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The
most accurate report of the “White Rose” incident was the
report prepared by the German courts at the time. A translation of
the official record is included below:
In
The Name of the German People
In
the case against
1.
Hans Fritz Scholl, of Munich, born at Ingersheim, September
22, 1918,
2.
Sophia Magdalena Scholl, of Munich, born at Forchtenberg,
May 9, 1921, and
3.
Christoph Hermann Probst, of Aldrans bei Innsbruck, born at
Murnau, November 6, 1919,
who are now in investigative detention regarding
treasonable assistance to the enemy, intention to commit high
treason and weakening the nation’s armed security, the People’s
Court, first Senate, pursuant to the trial held on February 22,
1943, in which the presiding officers were:
President
of the People’s Court, Dr. Freisler
Presiding
Director of the Bavarian Judiciary Stier,
SS-Gruppenführer
Breithaupt,
SA-Gruppenführer
Bunge,
State
Secretary and SA-Gruppenführer Köglmaier, and,
representing the
Attorney General to the Supreme Court of the Reich, Reichs
Attorney Weyersberg, find:
The
accused have in time of war, by means of leaflets, called for the
sabotage of the war effort and armaments, and for the overthrow of
the National Socialist way of life of our people, have propagated
defeatist ideas, and have most vulgarly defamed the Führer,
thereby giving aid and comfort to the enemy and weakening the
armed security of the nation.
On
this account they are to be punished by: DEATH.
Their
honor and rights as citizens are forfeited for all time.
Grounds:
The
accused Hans Scholl has been a student of medicine since the
spring of 1939, and thanks to the solicitude of the National
Socialist government, has begun his eighth semester in those
studies. He has served meanwhile on temporary duty in a field
hospital in the campaign in France, and again from July to
November 1942, on the eastern front as a medical aide.
As
a student, he is bound by duty to give exemplary service to the
common cause. In his capacity as a soldier on assignment to
medical study, he has a special duty of loyalty to the Führer.
This and the assistance which he was expressly granted by the
Reich did not deter him in the first half of the summer of 1942
from writing, duplicating and distributing leaflets of the “White
Rose.” These defeatist leaflets predict the defeat of Germany
and call for passive resistance in general, to the end that the
German people would be deprived of the National Socialist way of
life and, thus, also of their government.
All
this because he imagined that only in this way could the German
people survive the end of the war!
Returning
from Russia in November 1942, Scholl requested his friend, the
accused Probst, to provide him with a manuscript which would open
the eyes of the German people! In actuality, Probst furnished
Scholl with a draft of a leaflet as requested, at the end of
January 1943.
In
conversations with his sister, Sophia, the two decided to carry on
leaflet propaganda in the form of a campaign against the war and
in favor of collaboration with the plutocratic enemies of National
Socialism. Brother and sister, who had quarters in the same
rooming house, collaborated on the writing of a leaflet, “To All
Germans.” In it they predicted Germany’s defeat in the war,
they urged a war of liberation against “National Socialist
gangsterism,” and demanded the establishment of a liberal
democracy. In addition, they drafted a leaflet, “German
Students!” (in subsequent versions headed “Fellow Fighters!”),
wherein they called for a struggle against the Party. They wrote
that the day of reckoning was at hand, and they were bold enough
to compare their call to battle against the Führer and the
National Socialist way of life with the War of Liberation
against Napoleon. In reference to their project, they used the
military song, “Up, up my people, let smoke and fire be our
sign!”
The
accused Scholls, in part with the assistance of the accused
Schmorell, duplicated the leaflets and by common agreement,
distributed them as follows:
1.
Schmorell traveled to Salzburg, Linz and Vienna and put,
receptively, 200, 200 and 1,200 leaflets addressed to places in
those cities into the mails, and in Vienna sent an additional 400
to addresses in Frankfurt am Main.
2.
Sophia Scholl mailed 200 to Augsburg, and on another
occasion posted 600 in Stuttgart.
3.
Hans Scholl with the aid of Schmorell, scattered thousands
of leaflets in the streets of Munich at night.
4.
On February 18, the Scholls deposited 1500-1800 copies in
bundles in the University of Munich, and Sophia Scholl threw down
a large number into the light well of the building from the third
floor. Hans Scholl and Schmorell, on the nights of August 8, 1942
and February 14, 1943, defaced walls in many places in Munich, and
particularly the University, with the words “Down with Hitler,”
“Hitler the Mass Murderer,” and “Freedom.” After the first
incident, Sophia Scholl learned of this action, was in agreement
with it and requested-although without success to be allowed to
help in the future!
Expenses
were covered by the accused themselves in all, about 100 marks.
Probst
likewise began his medical studies in the spring of 1939 and is
now in his eighth semester, a soldier on student duty. He is
married and has three children aged two and a half, one and one
forth, and four weeks. He is a “nonpolitical man,” hence no
man at all! Neither the solicitude of the National Socialist Reich
for his professional training nor the fact that it was only the
National Socialist demographic policy which made it possible for
him to have a family prevented him from writing at the behest of
Scholl, in cowardly defeatism, a “manuscript” which takes the
heroic struggle in Stalingrad as the occasion for defaming the Führer
as a military swindler and which then, progressing to a hortatory
tone, calls for opposition to National Socialism and for action
which would lead, as he is deluded to believe, to an honorable
capitulation. He supports the promises in this leaflet by citing
Roosevelt! And his knowledge about these matters were derived from
listening to British broadcasts!
All
the accused have admitted the facts stated above. Probst offers as
excuse his “psychotic depression” at the time he drafted the
leaflet, a depression which he claims arises from Stalingrad and
the childbed illness of his wife., but such explanations do not
excuse a reaction of this scope.
Whoever
has, like the three accused, committed the acts of high treason,
weakening the home front and thereby in time of war the security
of the nation, and by the same token has aided the enemy
(Paragraph 5 of the Special War Decree and Paragraph 91b of the
Criminal Code), raises the dagger for a stab in the back of the
Front! That applies also to Probst, though he claims that his
manuscript was not intended for use as a leaflet since the tone
and style of the manuscript proves the opposite. Whoever acts in
this way, and particularly at this time, when we must close our
ranks, is attempting to cause the first rift in the unity of the
battle front. And German students, whose traditional honor has
always called for self-sacrifice for the people and nation, were
the ones who acted in this way!
If
a deed of this sort were to be punished otherwise than by death,
we would be forging the first links of a chain whose end, in an
earlier time, was 1918. Therefore, for the protection of the
people and nation at war, the People’s Court has found but one
just punishment: death. The People’s Court knows that it is at
one with our soldiers in this decision.
Through
their treason to our people, the accused have forever forfeited
their citizenship.
As
criminals who have been found guilty, the accused will pay the
court costs.
signed:
Dr. Freisler
The
other captured conspirators were tried later and the copy of the
secondary trial was written up after the trial on April 19, 1943.
In
the Name of the German People
In
the action against
1.
Alexander Schmorell, of Munich, born September 16, 1917 in
Orenburg, Russia;
2.
Kurt Huber, of Munich, born October 24, 1893 in Chur,
Switzerland;
3.
Wilhelm Graf, of Munich, born January 2, 1918 in Kuchenheim;
4.
Hans Hirzel, of Ulm, born October 30, 1924 in
Untersteinbach;
5.
Susanne Hirzel, of Stuttgart, born August 7, 1921 in
Untersteinbach;
6.
Franz Joseph Müller, of Ulm, born September 8, 1924 in Ulm;
7.
Heinrich Guter, of Ulm, born January 11, 1925, in Ulm;
8.
Eugen Grimminger, of Stuttgart, born July 29, 1892 in
Crailsheim;
9.
Dr. Heinrich Philipp Bollinger, of Freiburg, born June 19,
1919 in Saarbrücken;
10.
Helmuth Karl Theodore Bauer, of Freiburg, born June 19,
1919 in Saarbrücken;
11.
Dr. Falk Erich Walter Harnack, of Chemnitz, born March 2,
1913 in Stuttgart;
12.
Gisela Schertling, of Munich, born February 9, 1911 in
Pössneck;
13.
Katharina Schüddenkopf, of Munich, born February 9, 1916
in Magdeburg;
14.
Traute Lafrenz, of Munich, born May 3, 1919 in Hamburg;
all at present in investigative detention, regarding aid to
the enemy, inter alia, the People’s Court, first Senate,
pursuant to the trial held on April 19, 1943, in which the
officers were:
President of the People’s Court, Dr. Freisler, Presiding,
Director of the Bavarian Judiciary, Stier,
SS-Gruppenführer and Lt. General of the Waffen-SS,
Breithuapt,
SA-Gruppenführer Bunge,
SA-Gruppenführer and State Secretary, Köglmaier, and
representing the Reich Attorney General, First State’s
Attorney,
Bischoff, find:
That
Alexander Schmorell, Kurt Huber and Wilhelm Graf, in time of war
have promulgated leaflets calling for sabotage of the war effort
and for the overthrow of the National Socialist way of life of our
people; have propagated defeatist ideas, and have most vulgarly
defamed the Führer, thereby giving aid and comfort to the
enemies of the Reich and weakening the armed security of the
nation.
On
this account they are to be punished with Death.
Their
honor and rights as citizens are forfeited for all time.
Eugen
Grimminger gave money to a person guilty of high treason in aid of
the enemy. To be sure, he was not aware that he was aiding the
enemy of the Reich. However, he was aware that this person might
use the money for the purpose of robbing our people of their
National Socialist way of life.
Because
he gave support to high treason, he is sentenced to jail for a
term of ten years, together with loss of honorable estate for ten
years.
Heinrich
Bollinger and Helmut Bauer had knowledge of treasonable
conspiracy, but failed to report it. In addition, the two listened
to foreign radio news broadcasts dealing with the war and events
inside Germany. For this they are sentenced to jail for a term of
seven years and a loss of citizen’s honor for seven years.
Hans
Hirzel and Franz Müller, both immature boys misled by enemies of
the state, gave support to the spread of treasonous propaganda
against National Socialism. For this action they are sentenced to
five years’ imprisonment.
Heinrich
Guter had knowledge of propagandistic intentions of this sort, but
failed to report them. For this he is sentenced to eighteen months
imprisonment.
Gisela
Schertling, Katharina Schüddenkopf and Traute Lafrenz committed
the same crimes. As girls they are sentenced to one year’s
imprisonment.
Susanne
Hirzel assisted in the distribution of treasonous leaflets. To be
sure, she was not aware of their treasonous nature, but she was
guilty in that she did not seek certainty concerning the matter.
She is sentenced to six months imprisonment.
In
the case of all the accused who have been sentenced to jail or
imprisonment, the People’s Court will accept as part of the
punishment, the time already spent in police and investigative
detention.
Falk
Harnack likewise failed to report his knowledge of treasonous
activity., but such unique and special circumstances surround his
case that we find ourselves unable to punish his deed of omission.
He is accordingly set free.
signed:
Dr. Freisler
Although
all of this documentation was available at the end of the war, a
number of historians either never bothered to read it, or decided
that it needed to be embellished. For example, the British
historian, John W. Wheeler-Bennett, as late as 1954, stated in his
book “The Nemesis of Power” that the acting Gauleiter
of Bavaria, in response to the leaflets, gave a provocative speech
at the Munich University on February 16, 1943, and that the
students assaulted him and his guards, taking to the streets of
Munich and not only sabotaged the rail yards, but stopped radio
broadcasts as well. Wheeler-Bennett also goes on to say that the
rioting spread to Vienna, Mannheim, Stuttgart and the Ruhr, and
that the SS fired on the civilians, causing casualties. He claims
further that the Scholls were hanged on April 22, 1943 and that
the Gestapo had broken Sophia Scholl’s leg. All of this material
is entirely false although the Gestapo and court records were
available at the time. Such are the problems encountered when one
uses prestigious reference works as sources. The best, and in fact
the only, way to maintain accuracy is to check the records
personally.
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