who protected herself and her family from “scandal” by pretending that Hans’ final, loving words were for… which woman? She dangled that carrot on a very long stick, leading to decades-long speculation whether Hans meant Traute Lafrenz, Gisela Schertling, Rose Nägele, Ulla Borchert, or Ulla Claudias. Anything that put her or the Scholl family in bad light, or simply not in the spotlight!, was suppressed, unpublished. As Inge Jens noted - to me and to other researchers - Inge Scholl granted her access to less than 10% of Scholl archives, and only Inge’s typewritten transcriptions, not the originals. History cannot be accurately written where there in censorship. Josef Söhngen’s troublesome relationship with Hans Scholl should have been honestly addressed back when Inge wrote her very first book. “Troublesome relationship,” not because Hans was gay, and Söhngen’s other relationships were with similar “Section 175” young soldiers. “Troublesome” only because Hans Scholl jeopardized their operations with his relationship with Söhngen. As you have already seen in Chapter 3 (https://deniseelaineheap.substack.com/p/chapter-3-supplement-part-1-enigmas), and as you will continue to see in subsequent chapters, Söhngen associated with several young, gay soldiers who were ardent National Socialists. Gestapo Agent Schmauβ will later use Hans Scholl’s “Section 175” relationships to flip him on others in the White Rose, most notably Christoph Probst. Similarly, you will hear accusations of “Section 175” behavior when Söhngen is interrogated. Two very strong takeaways, if not three: * The genuine and deep love that Josef Söhngen and Hans Scholl had for one another will likely never be known, unless Söhngen’s love letters to Hans Scholl are in the blocked Scholl archives. Because Söhngen destroyed all but the most innocuous letter from Hans to himself, in advance of his interrogation. * Sometimes histories can only be told truthfully once family members die off. It’s a two-edged sword. On the one hand, we lose access to their memories after their deaths, memories that can explain and interpret incidents we don’t understand. On the other hand, they can no longer be “embarrassed” by a relative’s sexuality or addictions or fatal flaws. We as historians are then freer to write the truth. * The third point: Often when I am reading correspondence by and between Hans Scholl and his “lovers,” I tend to read a bit jaded. Because Hans could be so very shallow. Especially his letters to Rose Nägele can be sickening. He is trying to hard to “be” heterosexual, while also abusing and misusing the love entrusted to him by his “beards.” When reading this segment aloud, the first take had that same cynical approach to Söhngen’s almost-love letter to Hans Scholl. When listening to it before posting, I was ashamed of myself for treating Söhngen the same way I treated the women Hans hid behind. Because Hans Scholl did in fact love Josef Söhngen. It was complicated, it was messy, but it was real. So I re-recorded, and this time without cynicism, but recognizing the deep emotions that Söhngen felt for Hans, masked by convention and fear of concentration camp. I hope the change in voice comes through. White Rose History, Volume II (https://www.exclamation-publishers.com/products/white-rose-history-volume-ii-journey-to-freedom-may-1-1942-october-12-1943), pages 219-221. This post is free to all readers, because the topic of Hans Scholl’s relationship with Josef Söhngen is too important to put behind a paywall. Notes and references Josef Söhngen’s letter to Hans Scholl: One odd thing about Söhngen’s letter to Hans Scholl: He combined formal ‘You’ (Sie) with use of Hans’ first name, something rarely done even in 21st century Germany, and certainly not common in 1942. Even Carl Muth called Hans “Mr. Scholl” and addressed him as “Sie.” Despite the use of formal address, the letter has a very intimate tone. Another oddity in the letter – Söhngen wrote, “I will gladly send you Dostoevsky, since that is what you wish; if it were my choice, I would not have done so, because I do not love him. There are greater masters among the Russians.” He literally said, “weil ich ihn nicht liebe” (emphasis mine), a turn of phrase one associates with a younger reader and not a 48-year-old seller of books. One paragraph in Söhngen’s letter is so tortuous in its pseudo-theological-philosophical construction that I include it in its entirety here. I became aware of something when I reread your letter so often; it became blissfully clear that for you this time will be one of great long-term profit. A law of physics states that no energy is ever lost. Emotional energy is also never lost. The path out of this chaos will end in a different plane than the one that we abandoned in olden times. We will never be able to re-stitch the threads that have been torn. Rather we will once again find ourselves in a situation that has been changed at its very core. We will need a living, inner strength to master this life. The only source of this strength – one we can call by name – is inclination (*) to God, the objective of a true Christendom. That is still quite distant, not in the sense of plain chronology. But it is still distant because the bitterness, the inner distress, and the worries about other, dear people have their own more difficult, more harried, more tormenting measure of time. The asterisk: Söhngen wrote inclination, not worship as one would expect in that context. In Söhngen’s postwar narrative, he claimed that he could not understand why the Gestapo thought the sentence about “the path out of this chaos” referred to something political, because it was (according to Söhngen) followed by “an addendum” (his word) about “inclination to God.” It is almost as if he reconstructed the paragraph in his mind. As you will see in later chapters, Söhngen initially claimed he had destroyed Hans’ letters. When the Gestapo pressed the point about a political connection to Hans Scholl, he miraculously produced two of at least three he had in his possession. The Gestapo concluded theirs was nothing more than a homosexual liaison. Otherwise, they would have treated Söhngen far more harshly. Use of personal stationery, instead of business, would undercut Söhngen’s claim that Hans Scholl was just another customer. * Wilhelm Kempff: Rare Recordings (1936-1945) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fFoEMORGYE). From the collections of Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv and Norddeutscher Rundfunk. The link takes you to the same recording as is in the body of this post. But searching for +Wilhelm Kempff and +Bach on YouTube will yield many, many more such recordings. * Zavrel, B. John. “The Pianist Wilhelm Kempff is Dead.” In Prometheus: Internet Bulletin for Art, Politics, and Science, May 24, 1992. Clarence, NY: West-Art, 1991. Retrieved from www.meaus.com/KEMPFF.html. * Third White Rose Trial: July 13, 1943 (https://www.exclamation-publishers.com/products/third-white-rose-trial-july-13-1943). October 14, 1942 letter from Josef Söhngen to Hans Scholl; Josef Söhngen’s post-war narrative; initial interrogation of Josef Söhngen on March 16, 1943; May 24, 1943 letter from Söhngen’s attorney requesting his release; April 13, 1943 interrogation of Josef Söhngen. Otl Aicher: Writing this book has given me a whole new appreciation for medical advances of the past fifty years. What was then called “jaundice” is now recognized to be several diseases, some serious, some not. German medical staff on the front lines apparently considered it contagious. * Aicher, Otl. innenseiten des kriegs. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag GmbH, 1985. * Cleveland Clinic. Adult Jaundice. Retrieved from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/15367-adult-jaundice. * Smithsonian Institution. Armavir: My Armenia. Retrieved from https://myarmenia.si.edu/en/guide/regions/armavir/index.html. * WebMD.com. Understanding Jaundice: What You Need to Know. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/hepatitis/jaundice-why-happens-adults. Errata to auto-generated transcript: The lion’s share of Söhngen’s letter centered on religious topics. He told Hans that it had become “blissfully clear” that his time in Russia would bring him long-term profit. “A law of physics states that no energy is ever lost. Emotional energy is also never lost.” — Italicized portion is omitted from transcript. Surreptitiously, he used his pocketknife to loosen a stitch on the Nazi eagle that adorned his cap. “Maybe it would start to get loose and one day, simply fall off. My heart needed a sign.” Loosening a stitch on the eagle! — Italicized portion is omitted from transcript. Podcast © 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. White Rose History, Volume II, Chapter 18, © 2002 Denise Elaine Heap and Exclamation! Publishers. Please contact us (https://www.exclamation-publishers.com/pages/contact-us) for permission to quote. This podcast is a project of WHY THIS MATTERS (https://deniseelaineheap.substack.com/), a newsletter of Center for White Rose Studies (https://www.white-rose-studies.org/), that explores the reasons that voices silenced more than eighty years ago still speak to us today. To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume II, (https://www.exclamation-publishers.com/products/white-rose-history-volume-ii-journey-to-freedom-may-1-1942-october-12-1943)click here (https://www.exclamation-publishers.com/products/white-rose-history-volume-ii-journey-to-freedom-may-1-1942-october-12-1943). Digital version of White Rose History, Volume I (https://www.exclamation-publishers.com/products/white-rose-history-volume-i-coming-together-january-31-1933-april-30-1942) is available here (https://www.exclamation-publishers.com/products/white-rose-history-volume-i-coming-together-january-31-1933-april-30-1942). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deniseelaineheap.substack.com/subscribe (https://deniseelaineheap.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

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