Hans Scholl

For the astronomer, see Hans Scholl (astronomer)

Hans Scholl (22 September 1918 - 22 February 1943) helped to publish and distribute leaflets under the group name of the White Rose non-violent resistance movement in Nazi Germany. As a young college student, Scholl often questioned the role of a dictator such as Adolf Hitler and his brutal policies against the Jews. After being arrested for distributing the group's sixth leaflet, Hans Scholl, along with his sister Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst were convicted of treason. They were soon made a public example and all were executed by guillotine only a few hours later.

The White Rose consisted of Hans, Sophie, Christoph, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, and Professor Kurt Huber. The main purpose of their leaflet production was to denounce the rise of the Nazi regime. They began by anonyomously mailing the leaflets to doctors, scholars, pub owners and other names that they took from the phone book. Their actions took on a level of more danger, however, when they personally began leaving them on two different campuses, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, where they studied, and the University in Hamburg. They plead with the German citizens to actively resist the measures and tactics that were being used to govern their country.

Early life

Hans Scholl was born on September 22, 1918 to Robert and Magdalena Scholl. Robert Scholl was the mayor of Forchtenberg am Kocher. The Scholl family was unique in that they grew up not only valuing education, but also discussion major political and theological ideas. Hans had a happy childhood that was fostered by his parents, especially her father, ability to encourage the Scholl children to think for themselves, to form opinions, and to value ideas. Hans was an apt pupil and studies that the secondary school in Kunzelsau before his family left Forchtenberg.

In 1932 the Scholl family moved to the city of Ulm, where Robert established his own consulting office. It was during these years that the Scholl children were required to joing the Hilter Youth groups.

But gradually Sophie became aware of the vast differences between what was taught by the the Hitler youth and what she was taught at home. She eventually became very critical of the group and others like it. Her father was opposed to the fascist government of Adolf Hitler and Sophie's belief echoed her father's. Sophie's brother, Hans, was also a member of the Hitler youth, but Hans and his friends

In 1933 Scholl joined the Hitler Youth. At first he was enthusiastic but, influenced by the views of his father, he became increasingly critical of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi government. In 1937 Scholl was arrested and briefly jailed after being accused of subversive activities.

n the summer of 1940 Scholl was sent as a member of the medical corps that went with the German Army invading France. Later than year he returned to Munich where he joined with his sister Sophie Scholl, Inge Scholl, Christoph Probst, Kurt Huber, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf and Jugen Wittenstein to form the White Rose. The group decided to adopt the strategy of passive resistance that was being used by students fighting against racial discrimination in the United States. This included publishing leaflets calling for the restoration of democracy and social justice.

In June, 1942, Scholl, was called up as a medic during Operation Barbarossa. Scholl was accompanied by three fellow students from the University of Munich, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf and Jugen Wittenstein. While on duty Scholl and his friends witnessed Jews being murdered by the Schutz Staffeinel (SS) in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland and in the Soviet Union.

The White Rose

When Scholl returned to Germany in October, 1943, he and the White Rose began publishing leaflets about what he had seen while in duty. The leaflets were at first sent anonymously to people all over Germany. Taking the addresses from telephone directories, they tended to concentrate on mailing university lecturers and the owners of bars.

In Passive Resistance to National Socialism, published in 1943 the group explained the reasons why they had formed the White Rose group: "We want to try and show that everyone is in a position to contribute to the overthrow of the system. It can be done only by the cooperation of many convinced, energetic people - people who are agreed as to the means they must use. We have no great number of choices as to the means. The meaning and goal of passive resistance is to topple National Socialism, and in this struggle we must not recoil from our course, any action, whatever its nature. A victory of fascist Germany in this war would have immeasurable, frightful consequences."

The White Rose group believed that the young people of Germany had the potential to overthrow Adolf Hitler and the Nazi government. In one leaflet, Fellow Fighters in the Resistance, they wrote: The name of Germany is dishonoured for all time if German youth does not finally rise, take revenge, smash its tormentors. Students! The German people look to us.

The White Rose group also began painting anti-Nazi slogans on the sides of houses. This included "Down With Hitler", "Hitler Mass Murderer" and "Freedom". They also painted crossed-out swastikas.

Arrest and Trial

Members also began leaving piles of leaflets in public places. On 18th February, Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl began distributing the sixth leaflet produced by the White Rose group. Jakob Schmidt, a member of the Nazi Party, saw them at the University of Munich, throwing leaflets from a window of the third floor into the courtyard below. He immediately told the Gestapo and they were both arrested. They were searched and the police found a handwritten draft of another leaflet. This they matched to a letter in Scholl's flat that had been signed by Christoph Probst.

The three members of the White Rose group appeared before the People's Court judge, Roland Friesler, on 20th February. Found guilty of sedition they were executed by guillotine a few hours later. Just before he was executed Hans Scholl shouted out: Long live freedom!

After the arrests of the original friends of the White Rose, a group of chemistry students at the University of Munich took up their cause. Armed with only a typewriter, they copied out hundreds of the leaflets and continued disseminating them. Traute's friends in Hamburg likewise used the White Rose leaflets in their resistance efforts. The British Royal Air Force dumped plane loads of the sixth leaflet, Dr. Huber's, on Germany.

Legacy

The square where the central hall of Munich University is located has been named Geschwister-Scholl-Platz after Hans and Sophie Scholl, the square next to it Professor-Huber-Platz. Many schools, streets and places all over Germany are named in memory of the members of the White Rose.

The group's activities were the subject of three German films: Percy Adlon's Fünf letzte Tage (1982), Die weiße Rose (1982), directed by Michael Verhoeven and released in the United States (subtitled) as "The White Rose"; and Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage from 2005, directed by Marc Rothemund.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Hans Scholl Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk Retrieved December 7, 2007.
• Scholl, Hans, Inge Jens, and Sophie Scholl. 1987. At the Heart of the White Rose: letters and diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0060157054
• Axelrod, Toby. 2001. Hans and Sophie Scholl: German Resisters of the White Rose. Holocaust biographies. New York: Rosen Pub. Group. ISBN 0823933164
• Scholl, Inge, and Dorothee Sölle. 1983. The White Rose Munich, 1942-1943. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0819560863
• Flynn, Adrian. 2007. The White Rose and the Swastika. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198321026

External links

• In Memoriam Dheap.com. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
• Hornberger, Jacob G. The White Rose: A Lesson in Dissent Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
• The White Rose Shoaheducation.com. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
• Hans Scholl Jlrweb.com. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
• Text of leaflets in English and German Jlrweb.com. Retrieved December 7, 2007.

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