Mumble-mumble years ago as an eighteen-year-old fresh out of high school, I traveled to Europe basically alone. The world was not nearly as violent a place then as it is now, but it was not as safe as we like to remember either.
Baader-Meinhof still terrorized German cities. A year earlier, Palestinian guerrillas had marred "Mark Spitz's" Olympics. The student uprisings of the 1960s, which we now know were over and done with by the Summer of 1973, threatened to re-erupt, as the war in Vietnam dragged on. And on.
If all that were not enough, Richard Nixon's Watergate saga had grabbed the U.S. by the throat and bred distrust across the country. Distrust which showed up in Europe as disdain. Among Europeans unaware that Willy Brandt's own version of Watergate, the Guillaume Affair, was about to unfold.
Showing posts with label eugen grimminger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eugen grimminger. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monday, November 2, 2009
Truth Will Tell
Anyone who has followed our work for more than half a second knows that a major obstacle to truthful telling of White Rose history is, has been, and for the foreseeable future will continue to be Inge Aicher-Scholl and her heirs. In addition to Inge's still-mindboggling refusal to grant me an interview, the overwhelming majority (about 90%) of Scholl Archives are off limits for the next 20 - 25 years.
Inge and her heirs have controlled the White Rose story almost mercilessly for the past sixty-four years. They've browbeaten anyone who's deviated from her carefully crafted half-truths, including (but not limited to) Christian Petry, Vincent Probst and the Probst family, and even Fritz Hartnagel, Inge's own brother-in-law and Sophie Scholl's sometimes-boyfriend.
She controlled photographs, Borg*-ing copyrights from dozens of White Rose friends and associates with her "Copyright Geschwister Scholl Archiv" stamp - even when they had not granted her copyright permission. She refused her own family members (specifically, the Hartnagels)
Inge and her heirs have controlled the White Rose story almost mercilessly for the past sixty-four years. They've browbeaten anyone who's deviated from her carefully crafted half-truths, including (but not limited to) Christian Petry, Vincent Probst and the Probst family, and even Fritz Hartnagel, Inge's own brother-in-law and Sophie Scholl's sometimes-boyfriend.
She controlled photographs, Borg*-ing copyrights from dozens of White Rose friends and associates with her "Copyright Geschwister Scholl Archiv" stamp - even when they had not granted her copyright permission. She refused her own family members (specifically, the Hartnagels)
Thursday, June 25, 2009
History: January through December 2005
November 7, 2005
One of my "guilty pleasures" is the Thursday night show on CBS, Without a Trace. It's got some of the best writing on TV. If they would just make Sam Spade less of a doormat, it could start winning Emmys.
But I had forgotten how gripping I found last season's cliffhanger until the new season got underway in September. In case you missed it: A young woman ~ very, very reminiscent of Sophie Scholl ~ shot and killed a known genocidal general outside his consulate. She had always been a "good girl," good grades, good reputation, good works.
Yet after she found out about the millions this man had slaughtered, and after she realized that the American government would do nothing to stop him ~ he was an ally, after all ~ she took matters into her own hands and shot him.
In May as in September, the script made me wonder what the difference was between that young woman, who was arrested for obviously breaking the law, and Sophie, Traute, Kaethe, and the other young women of the White Rose. Sophie famously told Susanne Hirzel that if she had a gun and saw Hitler walking down the street, she would not hesitate to kill him.
We deem Sophie a heroine. If you believe the hype surrounding the new Sophie Scholl mythos in Germany, German parents want their daughters to grow up to be Sophie.
But do we really? Do we really want our daughters to take on tyrants with a pistol, to sacrifice their lives for a just cause? Or is it merely hype? Hype that makes us feel better about "those" days without doing a damn thing about our days?
What IS the "ethics of resistance," the ethics of treason? When is it right to break the law in the name of rightness and justice, and when is it not? Who gets to decide? Is history the final arbiter? Or can we know right here, right now that our actions ~ our illegal actions ~ answer to a higher law?
These musings only intensified upon the death of Rosa Parks, another "Sophie" ~ and interestingly, about Sophie's age in real time ~ who risked death by sitting in a bus. Before she acted, others who had acted had been murdered by policemen for doing the exact same thing. Ethics of treason, ethics of "criminal" acts to right wrongs...
I don't have the answer to my own questions. But if we are to "get" the White Rose story and understand Sophie's resistance, Willi's backbone, Traute's defiance, Schurik's passion, Kaethe's small courage, then we need to think about why we deem them heroes. Whom do we wish today's youth to emulate, and why?
On a different note: Thanks to Armin Ziegler, I have a copy of the new book of letters written by and between Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel. Look for my review of the book on our White Rose Web site.
It's a vast improvement over prior Scholl-centric documents, but there are still a few disappointing gaps that remain unaddressed. However, if it's a turning point in the Scholl/Hartnagel relationship to White Rose research, I greet it (and them) with open arms.
September 12, 2005
Making some progress, slow and steady, on Volume III of the White Rose History. However, that research has opened a completely unexpected line of work.
Part of Volume III includes tracing what happened to surviving White Rose members or their families after the war. I may not be a Scholl fan, but the Oct. 1943-May 1945 timeline does include Elisabeth, Fritz, Werner, yes, and even Inge. The appendix to Volume III is a "Hall of Fame and Shame," what became of each person.
While chasing rabbits regarding Scholls, I fell into a Wonderland hole that will either generate a Volume IV, or a completely separate work altogether. For once you start looking at anything in Germany postwar, you have to deal with Americans and Brits who shaped and molded contemporary German society.
Suddenly, Inge's ability to create a White Rose legend that enjoyed widespread official support ~ not merely from German authority figures, but also legitimized by the occupying Powers That Be ~ began to make sense. The Allies seemed to have been less interested in genuine de-Nazification, and more intent on re-education. It was more important to have good stories told by compliant story-tellers than it was to underwrite scholarship and reward those who had actually resisted Hitler.
Compliance, not conviction, was the postwar watchword.
It's been more than a bit disillusioning. I guess any time we delve past the carefully constructed facade and examine "politics" for its true goals and aims, we are bound and determined to become a little cynical. Volume IV (with a working title of "American News and World Report") is no exception.
Oh well. Sometimes we have to be sure we really want to ask our questions. Because we may not particularly care for the answers when they come.
July 28, 2005
It is with genuine sadness that I must report the death of Dr. Erich Schmorell. Received an email from the Russian "Schmorell biographer," Dr. Igor Chramow. He said that our friend ~ whose memory is truly for a blessing ~ died on July 15.
For many years, Dr. Schmorell and the Probst family were the only ones with backbone enough to stand up to Inge Scholl. They paid dearly for their courage, being shunned by official White Rose people, all but ignored by German scholarship. They resigned from the White Rose Foundation (Weisse-Rose-Stiftung) in protest, and no one paid them any heed.
But like their more famous relatives Alex Schmorell and Christoph Probst, they did what was right, regardless of consequences. For that, I honor them, and on this day especially a man and his wife whom we cherished deeply. I can never eat asparagus without thinking of their tremendous hospitality and openness.
July 13, 2005
Has it really been almost three months since I added to this journal? So much for resolutions...
When I wrote on April 27, I had just returned from speaking out at Sonoma State University, a very pleasant experience indeed. Their students were attentive and asked excellent questions. I knew they'd actually listened when one young woman raised her hand and wondered aloud how they had kept track of all the money that Eugen Grimminger raised on their behalf. Hmm, a business/history major, perhaps?
Especially gratifying when Dr. Goodman's call for Darfur Relief after the lecture was met with significant positive response from those same students. That is the effect that the telling of the White Rose story should have.
A month later, I got to speak at the annual dinner of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Fulbright Association. I feel "connected" to this group, having Fulbrighted in 1977. Great fun to meet a recent graduate who was heading out on her Fulbright experience to Venezuela in a couple of months, along with a young German student about to return home.
During the Q&A, I talked about the topics the students and the adults who learned from them debated and discussed. The "White Rose" was not homogeneous, neither religiously nor politically. Their debates were fiery, impassioned. As most good debates are. But with tremendous respect for the 'opponent.'
Among the topics I described was one that truly consumed the students in Munich, namely the separation of church and state. In general, they believed that Germany needed separation of church and state, that lack of same was part of the reason Hitler had come to power and stayed in power, once there. What "separation of church and state" looked like was a different matter.
Initially, the subject matter stirred up a very interesting conversation among the Fulbrighters assembled. Which was not surprising, considering the presence of a German Fulbrighter and several who ~ like me ~ had studied in Germany. We know how Germany continues to struggle with this question, how it remains divisive among the populace who chafe under church tax, and clerics who like guaranteed state funding (instead of depending on voluntary individual contributions) and the power that comes with it.
[I did not mention this at the dinner, but in the late 1970s, one of my good friends in Augsburg along with eleven of his fellow students were kicked out of the University of Augsburg's school of theology for questioning ~ not opposing, merely questioning ~ the validity of church tax, infant baptism, and celibacy of the priesthood. They pointed out that not one of those three "doctrines" was part of Catholic theology for the first 300 years of the existence of the Catholic church. No matter. The Bishop of Augsburg unceremoniously kicked them out of the school of theology anyway.]
The wonderful spirited discussion was completely and totally ruined by a Viennese woman who had lived in Vienna during WW2. That is, under the Nazis. She claimed ~ in the whiny voice that characterizes so many people like her ~ that there indeed had been separation of church and state during the Third Reich, because the entire Roman Catholic Church had courageously stood against the Nazis.
After recovering from the shock of hearing what is essentially Holocaust denial of a different sort ~ not denying that the Shoah happened, but rewriting its history nonetheless ~ I told her that I must respectfully disagree with her, because history itself did not support her claim. She would not stop. She kept interrupting people who had additional questions or comments. Not once or twice, but three or four times. Always that whiny voice, always saying that the entire Catholic church had resisted Hitler.
At one point, I commented that indeed, there had been courageous priests and clerics, both Catholic and Lutheran, who had resisted Hitler, and that they had paid dearly. But that they were the exception and not the norm. She would not stop, so finally I said, "Bitte schweigen Sie!" (please be quiet) in the most authoritative German I could muster. She stopped, finally, but the damage had been done.
Her type of whiny outburst seems to occur wherever people gather to consider the horrors of the Holocaust. Elderly Germans show up at synagogues and Jewish organizations, disrupting the Q&A of Holocaust lecture series every single time with a "weeeee didn't knoooow" or something similar. Like this woman ~ whose outburst was more ridiculous because she is a Fulbrighter, for crying out loud, a supposedly educated woman ~ they generally add a "you were not there and I was so I know and you don't" when the speaker was born after 1945. As if that entitles them to rewrite history.
I frankly don't know how to handle this sort of verbal revisionism. I'm trying to learn how to deal with it, because its very frequency of occurrence demands that I do. Anyone reading this who has suggestions, post a comment here, please!
Sadly, people like this Viennese Fulbrighter often obscure the real progress that is being made ~ slowly, but it's there ~ in public German discourse about the Shoah. Most of the real work is being done by the younger generation, by young adults not unlike the White Rose students. They are not afraid to open locked trunks in attics or dust off documents buried in closed archives. They shame their forebears, a shame that is healthy and will in the end be Germany's redemption.
That experience prompted me to write a short essay entitled Papal Fallibility, included in this blog as a separate entry. Comments are welcome. Death threats? Not so much.
April 27, 2005
It feels good to come up for air now that Volume II of my White Rose History is shipping. Knew that "the" database had lots of information in it, but never dreamed just how much until I started writing.
Fact-checking was a bear this time around. Volume II is even more controversial than Volume I (and you thought that stirred up a hornet's nest ~ ha!, it's child's play compared to Volume II!). But controversial in a good way.
Because these students and the adults who learned from them really shine. Yes, they do dumb things. They wouldn't be human if they didn't. And yes, they make some hurtful mistakes that cost many others their freedom, such as Hans Scholl's inclusion of Gisela Schertling in group activities despite knowing her Nazi attitudes, and her subsequent betrayal of nearly everyone.
And I had to write about the rift after February 9. That's easier to put in a timeline than it was to narrate in this book, especially since the consequences of that rift were much greater than I had understood before. It was such a painful parting of the ways. And it leaves us with the question of how we do and should react when a "movement" we align ourselves with takes on a direction we don't like. How they handled it (badly) opens the door for discussion about what we should do in the same case. Not quite sure there are easy answers for this question.
I'm sure there will be a number of people who really, really won't like this book, because there are no sacred cows, no taboos. If we are to honor these people, we must honor them as they were, not as we wish them to be. Sometimes it's hard to let go of the halo and pedestal ~ harder for us than for the people perched atop that pedestal, wearing that halo, you know?
We continue to call for an end to German censorship, for an end to closed archives and blocked (and missing) transcripts. Our ongoing work in that area moves at a snail's pace. Watch this Web site ~ along with the Center for White Rose Studies site ~ for more information about that.
Please keep talking to us, especially as you read the histories. What moves you? Did anything in their lives speak directly to you? It's a powerful story when the legend is removed. We want to hear how it affected you.
Back to work. Miles to go before I sleep!
One of my "guilty pleasures" is the Thursday night show on CBS, Without a Trace. It's got some of the best writing on TV. If they would just make Sam Spade less of a doormat, it could start winning Emmys.
But I had forgotten how gripping I found last season's cliffhanger until the new season got underway in September. In case you missed it: A young woman ~ very, very reminiscent of Sophie Scholl ~ shot and killed a known genocidal general outside his consulate. She had always been a "good girl," good grades, good reputation, good works.
Yet after she found out about the millions this man had slaughtered, and after she realized that the American government would do nothing to stop him ~ he was an ally, after all ~ she took matters into her own hands and shot him.
In May as in September, the script made me wonder what the difference was between that young woman, who was arrested for obviously breaking the law, and Sophie, Traute, Kaethe, and the other young women of the White Rose. Sophie famously told Susanne Hirzel that if she had a gun and saw Hitler walking down the street, she would not hesitate to kill him.
We deem Sophie a heroine. If you believe the hype surrounding the new Sophie Scholl mythos in Germany, German parents want their daughters to grow up to be Sophie.
But do we really? Do we really want our daughters to take on tyrants with a pistol, to sacrifice their lives for a just cause? Or is it merely hype? Hype that makes us feel better about "those" days without doing a damn thing about our days?
What IS the "ethics of resistance," the ethics of treason? When is it right to break the law in the name of rightness and justice, and when is it not? Who gets to decide? Is history the final arbiter? Or can we know right here, right now that our actions ~ our illegal actions ~ answer to a higher law?
These musings only intensified upon the death of Rosa Parks, another "Sophie" ~ and interestingly, about Sophie's age in real time ~ who risked death by sitting in a bus. Before she acted, others who had acted had been murdered by policemen for doing the exact same thing. Ethics of treason, ethics of "criminal" acts to right wrongs...
I don't have the answer to my own questions. But if we are to "get" the White Rose story and understand Sophie's resistance, Willi's backbone, Traute's defiance, Schurik's passion, Kaethe's small courage, then we need to think about why we deem them heroes. Whom do we wish today's youth to emulate, and why?
On a different note: Thanks to Armin Ziegler, I have a copy of the new book of letters written by and between Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel. Look for my review of the book on our White Rose Web site.
It's a vast improvement over prior Scholl-centric documents, but there are still a few disappointing gaps that remain unaddressed. However, if it's a turning point in the Scholl/Hartnagel relationship to White Rose research, I greet it (and them) with open arms.
September 12, 2005
Making some progress, slow and steady, on Volume III of the White Rose History. However, that research has opened a completely unexpected line of work.
Part of Volume III includes tracing what happened to surviving White Rose members or their families after the war. I may not be a Scholl fan, but the Oct. 1943-May 1945 timeline does include Elisabeth, Fritz, Werner, yes, and even Inge. The appendix to Volume III is a "Hall of Fame and Shame," what became of each person.
While chasing rabbits regarding Scholls, I fell into a Wonderland hole that will either generate a Volume IV, or a completely separate work altogether. For once you start looking at anything in Germany postwar, you have to deal with Americans and Brits who shaped and molded contemporary German society.
Suddenly, Inge's ability to create a White Rose legend that enjoyed widespread official support ~ not merely from German authority figures, but also legitimized by the occupying Powers That Be ~ began to make sense. The Allies seemed to have been less interested in genuine de-Nazification, and more intent on re-education. It was more important to have good stories told by compliant story-tellers than it was to underwrite scholarship and reward those who had actually resisted Hitler.
Compliance, not conviction, was the postwar watchword.
It's been more than a bit disillusioning. I guess any time we delve past the carefully constructed facade and examine "politics" for its true goals and aims, we are bound and determined to become a little cynical. Volume IV (with a working title of "American News and World Report") is no exception.
Oh well. Sometimes we have to be sure we really want to ask our questions. Because we may not particularly care for the answers when they come.
July 28, 2005
It is with genuine sadness that I must report the death of Dr. Erich Schmorell. Received an email from the Russian "Schmorell biographer," Dr. Igor Chramow. He said that our friend ~ whose memory is truly for a blessing ~ died on July 15.
For many years, Dr. Schmorell and the Probst family were the only ones with backbone enough to stand up to Inge Scholl. They paid dearly for their courage, being shunned by official White Rose people, all but ignored by German scholarship. They resigned from the White Rose Foundation (Weisse-Rose-Stiftung) in protest, and no one paid them any heed.
But like their more famous relatives Alex Schmorell and Christoph Probst, they did what was right, regardless of consequences. For that, I honor them, and on this day especially a man and his wife whom we cherished deeply. I can never eat asparagus without thinking of their tremendous hospitality and openness.
July 13, 2005
Has it really been almost three months since I added to this journal? So much for resolutions...
When I wrote on April 27, I had just returned from speaking out at Sonoma State University, a very pleasant experience indeed. Their students were attentive and asked excellent questions. I knew they'd actually listened when one young woman raised her hand and wondered aloud how they had kept track of all the money that Eugen Grimminger raised on their behalf. Hmm, a business/history major, perhaps?
Especially gratifying when Dr. Goodman's call for Darfur Relief after the lecture was met with significant positive response from those same students. That is the effect that the telling of the White Rose story should have.
A month later, I got to speak at the annual dinner of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Fulbright Association. I feel "connected" to this group, having Fulbrighted in 1977. Great fun to meet a recent graduate who was heading out on her Fulbright experience to Venezuela in a couple of months, along with a young German student about to return home.
During the Q&A, I talked about the topics the students and the adults who learned from them debated and discussed. The "White Rose" was not homogeneous, neither religiously nor politically. Their debates were fiery, impassioned. As most good debates are. But with tremendous respect for the 'opponent.'
Among the topics I described was one that truly consumed the students in Munich, namely the separation of church and state. In general, they believed that Germany needed separation of church and state, that lack of same was part of the reason Hitler had come to power and stayed in power, once there. What "separation of church and state" looked like was a different matter.
Initially, the subject matter stirred up a very interesting conversation among the Fulbrighters assembled. Which was not surprising, considering the presence of a German Fulbrighter and several who ~ like me ~ had studied in Germany. We know how Germany continues to struggle with this question, how it remains divisive among the populace who chafe under church tax, and clerics who like guaranteed state funding (instead of depending on voluntary individual contributions) and the power that comes with it.
[I did not mention this at the dinner, but in the late 1970s, one of my good friends in Augsburg along with eleven of his fellow students were kicked out of the University of Augsburg's school of theology for questioning ~ not opposing, merely questioning ~ the validity of church tax, infant baptism, and celibacy of the priesthood. They pointed out that not one of those three "doctrines" was part of Catholic theology for the first 300 years of the existence of the Catholic church. No matter. The Bishop of Augsburg unceremoniously kicked them out of the school of theology anyway.]
The wonderful spirited discussion was completely and totally ruined by a Viennese woman who had lived in Vienna during WW2. That is, under the Nazis. She claimed ~ in the whiny voice that characterizes so many people like her ~ that there indeed had been separation of church and state during the Third Reich, because the entire Roman Catholic Church had courageously stood against the Nazis.
After recovering from the shock of hearing what is essentially Holocaust denial of a different sort ~ not denying that the Shoah happened, but rewriting its history nonetheless ~ I told her that I must respectfully disagree with her, because history itself did not support her claim. She would not stop. She kept interrupting people who had additional questions or comments. Not once or twice, but three or four times. Always that whiny voice, always saying that the entire Catholic church had resisted Hitler.
At one point, I commented that indeed, there had been courageous priests and clerics, both Catholic and Lutheran, who had resisted Hitler, and that they had paid dearly. But that they were the exception and not the norm. She would not stop, so finally I said, "Bitte schweigen Sie!" (please be quiet) in the most authoritative German I could muster. She stopped, finally, but the damage had been done.
Her type of whiny outburst seems to occur wherever people gather to consider the horrors of the Holocaust. Elderly Germans show up at synagogues and Jewish organizations, disrupting the Q&A of Holocaust lecture series every single time with a "weeeee didn't knoooow" or something similar. Like this woman ~ whose outburst was more ridiculous because she is a Fulbrighter, for crying out loud, a supposedly educated woman ~ they generally add a "you were not there and I was so I know and you don't" when the speaker was born after 1945. As if that entitles them to rewrite history.
I frankly don't know how to handle this sort of verbal revisionism. I'm trying to learn how to deal with it, because its very frequency of occurrence demands that I do. Anyone reading this who has suggestions, post a comment here, please!
Sadly, people like this Viennese Fulbrighter often obscure the real progress that is being made ~ slowly, but it's there ~ in public German discourse about the Shoah. Most of the real work is being done by the younger generation, by young adults not unlike the White Rose students. They are not afraid to open locked trunks in attics or dust off documents buried in closed archives. They shame their forebears, a shame that is healthy and will in the end be Germany's redemption.
That experience prompted me to write a short essay entitled Papal Fallibility, included in this blog as a separate entry. Comments are welcome. Death threats? Not so much.
April 27, 2005
It feels good to come up for air now that Volume II of my White Rose History is shipping. Knew that "the" database had lots of information in it, but never dreamed just how much until I started writing.
Fact-checking was a bear this time around. Volume II is even more controversial than Volume I (and you thought that stirred up a hornet's nest ~ ha!, it's child's play compared to Volume II!). But controversial in a good way.
Because these students and the adults who learned from them really shine. Yes, they do dumb things. They wouldn't be human if they didn't. And yes, they make some hurtful mistakes that cost many others their freedom, such as Hans Scholl's inclusion of Gisela Schertling in group activities despite knowing her Nazi attitudes, and her subsequent betrayal of nearly everyone.
And I had to write about the rift after February 9. That's easier to put in a timeline than it was to narrate in this book, especially since the consequences of that rift were much greater than I had understood before. It was such a painful parting of the ways. And it leaves us with the question of how we do and should react when a "movement" we align ourselves with takes on a direction we don't like. How they handled it (badly) opens the door for discussion about what we should do in the same case. Not quite sure there are easy answers for this question.
I'm sure there will be a number of people who really, really won't like this book, because there are no sacred cows, no taboos. If we are to honor these people, we must honor them as they were, not as we wish them to be. Sometimes it's hard to let go of the halo and pedestal ~ harder for us than for the people perched atop that pedestal, wearing that halo, you know?
We continue to call for an end to German censorship, for an end to closed archives and blocked (and missing) transcripts. Our ongoing work in that area moves at a snail's pace. Watch this Web site ~ along with the Center for White Rose Studies site ~ for more information about that.
Please keep talking to us, especially as you read the histories. What moves you? Did anything in their lives speak directly to you? It's a powerful story when the legend is removed. We want to hear how it affected you.
Back to work. Miles to go before I sleep!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
History: July through September 2001
September 13, 2001
There is nothing else to write except for deepest grief at the events of this week. On Monday, facing a week full of bright prospects, we could never have imagined how changed our world would be today, how very different we have all become in so short a space.
May our innocence lost turn to wisdom gained.
September 6, 2001
Interesting news out of Germany... Hans Hirzel has left the Republikaner party. Reasons are unclear at present. Just a development worth noting.
Armin Ziegler sent me his biography of Eugen Grimminger. More for the database, but more important, more puzzle pieces to complete the White Rose picture. It grows increasingly fascinating the greater its complexity.
August 24, 2001
More of Otl's work is "in the database" now. Nearly finished, after a long hiatus from his writing. So many why's, not many answers. It is chilling to realize that they were very much aware of the odds against them. 30, maybe 50 individuals at most, in the face of 60 million Germans who either followed Hitler blindly and loudly, or would not say no to those who did. Chilling, and an indictment.
30, maybe 50, against 60 million. How much more alone could one be?
August 17, 2001
This White Rose "puzzle" is so intricate, so beautiful. Asked Armin Ziegler a simple question this week: Was Tilly Hahn related to the educator Kurt Hahn?
She was not... but she represents one of those White Rose jewels who has been ignored far too long. She gave Hans Scholl and Alex Schmorell the 500 Marks that Eugen Grimminger was arrested for. Out of her own pocket. Long depicted as his pretty secretary, Tilly instead handled customer accounts ~ and shared Grimminger's views of the Nazis completely.
It's a shame that the falsehood of the legend has hidden the charm of the real story. High time people like Tilly Hahn received the recognition, and honor, they deserve.
August 10, 2001
There's movement in the White Rose work again. I won't talk out loud about some of it. Suffice it to say, I alternate between breathless and agony. Listening to people who can make a difference... And it's exciting to be talking to Leslie Friedman, a fellow Fulbrighter who shares my strange sense of humor, regarding art direction for a potential White Rose movie.
August 2, 2001
When a person thinks about becoming a writer (or at least when I did), there's this romantic vision of sitting at a computer and pouring meaningful words onto a blank page. I remember the early days, writing whenever inspiration struck... usually late at night. It was simply fun, that theater of and for one.
I still love to write, but have discovered in the interim that it's a business like anything else. The routine may "interfere" with the creative, but it enables it as well. Would not trade this business for any other! Keeping routine and creativity in balance is, however, a dance on egg shells.
July 20, 2001
Ran across some people this week who willingly distort truth just to win an argument. Had nothing to do with the White Rose. The topic, in fact, was media bias. Instead of honestly discussing the matter, they invented specious supports to their claim, including but not limited to the mind-boggling assertion that writing "Rep. Condit" was a deliberate attempt to make people think Condit is Republican.
Yes, there really are people like that. Finding them outside the realm of the White Rose made me feel a little better. I was beginning to believe all those types had migrated to this topic.
Still enjoying the ongoing correspondence with Armin Ziegler. Questions are good. He forces me to nitpick and think hard.
July 13, 2001
It's been one of those weeks where, if you touch it, it breaks. I'm sure that no one reading this has ever had a week like that. (Yeah right.) Guess these days make me appreciate other times when creativity comes easy, when everything rhymes, and mistakes are unehard of, I mean unheard of.
In the meantime, I've been reading the new John Adams biography. Astounding, isn't it, how many stories we once knew are quickly forgotten. He lived a scant 200 years ago. What have we forgotten from time even more immemorial?
July 5, 2001
On this day after we celebrate our declaration of independence, it is sobering to realize that not everywhere and not in every time have people enjoyed so much luxury of freedom as we do here in these United States.
A recent discussion about what drove the students in the White Rose to sacrifice their lives pointed this up clearly. They were of one mind on one topic only, namely, that human and civil rights were worth dying for. They could never have agreed on religion or politics. But they understood what we take for granted, that this precious freedom is for every one of us, not just for the privileged few.
There is nothing else to write except for deepest grief at the events of this week. On Monday, facing a week full of bright prospects, we could never have imagined how changed our world would be today, how very different we have all become in so short a space.
May our innocence lost turn to wisdom gained.
September 6, 2001
Interesting news out of Germany... Hans Hirzel has left the Republikaner party. Reasons are unclear at present. Just a development worth noting.
Armin Ziegler sent me his biography of Eugen Grimminger. More for the database, but more important, more puzzle pieces to complete the White Rose picture. It grows increasingly fascinating the greater its complexity.
August 24, 2001
More of Otl's work is "in the database" now. Nearly finished, after a long hiatus from his writing. So many why's, not many answers. It is chilling to realize that they were very much aware of the odds against them. 30, maybe 50 individuals at most, in the face of 60 million Germans who either followed Hitler blindly and loudly, or would not say no to those who did. Chilling, and an indictment.
30, maybe 50, against 60 million. How much more alone could one be?
August 17, 2001
This White Rose "puzzle" is so intricate, so beautiful. Asked Armin Ziegler a simple question this week: Was Tilly Hahn related to the educator Kurt Hahn?
She was not... but she represents one of those White Rose jewels who has been ignored far too long. She gave Hans Scholl and Alex Schmorell the 500 Marks that Eugen Grimminger was arrested for. Out of her own pocket. Long depicted as his pretty secretary, Tilly instead handled customer accounts ~ and shared Grimminger's views of the Nazis completely.
It's a shame that the falsehood of the legend has hidden the charm of the real story. High time people like Tilly Hahn received the recognition, and honor, they deserve.
August 10, 2001
There's movement in the White Rose work again. I won't talk out loud about some of it. Suffice it to say, I alternate between breathless and agony. Listening to people who can make a difference... And it's exciting to be talking to Leslie Friedman, a fellow Fulbrighter who shares my strange sense of humor, regarding art direction for a potential White Rose movie.
August 2, 2001
When a person thinks about becoming a writer (or at least when I did), there's this romantic vision of sitting at a computer and pouring meaningful words onto a blank page. I remember the early days, writing whenever inspiration struck... usually late at night. It was simply fun, that theater of and for one.
I still love to write, but have discovered in the interim that it's a business like anything else. The routine may "interfere" with the creative, but it enables it as well. Would not trade this business for any other! Keeping routine and creativity in balance is, however, a dance on egg shells.
July 20, 2001
Ran across some people this week who willingly distort truth just to win an argument. Had nothing to do with the White Rose. The topic, in fact, was media bias. Instead of honestly discussing the matter, they invented specious supports to their claim, including but not limited to the mind-boggling assertion that writing "Rep. Condit" was a deliberate attempt to make people think Condit is Republican.
Yes, there really are people like that. Finding them outside the realm of the White Rose made me feel a little better. I was beginning to believe all those types had migrated to this topic.
Still enjoying the ongoing correspondence with Armin Ziegler. Questions are good. He forces me to nitpick and think hard.
July 13, 2001
It's been one of those weeks where, if you touch it, it breaks. I'm sure that no one reading this has ever had a week like that. (Yeah right.) Guess these days make me appreciate other times when creativity comes easy, when everything rhymes, and mistakes are unehard of, I mean unheard of.
In the meantime, I've been reading the new John Adams biography. Astounding, isn't it, how many stories we once knew are quickly forgotten. He lived a scant 200 years ago. What have we forgotten from time even more immemorial?
July 5, 2001
On this day after we celebrate our declaration of independence, it is sobering to realize that not everywhere and not in every time have people enjoyed so much luxury of freedom as we do here in these United States.
A recent discussion about what drove the students in the White Rose to sacrifice their lives pointed this up clearly. They were of one mind on one topic only, namely, that human and civil rights were worth dying for. They could never have agreed on religion or politics. But they understood what we take for granted, that this precious freedom is for every one of us, not just for the privileged few.
Friday, June 19, 2009
History: April through June 2001
June 28, 2001
Great fun when all the hard work on White Rose detail begins to pay off. Involved this week in an ongoing discussion with Armin Ziegler, who has devoted quite a bit of time and energy to researching Eugen and Jenny Grimminger. We have been comparing notes on a vague date -- when Hans and Schurik went to Chemnitz to meet Falk Harnack.
Since the date is never specifically stated, we both have made assumptions that led to our separate conclusions. Interesting now to take those assumptions and the facts that support them, to see if we can arrive at a date that really makes sense. So far, no luck. But puzzles like this are worth the effort.
June 21, 2001
First day of summer. Such a glorious time of year. Energy to create, to think, to be. Sometimes, words are too much.
June 14, 2001
Beginning to think that the most critical issue for White Rose research at this point is to get as much of the primary source documentation available to the public as possible. Inge Jens seems to be working on this with her recent Puls issue. There must be a way to get Scholl archives unblocked so the truth can start to be known. Not merely for me, but for anyone interested in knowing what really happened 58 years ago.
May 31, 2001
It has been interesting, asking young people how they think they would respond to Nazi pressure to join Hitler Youth. Whether they think they would cave and join to be part of the "in" crowd, or whether they would do like the White Rose and take a stand for justice.
I think what impresses me so much is the honesty I encounter. I expected them to say, "Oh no, not me, I would never have been part of something like that." But many, many say, "I probably would have gone along with all my friends and joined Hitler Youth."
This honesty means a lot. It actually provides a springboard for real discussion, perceptive thinking. This is a legacy of the White Rose that has lasting value.
May 18, 2001
Speaking tonight at the Fulbright dinner. It's always intriguing to plan for these events, not knowing what people know, wondering about questions. For those who have never heard the White Rose account, it's generally a moving experience to watch them hear it for the first time. The bigger challenge is speaking to a group that knows the legend and not the real story. We'll see how this goes tonight!
May 10, 2001
Fritz Hartnagel died last week. I cherish every single one of the survivors of the White Rose (including "survivors" like him who were not technically part of the movement). But especially Fritz Hartnagel.
Sophie Scholl appeared to have reconciled herself to marrying a man content to raise chickens. She was not happy that Fritz did not like to read or study, that he seemed to duck issues important to her. Reading the published excerpts of her letters to him, you almost wonder what she saw in him.
Till you meet Fritz Hartnagel and sense his great goodness, eyes that burn, quiet passion for justice simmering beneath the surface. He talked little and never sought the spotlight.
I wish he had talked more, had shared all the Sophie stories he knew, that he lived. The little he did tell me, opened her up as a person like I had never seen her before. I could hear her giggling on his arm, and see his eyes smiling as he watched her dance. He and Elisabeth Hartnagel nee Scholl genuinely loved Sophie -- as a person, not as a historical relic of a distant past. How they knew her, how deep their affection!
And Fritz did not become a farmer, he did not raise chickens. He became a judge, one who tried to uphold the rule of law in Germany, during post-war years when Nazi judges still held sway. He fought for conscientious objectors and against nuclear weapons. He stood up for his friend Walter Jens, and in it all claimed, "I am only doing my job -- nothing special about me."
Rest in peace, Fritz Hartnagel. Your memory truly is for a blessing.
May 3, 2001
There is an issue with the White Rose that I cannot seem to get past. Revisionism. Not the revisionism of Holocaust deniers, for no one telling the White Rose story has so far claimed that the Shoah did not happen.
In some ways, this revisionism is more insidious. Some of the story-tellers have created a legend that simply is not true. They tell their tales as if they were present when they walked along the Isar, when they printed leaflets late at night, when they debated political issues that impacted their actions. And they were not.
Sadly, the revisionism blurs the view of the real story. The whole basis of the White Rose revolved around the need for people of all political and religious persuasions -- socialists, federalists, monarchists, communists, Catholics, Lutherans, Russian Orthodox, anthroposophists, secularists, and atheists -- to do whatever it took to overthrow Hitler and restore justice to German soil. That was not a premise many agreed with in 1943, though it was as valid then as it is now. It's a shame when brick walls are erected to blot the view of the full ~ and richly beautiful ~ tale.
I feel sometimes like I am beating my head against a brick wall. Some of the revisionists have the money, the political clout, to perpetuate their half-truths. The few survivors who have had the guts to stand up to these two have traditionally wound up ignored, unwelcomed.
It is easy to see why. It is far more comfortable to have a larger pool of "good guys", to ignore evidence that indicts people who now say the right thing.
Wonder on occasion if I am crazy to tackle this project, to stand up for the truth of the matter. To nail down evidence that delineates what happened when and who was there. It is not a case of wanting to "bring down" anyone. Only to set the record straight and do what I can to write history in its proper words. Ironically, that is what Hans Scholl swore he would do if he survived the war...
All I can do is keep putting facts into that database, so that in the end, Truth can once again win.
April 26, 2001
Invitation this week to speak at my local Fulbright chapter's banquet, on the subject of the White Rose. Question was, would I mind talking about them instead of addressing the matter of international education. As much as I believe in international education, it's second priority to "my" White Rose kids. Hope they are planning on a three-day weekend.
Finding a couple of voices who are on the same path, looking for ways to bring German and Jewish communities together to talk in peace. Since emotions are hard to argue with, this road is not easy to travel. I am thankful for each person who comes to the table with an open mind. And heart.
April 19, 2001
Eight days and counting till the release of Changing Seasons, my first poetry book! Hope that when it's the 100th book about to be released, I'll be as excited as I am about this second one. It is a gift all its own, to be thrilled by intangibles and made happy by privileges.
Holocaust Remembrance is celebrated today. In the middle of gorgeous Spring, I hope we can all take a moment to remember those who died ~ not in a war, or for principles they held dear, or because they represented the opposition. Remember those who died simply because they were Jewish, at the hands of some who knew how to hate. As we remember, we can pray that it will never ever happen again. That nie wieder ~ never again ~ is in our hands.
April 5, 2001
Hope that by this time next week, I can write in this journal about all the wonderful dialog I've put down on paper, or the translations finished and "in the book." But at least I can look back on the last seven days and know they have been good, they have hardly been wasted. Tax returns and the like keep me out of trouble ... that's the prevailing theory.
And it is finally, gloriously springtime. From last night to this morning, it's like the earth exhaled and trees greened. Forsythia's showing faintly yellow. Before long, there will be such a dazzle of color! Perfect time to be a writer. Cannot imagine being anything else.
Great fun when all the hard work on White Rose detail begins to pay off. Involved this week in an ongoing discussion with Armin Ziegler, who has devoted quite a bit of time and energy to researching Eugen and Jenny Grimminger. We have been comparing notes on a vague date -- when Hans and Schurik went to Chemnitz to meet Falk Harnack.
Since the date is never specifically stated, we both have made assumptions that led to our separate conclusions. Interesting now to take those assumptions and the facts that support them, to see if we can arrive at a date that really makes sense. So far, no luck. But puzzles like this are worth the effort.
June 21, 2001
First day of summer. Such a glorious time of year. Energy to create, to think, to be. Sometimes, words are too much.
June 14, 2001
Beginning to think that the most critical issue for White Rose research at this point is to get as much of the primary source documentation available to the public as possible. Inge Jens seems to be working on this with her recent Puls issue. There must be a way to get Scholl archives unblocked so the truth can start to be known. Not merely for me, but for anyone interested in knowing what really happened 58 years ago.
May 31, 2001
It has been interesting, asking young people how they think they would respond to Nazi pressure to join Hitler Youth. Whether they think they would cave and join to be part of the "in" crowd, or whether they would do like the White Rose and take a stand for justice.
I think what impresses me so much is the honesty I encounter. I expected them to say, "Oh no, not me, I would never have been part of something like that." But many, many say, "I probably would have gone along with all my friends and joined Hitler Youth."
This honesty means a lot. It actually provides a springboard for real discussion, perceptive thinking. This is a legacy of the White Rose that has lasting value.
May 18, 2001
Speaking tonight at the Fulbright dinner. It's always intriguing to plan for these events, not knowing what people know, wondering about questions. For those who have never heard the White Rose account, it's generally a moving experience to watch them hear it for the first time. The bigger challenge is speaking to a group that knows the legend and not the real story. We'll see how this goes tonight!
May 10, 2001
Fritz Hartnagel died last week. I cherish every single one of the survivors of the White Rose (including "survivors" like him who were not technically part of the movement). But especially Fritz Hartnagel.
Sophie Scholl appeared to have reconciled herself to marrying a man content to raise chickens. She was not happy that Fritz did not like to read or study, that he seemed to duck issues important to her. Reading the published excerpts of her letters to him, you almost wonder what she saw in him.
Till you meet Fritz Hartnagel and sense his great goodness, eyes that burn, quiet passion for justice simmering beneath the surface. He talked little and never sought the spotlight.
I wish he had talked more, had shared all the Sophie stories he knew, that he lived. The little he did tell me, opened her up as a person like I had never seen her before. I could hear her giggling on his arm, and see his eyes smiling as he watched her dance. He and Elisabeth Hartnagel nee Scholl genuinely loved Sophie -- as a person, not as a historical relic of a distant past. How they knew her, how deep their affection!
And Fritz did not become a farmer, he did not raise chickens. He became a judge, one who tried to uphold the rule of law in Germany, during post-war years when Nazi judges still held sway. He fought for conscientious objectors and against nuclear weapons. He stood up for his friend Walter Jens, and in it all claimed, "I am only doing my job -- nothing special about me."
Rest in peace, Fritz Hartnagel. Your memory truly is for a blessing.
May 3, 2001
There is an issue with the White Rose that I cannot seem to get past. Revisionism. Not the revisionism of Holocaust deniers, for no one telling the White Rose story has so far claimed that the Shoah did not happen.
In some ways, this revisionism is more insidious. Some of the story-tellers have created a legend that simply is not true. They tell their tales as if they were present when they walked along the Isar, when they printed leaflets late at night, when they debated political issues that impacted their actions. And they were not.
Sadly, the revisionism blurs the view of the real story. The whole basis of the White Rose revolved around the need for people of all political and religious persuasions -- socialists, federalists, monarchists, communists, Catholics, Lutherans, Russian Orthodox, anthroposophists, secularists, and atheists -- to do whatever it took to overthrow Hitler and restore justice to German soil. That was not a premise many agreed with in 1943, though it was as valid then as it is now. It's a shame when brick walls are erected to blot the view of the full ~ and richly beautiful ~ tale.
I feel sometimes like I am beating my head against a brick wall. Some of the revisionists have the money, the political clout, to perpetuate their half-truths. The few survivors who have had the guts to stand up to these two have traditionally wound up ignored, unwelcomed.
It is easy to see why. It is far more comfortable to have a larger pool of "good guys", to ignore evidence that indicts people who now say the right thing.
Wonder on occasion if I am crazy to tackle this project, to stand up for the truth of the matter. To nail down evidence that delineates what happened when and who was there. It is not a case of wanting to "bring down" anyone. Only to set the record straight and do what I can to write history in its proper words. Ironically, that is what Hans Scholl swore he would do if he survived the war...
All I can do is keep putting facts into that database, so that in the end, Truth can once again win.
April 26, 2001
Invitation this week to speak at my local Fulbright chapter's banquet, on the subject of the White Rose. Question was, would I mind talking about them instead of addressing the matter of international education. As much as I believe in international education, it's second priority to "my" White Rose kids. Hope they are planning on a three-day weekend.
Finding a couple of voices who are on the same path, looking for ways to bring German and Jewish communities together to talk in peace. Since emotions are hard to argue with, this road is not easy to travel. I am thankful for each person who comes to the table with an open mind. And heart.
April 19, 2001
Eight days and counting till the release of Changing Seasons, my first poetry book! Hope that when it's the 100th book about to be released, I'll be as excited as I am about this second one. It is a gift all its own, to be thrilled by intangibles and made happy by privileges.
Holocaust Remembrance is celebrated today. In the middle of gorgeous Spring, I hope we can all take a moment to remember those who died ~ not in a war, or for principles they held dear, or because they represented the opposition. Remember those who died simply because they were Jewish, at the hands of some who knew how to hate. As we remember, we can pray that it will never ever happen again. That nie wieder ~ never again ~ is in our hands.
April 5, 2001
Hope that by this time next week, I can write in this journal about all the wonderful dialog I've put down on paper, or the translations finished and "in the book." But at least I can look back on the last seven days and know they have been good, they have hardly been wasted. Tax returns and the like keep me out of trouble ... that's the prevailing theory.
And it is finally, gloriously springtime. From last night to this morning, it's like the earth exhaled and trees greened. Forsythia's showing faintly yellow. Before long, there will be such a dazzle of color! Perfect time to be a writer. Cannot imagine being anything else.
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