 | Heinz and Willi Bollinger. Two of the almost-faceless White Rose
members who seem to have led fascinating lives, and whose friendship meant a
great deal to Willi Graf. SE:
WP: 7/13/2006 BK: . |
| Drs. Borchers and Hartert (MDs). Both have long been touted
as like-minded to the White Rose resistance efforts. But I have my doubts,
based on their high-ranking medical positions during the Third Reich. If we
know more about them, then we will know more about the people who claimed they
were "anti-Nazi". SE: WP: BK:
. |
| Professor Bumke. He is not completely unknown in American circles,
as one of the most famous biographies of Bumke was written by an American.
However, many of the people we interviewed sat through Bumke's lectures and
disagreed with the positive portrayal of him as a closet doubter or dissident.
It may be time for a review of conventional wisdom.
SE: WP: BK: . |
| Rudolf Degkwitz. He was the de facto leader of a resistance cell in
Hamburg. Huge influence on Traute Lafrenz. (A White Rose note: Hamburg
resistance was predecessor to, not successor of, the White Rose group
in Munich.) His writings survived the war, yet relatively little is known
about him, though he survived to become a fairly famous doctor.
SE: WP: BK: . |
| Harald Dohrn. Usually referred to as the father-in-law of Christoph
Probst. However, Dohrn's influence in Probst's life has been marginalized when
it should be emphasized. He was a dissident long before there was a
White Rose. Hellerau!
SE:
KA 10/14/03.
WP: . BK: . |
| Klaus (alternately Claus) Dohrn. May be the one of the most
fascinating people on this list. Published an anti-Nazi newspaper in the 1930s
and was forced to emigrate to England.
SE:
RHS
11/30/03. WP: BK: . |
| Manfred Eickemeyer. He was allowed to write his own "history"
post-war, because of his WR-related arrest for lending them his studio. But:
What kind of work
did he do for the Generalgouvernement? Is it possible to figure out
where he really stood politically? SE:
WP: BK: . |
| Wilhelm Geyer. Only if you have new material. While there is very
little English-language material about him, and while he is "the invisible
man" in White Rose circles, his life has been thoroughly documented by German
art historians. [Note: He and his family are among our favorites!]
SE: WP: BK: . |
| Robert Gradmann. A Hirzel grandfather ~ prominent citizen of
Wuerttemberg. SE: WP: BK:
. |
| Gerhard Graf (Willi Graf's father). Specifically more about his role in
the establishment of the Nazi Party in the Saarland. We know generally what he
did, because Willi's attorney used his ardent and tangible support of the
NSDAP in the Saarland as part of his clemency proceedings (which Willi
refused). It could only be enhanced by comparison of that record to primary
source materials, e.g. the lawsuit that the League of Nations filed against
the NSDAP for a Watergate-type infraction that took place in Graf's
Gasthaus. SE: RHS 11/30/03.
WP: BK: 5/31/2006. |
| Hans Hirzel. Could be a two-parter: to 1945, and after 1945. He is
probably the single most puzzling person associated with the WR story.
SE: WP: BK: . |
| Pastor Hirzel, father of Hans and Susanne Hirzel, pastor of the
Martin-Luther-Kirche in Ulm. The journal he kept throughout the war has never
been published, though the church still has the original. We know that Hirzel
signed the Bonhoeffer/Niemoeller confession even after it meant loss of status
and financial hardship, yet he did not like their "radical" actions.
Understanding him could go a long way to comprehending the many fence
straddlers. SE: WP: BK:
. |
| Walter Hirzel. According to Susanne Hirzel, he went from being a
nationalist who supported Hitler, to a nationalist who was fired for opposing
Hitler's views. Is this an accurate portrayal of his life? His bio would add
knowledge to the operation of the Gau, since his political career was
on the state, not national, level. SE:
WP: BK: . |
| In-depth interviews with any of the Jewish families who told their stories
in Zeugnisse zur Geschichte der Juden in Ulm. (Most live in the USA, a
few in Israel.) If you do not have access to this book, please contact us. We
will look up the families who live in your region.
(We will list names and "assignments" as they are spoken for.) |
| Marcia Kahn, primarily her assistance regarding Inge Scholl's fund-raising
tours in the USA, and subsequent falling out with Scholl. This is one of the
few cases where the bio should be limited to WR-related activities.
SE:
WP: 1/6/2006 BK: . |
| Dr. Keller, "Prior of the Benedictine Cloister in Beuron". The
description of this man comes from an unreliable source, so you may find he
wasn't that at all. He has also been held up as someone who was anti-Nazi, but
we have our doubts. SE: WP:
BK: . |
| Trude Maisch-Schefold, Ulm. She was "just" a music teacher (Hans
and Susanne Hirzel), but she made an enormous impression on their lives.
Interestingly, Maisch-Schefold also taught according to the Dalcroze method (Harald
Dohrn was the other educator associated with the WR who did so). An
interdisciplinary application of this biography could be the study of Dalcroze
methodology in the Third Reich. SE: WP:
BK: . |
| Bishop Meyser of Bavaria. A religious leader who was not unnoticed
by some of the White Rose students. SE:
WP: BK: . |
| Robert Mohr. Looking for specific information about his Einsatzgruppen
activities. What career path did he take in the NSDAP? How was he able to
convince people post-war that he was "sympathetic" when he clearly was not?
SE: WP: BK: . |
| Carl (alternately Karl) Muth (before, during, and after White Rose).
A White Rose mentor. Most references to Muth focus solely on his role with the
WR, yet the man had lived a full and meaningful life before he met Otl Aicher.
SE: WP: BK: . |
| Any of the Nathan family from Ulm: August (father), Luise, Erich.
Could be combined with a bio of the Dannhausers, since Nathans were a
liberal German-Jewish family, and Dannhausers were shomer shabbat. Life
in Ulm and emigration to England... SE:
WP: 7/18/2006 BK: . |
| Hermann Ramdohr. He resigned his judicial position after Hitler
came to power and in so doing strongly influenced Lilo (whom the Nazis deemed
one of the more dangerous people of the WR). Yet little is known of his life.
SE: WP: BK: . |
| Prof. Fritz-Joachim von Rintelen. The real story, not the Wittenstein legend.
SE: WP: BK: . |
| Gisela Schertling. The betrayal and the redemption. She was
single-handedly responsible for most of the WR arrests, yet in prison she
recanted and was nearly single-handedly responsible for the acquittals at the
third WR trial on July 13, 1943. After the war, she dedicated her life to
atonement. SE: WP: BK:
. |
| Guenther Schmich. The story of a so-called "half-Jewish" Catholic priest during the
Third Reich has GOT to be worth telling, especially since he was Willi Graf's
friend. SE: WP: BK:
. |
| We want a riveting, "unauthorized", well-researched, biting,
nailed down, kryptonited biography of Inge Scholl. If you think you are up to
this, we will require an X-Ray of your backbone, proof of insurance, and a DNA
sample. You watch Law & Order. You know why.
SE: WP: BK: . |
| And I can tell you right now: Anyone who will research the life of Werner
Scholl in depth is "in". It is very odd that the first Scholl to
practice resistance has been completely ignored by Inge.
SE: WP: BK: . |
| Katharina Schueddekopf. Like Bollingers, Kaethe has been anonymous
too long. According to Traute Lafrenz ~ who counted her among her dearest
friends ~ she was far more important to WR than has been reported so far (and
some of those activities are in Ruth's WR History, Volume II). Who was this
brilliant young woman? SE: WP:
BK: . |
| Josef Soehngen. And not just WR activities. Like Eickemeyer, he got
to write his own biography post-war; his proclamations of dissidence do not
seem to mesh well with how he was known during the war. Many open questions
with this enigmatic gay man who seemed to be a magnet for those in the WR who
repressed their "illegal" sexual orientation. SE:
WP: BK: . |
| Bishop Sproll of Rottenburg. SE:
WP: BK: . |
| Ernst Wiechert, with special emphasis on his 1935 speech in Munich.
SE: WP: BK: . |
| Bishop Wurm of Wuerttemberg. In Susanne Hirzel's memoirs, Bishop
Wurm vacillates between defiance of Hitler's edicts, and sycophantic suck-up.
SE: WP: BK: . |
