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CENTER FOR WHITE ROSE STUDIES

West Berlin, New Jersey

October 12, 2006 – Volume 5, Issue 2

Perspective

    A couple of weeks ago, I decided to revamp my author’s Web site. It had been nearly a year since I’d done so much as the basics.

    The revamp occurred at a particularly stressful time, which as any creative body will tell you, is not the best moment to undertake a major project. I stared at a blank screen for the longest, unable to put together two words that made sense. Too much self-pity got in the way, self-pity for the manner in which the easiest things were turning out to be complicated and time-consuming.

    That self-pity morphed into the question: Did “my” White Rose kids wallow in the same kind of despair when stencils ripped and people they trusted let them down? How did they handle the stress that was peculiar to saying No during the Third Reich, stress that was far more terrifying than dealing with New Jersey’s bureaucracy or disappointing relationships?

    I already knew the answer to the question. For the most part, they did not wallow. Oh, Sophie may have written chillingly despondent words, and Hans may have sought refuge in drugs. But for the most part, the college students whom we think of as the White Rose took their aloneness in stride, drawing strength from one another and the conviction that they were doing what was right.

    My contemplations were underscored a few days later when Enron once again dominated the news. One of our family members had led the revolt of vice presidents against Ken Lay… in 1986. He refused to tolerate illegal and unethical actions perpetrated by Lay. Almost half the management team agreed with his stand and resigned en masse. Lay went on to replace them with people like Fastow and Skillings who shared his warped view of business ethics.

    But I never heard one of these vice presidents (including our family member) wish they had stayed, wish they had the multi-million dollar salaries that Lay implemented, wish they had gotten a piece of Ken Lay’s pie. They were content to have their integrity intact, and found sustenance with others of their kind.

Putting the two (White Rose and Enron) together got me out of my funk like nothing else could have. Sometimes I get so fixated on what I don’t have, or the difficulties we face as a small nonprofit, or brick walls that block the path when following a particular line of research, that I overlook the cornucopia of most excellent things all around me.

    When it comes right down to it, perspective – seeing that cornucopia for what it is – is one of the few things I can control. If only I will.

Book Review

Alexander Schmorell: Gestapo-Verhörprotokolle, Februar-März 1943. RGWA I361K-I-8808. Orenburg, Russia: Orenburg Charity Foundation “Eurasia”, 2005.

    If you’ve followed our work for very long, you know that most “scholarly” works on the White Rose tend to disappoint. Too many researchers still toe the Scholl-centric line and avoid commentary on continuing censorship of Nazi-era documents. Even the alleged documentation that accompanied the recent Sophie Scholl movie was at best highly edited to present her in only the most favorable light, and at worst consciously censored to circumvent critical controversy.

    So we opened the package from the scholars in Orenburg, Russia with trepidation, fearing that Igor Khramov (the Schmorell biographer) would have similarly short-changed Alex in his presentation of “Schurik’s” interrogations. Because we already knew that the Gestapo had played Willi Graf against Alex, Alex against Willi, and both against everyone else. Leaving out any of the painful cross-examination would have limited our view of Alex and limited our view of truth.

    To Dr. Khramov’s credit, this volume exceeds even our high standards for accuracy with its faithful portrayal of the young freedom fighter with strawberry-blond hair. The Russian National Military Archives granted permission to publish actual facsimiles of the transcripts, accompanied by Russian translation of same. (It should be noted that the quality of those documents greatly surpasses the quality of Bundesarchiv documents, which at times can be all but illegible, especially those in the NJ1704 series.)

    Dr. Khramov took his attention to detail one step further. Not only did he ensure that this hard-cover book contained everything in Alex’s files, he also bound in samples of the envelopes with leaflets as they mailed them. Complete with replication of the Hitler postage stamps, postmarks from Munich and Vienna, and the different type “styles” that arose from use of either the Remington or Erica typewriters as well as preferences for addressing an envelope.

    This neat little feature – an unexpected bonus – affected us more than we would have believed possible. It makes their act more immediate, something tangible that bridges the gap of time.

To order, contact Dr. Khramov directly at vip_orenburg@inbox.ru. Tell him Ruth Sachs sent you!

More About Orenburg

    When Dr. Erich Schmorell first told us about Igor Khramov, he did so with more than a little embarrassment. After all, non-Scholl family members had long (and unsuccessfully) fought the White Rose “establishment” to broaden the narrow horizons of the Foundation to include everyone who had been involved with White Rose resistance. Not to exclude Hans and Sophie, but to put them into proper context. Even Fritz and Elisabeth Hartnagel nee Scholl joined this battle, but their efforts too were in vain.

    And along comes Igor Khramov, who focused solely on Alexander Schmorell. Dr. Erich Schmorell feared that Khramov’s concentration on “Schurik” could be perceived as an attempt to shift the spotlight away from anyone else and put it squarely and exclusively on his half-brother.

    In time, Khramov won Dr. Schmorell over by proving that he was not anti-Scholl, he merely wished to act as biographer for one of Orenburg’s native sons, to honor Alex as few German towns honor those who resisted Hitler.

    In keeping with that principle, the Orenburg Charity Foundation “Eurasia” holds its own annual White Rose conference every September 16 on Alex’s birthday. And in keeping with their greater agenda, they honor not only Alex, but also his half-brother, and others who contribute to peace and understanding between Russia and Germany. We hope to take a small contingent from our Center for White Rose Studies to that conference in September 2007.

    The Orenburg foundation also has a documentary about Alex’s life available. If you are serious about German resistance, and are not satisfied with the schmaltzy representations typical of the genre, please contact Igor at the email address above.

    To learn more about them, what they do, who they are, check out www.orenb.org. The site is available in Russian, German, and English.

Note: To order Alex Schmorell’s transcripts in English translation, click here.

(Wish it could be as nice as the Russian version!)

More About Transcripts

    It was exciting to receive Alex’s “missing” transcripts, the ones that have been stored with the Russian National Military Archives all these years.

    It was equally exciting to receive a most unexpected gift, quite anonymously, of Franz Josef Müller’s Gestapo interrogation transcripts. We knew they existed, because he spoke of holding them in his own hands and seeing the black grease pencil marks the Gestapo agents had made.

    But if you inquire about those transcripts with the Bundesarchiv in Berlin, you get nothing. In their list of White Rose documents, there is one file that has no description and is empty. We have long guessed (correctly) that that file was Müller’s. And assumed it was forever gone.

    We are grateful to have these explosive documents at our disposal. Please, if you have good connections with an intellectual property lawyer who’s got experience in international copyright, please bitteschön, have them contact us as soon as possible. We want to add Müller’s transcripts to the primary sources we provide in English translation.

    No matter what, look for new and perhaps even shocking (to those of you who have invited Müller to speak on campus) information in our 2006 update to White Rose History Volume II. This is precisely the kind of thing we anticipated when we called our books “The Unfinished Story” and chose such an unorthodox binding method. Once this update is released, you will appreciate that silly three-ring binder.

Abandonment

    After years of grousing about the poor quality of dramas available on the subject of German resistance in general, and White Rose resistance in particular, Ruth Sachs was challenged to write a play that would accurately and passionately portray the group as they really were.

    The result: Abandonment.

    Although the play is book-ended by first and third acts that feature Willi Graf's aloneness – hence the title – it is not “about” Willi Graf. The meat of the play, indeed, a full half of the performance time, is dedicated to the debate that took place in February 1943, a debate that both strengthened and weakened the White Rose.

    Strengthened, because those who were truly dedicated to resistance, to informed dissent, left more determined than ever to bring down Hitler's regime. Weakened, because the debate highlighted their differences and pointed to an eventual dissolution of the group as it stood.

    This debate is more relevant to 21st century America (and Western Europe) than the leaflets they wrote. It raises questions that the best ethicists and philosophers among us have difficulty answering:

What if any are the “absolutes” at stake when a government is dead wrong? Is it all right to protest alongside people with whom we have deep differences on other matters important to us? What role does / should religion play in our politics? When is compromise acceptable, when is it not? What issues are so compelling that we are willing to lay down our lives for them, and how can we know we are right?

    No easy answers for any of the above. It is our sincere hope that this play will get students (and adults!) talking about things that matter.

    Sixteen “named” players in all (plus undetermined number of extras - your discretion): Nine adult males, six adult females, and one small child (no speaking lines for the child). The play includes a “Brecht-ian” scene that may be effective, depending on your audience. The option for omitting it is included with each script.

    To order, click here.

General note about our plays: If your theater (high school, college, university, or community theater) would commit to the premiere of Abandonment, or any of the three “political” Ludwig Thoma plays offered by Exclamation! Publishers, please contact us. To the high school, college or university, and community theater that premieres one of these four plays, Exclamation! Publishers is willing to waive all script fees and royalties. First come, first served only in each category. This offer expires on February 28, 2007.

Potpourri

õ Our move to New Jersey has been … fun. Seriously, we love living here amid the pinelands, close to the shore. And finding ourselves in West Berlin? Priceless. But we are struggling with the state’s Teutonic bureaucracy, so please be patient with us until the end of the year! Note our new mailing address below.

õ With this edition of the Center for White Rose Studies newsletter, we’ve also instituted improvements for those of you who either pay for a subscription, or who have prepaid for any White Rose publication that has not yet been released. You will receive a separate copy by snail mail that contains more information than this e-newsletter. This is our way of saying Thank you for your extra support, for going above and beyond in enabling our work.

The Himmler Letter

    In the new "Alex" documentation, there was a letter written and signed by Heinrich Himmler himself. Responding to a clemency petition submitted by Alex's uncles, Himmler ... (remainder of text available only to paid subscribers of the CWRS newsletter).

A Christl Vignette

    Christoph Probst's half-brother, Dieter Sasse, recalled the first time Christl mentioned "resistance" to him. "I saw how Christoph became so depressed after he was drafted into the military straight out of school. No longer was he the happy person we all knew. He... " (Remainder of text available only to paid subscribers of the CWRS newsletter).

Parting Words

    Newsweek ran a short story about a hopeful historical find: “Proof” that Sgt. Alvin York’s exploits in World War I were real (“Do Cartridges Mark the Spot of York’s Heroics?”, October 26, 2006). Turns out that the experts cannot agree.

    I loved the end quote from Dr. Tom Nolan of Middle Tennessee State University. “We don't have enough evidence to reach any definite conclusion,” Nolan said. “I don't see how anyone else could at this point. …Our aim is to create some sort of permanent record of what is available and reach the most probable conclusion of where the events took place. The truth will come out eventually.”

    He could have been talking about what we do, who we are, why we keep on digging despite brick walls and closed archives. The truth will come out eventually.

Alles Gute, best regards, zoll zayn mit mazel ~

Ruth Hanna Sachs

Center for White Rose Studies

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Date of last update: 18 March 2008