Tuesday, May 5, 2009

White Rose Trials- Icons of the new Postwar Germany










The trials did not bring the results hoped for as the below quotation points out, which is the true apathy and indifference of the German public which alone allowed the evil of Nazism to arise initially.
















http://www.katjasdacha.com/whiterose/sitemap.html





http://www.katjasdacha.com/whiterose/wrbooks.html





http://www.katjasdacha.com/whiterose/letters.html





























































QUOTE: Why do German people behave so apathetically in the face of all
these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? ... The German
people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist
criminals....[The German] must evidence not only sympathy; no, much more: a
sense of complicity in guilt....For through his apathetic behaviour he gives
these evil men the opportunity to act as they do.... he himself is to blame for
the fact that it came about at all! Each man wants to be exonerated ....But he
cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!... now that we have
recognized [the Nazis] for what they are, it must be the sole and first duty,
the holiest duty of every German to destroy these beasts. (From Leaflet 2)

























The second White Rose trial took place on 19 April 1943. Only eleven had
been indicted before this trial. At the last minute, the prosecutor added Traute
Lafrenz (who was considered so dangerous she was to have had a trial all to
herself),
Gisela Schertling, and Katharina Schueddekopf. None had an attorney.
One was assigned after the women appeared in court with their
friends.
Professor Huber had counted on the good services of his friend,
Justizrat Roder, a high-ranking Nazi. Roder had not bothered to visit Huber
before the trial and had not read Huber's leaflet. Another attorney had carried
out all the pre-trial paperwork. When Roder realized how damning the evidence
was against Huber, he resigned. The junior attorney took over.
Grimminger
initially was to receive the death sentence for funding their operations. His
attorney successfully used the female wiles of Tilly Hahn to convince Freisler
that Grimminger had not known what the money was really being used for.
Grimminger therefore escaped with a sentence of ten years in a
penitentiary
.
The third White Rose trial was to have taken place on 20 April
1943 (Hitler's birthday), because Freisler anticipated death sentences for
Wilhelm Geyer, Harald Dohrn, Josef Soehngen, and Manfred Eickemeyer. He did not
want too many death sentences at a single trial, and had scheduled those four
for the next day. However, the evidence against them was lost, and the trial was
postponed until 13 July 1943.

At that trial, Gisela Schertling —who had
betrayed most of the friends, even fringe members like Gerhard Feuerle— redeemed
herself by recanting her testimony against all of them. Since Freisler did not
preside over the third trial, the judge acquitted all but Soehngen (who got only
six months in prison) for lack of evidence.
Alexander Schmorell and Kurt
Huber were beheaded on 13 July 1943, and Willi Graf on 12 October 1943.
Friends
and colleagues of the White Rose, who had helped in the preparation and
distribution of leaflets and in collecting money for the widow and young
children of Probst, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to
ten years.
Prior to their deaths, several members of the White Rose believed
that their execution would stir university students and other anti-war citizens into activism against
Hitler and the war. Accounts suggest, however, that university students
continued their studies as usual and citizens said nothing, many regarding the
movement as anti-national[citation
needed
]. In fact, after the Scholl/Probst executions, some students
celebrated their deaths[citation
needed
].
After her release for the sentence handed down on April 19,
Traute Lafrenz was rearrested. She spent the last year of the war in prison.
Trials kept being postponed and moved to different locations because of Allied
air raids.
Her trial was finally set for April 1945, after which she probably
would have been executed. Three days before the trial, however, the Allies
liberated the town where she was held prisoner, thereby saving her life.
The
White Rose had the last word. Their last leaflet was smuggled to the Allies, who
edited it, and air-dropped millions of copies over Germany. The members of the
White Rose, especially Sophie, became icons of the new post-war Germany.





LINKS







Links
Official Organisations
Weisse Rose Stiftung (de)
Weisse Rose Institut (de)
White Rose (General)
History is a Weapon Site
Resistance Allemande Site (fr)
22 February 1943 (fr)
Members
Alex & Orthodoxy (de)
Alex - Farewell letters (de)
Alexander Schmorell - Русская Германия (ru)
Christoph Probst - The Catholic Newspaper for Politics, Society, and Culture (de)
Sophie Scholl (+ links)(de)
Hingabe und Verrat (Willi Graf)
People
< Dr. George Wittenstein (en)
Movies
Die Weiße Rose (1982)
IMDB entry
Sophie Scholl - Die Letzten Tagen (2005)
Official Movie Site
Filmportal.de (de)
IMDB entry
The White Rose (2006)
IMDB entry
Der Geist Lebt (1982) BRD documentary - 30 min
Filmwerk.de synopsis (de)
Misc. Links
Chieme
Uni
L'IMPORTANZA DELLA "ROSA BIANCA" PER IL FUTURO DELL'EUROPA - The importance of the White Rose for the future of Europe (it)
La rosa bianca e Guardini - Discorso all'Università di Monaco 12 Iuglio 1958 (it)
Music
German Opera Honours German Resisters
=====
Ricordi della "Rosa Bianca" (it)
Canh hong trang
German Resistance (de)
White Rose
var site="s14katjuscha"







Friends and Fellow Resistance Fighters
Hans Scholl
Alexander Schmorell
Christoph Probst
Willi Graf
Sophie Scholl
Professor Kurt Huber
Traute Lafrenz
Lilo Ramdohr
Jürgen (George) Wittenstein
Falk Harnack
Susanne Hirzel
Hans Hirzel
Franz J. Müller
Heinrich Guter
Eugen Grimminger
Heinrich Bollinger
Helmut Bauer
Gisela Schertling
Katharina Schüddekopf
Hans Leipelt
Marie-Luise Jahn
Margaretha Rothe
Heinz Kucharski
Reinhold Meyer
Karl Ludwig Schneider
Dr. Kurt Ledien
Bruno Himpkamp
Albert Suhr
Frederick Geussenhainer
Katharina Leipelt
Margaretha Mrosek
Harald Dohrn
White Rose
var site="s14katjuscha"


















WHITE ROSE CAPTURE AND TRIAL



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose


QUOTE:


If everyone waits until the other man makes a start, the messengers of avenging Nemesis will come steadily closer. (From Leaflet 1, urging immediate initiative by the reader. Nemesis of course punished those who had fallen to the temptation of hubris.)




Capture and trial

Atrium
of the University
On 18 February 1943, coincidentally the same day that Nazi
propaganda minister Josef Goebbels called on
the German people to embrace total war in his Sportpalast speech,
the Scholls brought a suitcase full of leaflets to the university. They
hurriedly dropped stacks of copies in the empty corridors for students to find
when they flooded out of lecture rooms. Leaving before the class break, the
Scholls noticed that some copies remained in the suitcase and decided it would
be a pity not to distribute them. They returned to the atrium and climbed the
staircase to the top floor, and Sophie flung the last remaining leaflets into
the air. This spontaneous action was observed by the custodian Jakob Schmid. The
police were called and Hans and Sophie Scholl were taken into Gestapo custody.
The other active members were soon arrested, and the group and everyone
associated with them were brought in for interrogation.
The Scholls and
Probst were the first to stand trial before the Volksgerichtshof—the
People's Court that tried political offenses against the Nazi German state—on 22
February 1943. They were found guilty of treason and Roland Freisler, head
judge of the court, sentenced them to death. The three were
executed the same day by guillotine. All three were
noted for the courage they faced death with, particularly Sophie, who remained
firm despite intense interrogation (however, reports that she arrived at the
trial with a broken leg from torture are false). She said to Freisler during the
trial, "You know as well as we do that the war is lost. Why are you so cowardly
that you won't admit it?"[6]

The dilemma of spiritual growth


Spiritual growth and advancement must occur in the wake of pushing oneself forward and no simple cause and effect or linear progression can measure its hopeful and beneficial outcome.We become " a new person" that can be forever changed if we continuously climb onward as on a ladder or regress back to the vomit whence we came. Indicators, many of them ambiguous appear in the realm of synchronicity or synchronous events (possibly?) as was posited by Carl Jung.There is no clearly defined course in this sometimes nebulous undertaking and mid shades of grey and blurrings can abound. We must be our taskmaster of ourselves to push forward, and pay a somewhat steep cost. The last quote from the email article is profound in that we latch onto a circle and hopefully spiral upwards. Often there will be no discernible gains and then one day the student of growth will experience an awakening into a new consciousness. I am certain this has a relation to Ha Gilgul Ibbur, soul attachment I referred to in a former post. I will expand on that notion in succeeding posts.



And this, of course, introduces us to the true dilemma of spiritual growth.
There is no simple cause-and-effect process. One has to work, to push himself in
the necessary directions without noticing any discernible gains. (How does
learning some obscure laws of leprous houses or of Temple meal offerings make me
a greater human being?) And eventually he will find that he has become a
different person. An old friend of mine once repeated to me what his karate
teacher told him: "For the longest time you will run drills and practice moves
feeling like it's just a bunch of forced motions. Then one day you will wake up
a karateka."


When we advance spiritually, we're attempting to penetrate something deeper than our bodies or minds. We are trying to get in touch with our very souls, that hidden piece of G-dliness within ourselves. And there is no direct route. When it comes to spiritual growth, there is no start, finish, or clearly-defined course of action. We latch onto a circle -- at one of its infinite points -- and begin to spiral upwards.

Chambers of the Deep James Hurtak Pyramids Atlantis continued

http://www.galactic.to/rune/pyrmyst.html

Three scouts climbed into the Pyramid from the opening afforded by the sliding of the stone.The lead scout Amend Abouu made a misstep in the dark passage and suffered a case of injured pride only.A mockup of the area was reproduced in the south secluded area.The men would have limited time as the stone was timed to open and shut. This timing alone evidenced a most advanced technology that could so formulate this opening and closing action. Four men could be admitted without mishap. Was it fastest to jump slide or squeeze into the opening? The vigil of the wait was filled with foreboding for whether the scouts would return or not was unknown.




The stone block rolled (or slid) inward for a distance of not more than
seven feet, leaving only a clearing of a mere three feet (90cm)due to the block
protrusion of the under layers. Instead of jumping at the chance to dash into
the opening, hesitation was the theme of the next few seconds - due mainly to
shock and total surprise. The decision was finally reached (and none too soon)
and the three scouts hurriedly climbed down its pitch-black mouth and just as
the right hand of the third member was pulled free into the opening, the giant
block slid smoothly over the underlay stone. The total time of opening and
closing totaled just 35 seconds with 49 seconds to its final resting place on
the exterior facing. On entering, the lead scout, Amend Abouu had made a misstep
in the dark passage and plunged (stupe)forward down a flight of a dozen stairs.
By the tone of his voice one would imagine he had been seriously hurt but as it
turned out, it was only his pride that suffered the agony - and
the dust that
was suddenly stirred created a choking experience, delaying the descent for many
minutes.
This opening of the stone simply did not occur after just 37
attempts from the first initial try but was tried many dozens of times prior to
being at that location.

Figure 14: (Top) Entering the
Pyramid; (Bottom) The staircase into the tomb.
Eight months prior to June
9th, a mockup of this area was reproduced - Hollywood style - in a secluded
(bortgjemt)area south of the Pyramid to the exactness of duplication. Knowing,
after all research was completed, the men that would enter would have limited
time - thus this mockup, on a timer, served as a proper evaluation to learn of
the fastest way in, jumping, sliding or squeezing in the allotted time and to
determine, after practice, how many it would admit before the last few inches
closed around them. Had this not been tried many times over, the first attempt
could have been fatal for one or more.
In the finalization, it was learned that
time, if pushed for every second, could admit four men almost without mishap and
if any member displayed no hesitation, which was the case on the first real
attempt. Still, with all this practice, no member of the team planned to carry
food or water and the first entering consisted of flashlights only - which was a
grave mistake.
Once this stone closed, the three expeditionists had been
completely devoured ("slukt")by the Pyramid, leaving those who were only half
watching at the base in complete wonderment as to how the three disappeared from
plain sight -who minutes before, could be seen at the edge of the shadows. For
those who did not actually see this disappearance still had a premonition it had
to be so and they had succeeded. The vigil (våkningen)of the wait seemed endless
for no one knew if or when the scouts would return to the exterior of that south
facing of the Pyramid.

white Rose Part II






















The origin of the White Rose was the sermon of Bishop August Von Galen on Euthanasia,decrying their policies of sending victims to the camps to "purify" the European gene pool. This indicates the German nation well knew of these camps well before they became world notorious. Sophie Scholl had permission to reprint it and distribute it at the University of Munich as the group's first leaflet.Where did the name White Rose come from? It was innocence and purity in the face of evil.


  • A novel published in Berlin in 1931 by B Traven author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Did Hans Scholl read this novel?

  • They read the Bible,Aristotle,Novalis, Goethe and Schiller and thought Southern Germany would be more receptive to their message.They were incurable idealists and believed the German Intelligentsia would readily accept their message.

  • Quotes: Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes - crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure - reach the light of day? ”

  • Since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way … The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals … Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty! ”

  • The fifth leaflet called for resistance and that the allies would defeat Germany.The foundations of the New Europe were laid and that consisted of freedom of speech and religion and protection of the citizen from the arbitrary action of the dictator fascist state.

  • Leaflet 6 -The dead of Stalingrad adjure us. The allies used this leaflet dropped from aircraft.



Origin
In 1941 Hans Scholl read a copy of a sermon by an outspoken
critic of the Nazi regime, Bishop
August von
Galen
, decrying the euthanasia policies (extended
that same year to the concentration camps
[2]) which the
Nazis maintained would protect the European gene pool.
[3]
Horrified by the Nazi policies, Sophie obtained permission to reprint the sermon
and distribute it at the University of Munich as the group's first leaflet prior
to their formal organization.
[3]
Under
Gestapo interrogation, Hans Scholl said that the name the White Rose had been
taken from a Spanish novel he had read. Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn
speculate that this may have been The White Rose, a novel about peasant
exploitation in Mexico published in Berlin in 1931, written by
B. Traven,
the German author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Dumbach and Newborn say
there is a chance that Hans Scholl and Alex Schmorell had read this. They write
that the symbol of the white rose was intended to represent purity and innocence
in the face of evil.
[4]

[edit]
Leaflets
Quoting extensively from the
Bible, Aristotle and Novalis, as well as Goethe and Schiller, they
appealed to what they considered the German
intelligentsia, believing
that they would be intrinsically opposed to Nazism. At first, the leaflets were
sent out in mailings from cities in
Bavaria and Austria, since the members
believed that southern Germany would be more receptive to their anti-militarist
message.

Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that
will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes
and the most horrible of crimes - crimes that infinitely outdistance every human
measure - reach the light of day?

— From the first leaflet of the White
Rose

Since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been
murdered in this country in the most bestial way … The German people slumber on
in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals … Each man
wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way
with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is
guilty, guilty, guilty!

— From the second leaflet of the White
Rose.
Alexander Schmorell penned the words the White Rose has become most
famous for having spoken. Most of the more practical material —calls to arms and
statistics of murder— came from Alex's pen. Hans Scholl wrote in a
characteristically high style, exhorting the German people to action on the
grounds of philosophy and reason.
At the end of July 1942, some of the male
students in the group were deployed to the Eastern
Front
for military service (acting as medics) during the academic break. In
late autumn, the men returned, and the White Rose resumed its resistance
activities. In January 1943, using a hand-operated duplicating machine,
the group is thought to have produced between 6,000 and 9,000 copies of their
fifth leaflet, "Appeal to all Germans!", which was distributed via courier runs
to many cities (where they were mailed). Copies appeared in
Stuttgart, Cologne, Vienna, Freiburg, Chemnitz, Hamburg, Innsbruck, and Berlin. The fifth
leaflet was composed by Hans Scholl with improvements by Huber. These leaflets
warned that Hitler was leading Germany into the abyss; with the gathering might
of the Allies, defeat was now certain. The reader was urged to "Support the
resistance movement!" in the struggle for "Freedom of speech, freedom of
religion, and protection of the individual citizen from the arbitrary action of
criminal dictator-states".
These were the principles that would form "the
foundations of the new Europe".
The leaflets caused a sensation, and the
Gestapo began an intensive search for the publishers.
On the nights of the
3rd, 8th, and 15th of February 1943, the slogans "Freedom" and "Down with
Hitler" appeared on the walls of the University and other buildings in Munich.
Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl and Willi Graf had painted them with tar-based
paint (similar graffiti that appeared in the surrounding area at this time was
painted by imitators).
The shattering German defeat at Stalingrad at the
beginning of February provided the occasion for the group's sixth leaflet,
written by Huber. Headed "Fellow students!", it announced that the "day of
reckoning" had come for "the most contemptible tyrant our people has ever
endured". As the German people had looked to university students to help break
Napoleon in 1813, it now looked to them to break the Nazi terror. "The dead of
Stalingrad adjure us!"
Leaflet No. 6 was copied by the allies and dropped
from aircraft. [5]