Center for White Rose Studies

11/26/2025

Please support the work of Center for White Rose Studies this giving Tuesday. Think about us as you plan your year-end giving. We are good stewards of your hard-earned cash and will ensure that serious research and writing continues!

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and other celebrations of light!

Thank you. 💜

Please support the work of Center for White Rose Studies this giving Tuesday. Think about us as you plan your year-end giving. We are good stewards of your hard-earned cash and will ensure that serious research and writing continues! Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season, Christmas, Chanu...

06/11/2024

My saga with podcasting aka serialized audio book of White Rose History, Volume II, continues. I realized while recording Chapters 2 and 3 that some people may find the material... boring.

Those two chapters represent a pause in the telling of their story, to talk about fringe people who contributed mightily to their work.

**We hear the words of Alfred von Martin, sociologist and theologian, in their leaflets. (Louis Colombo, CFP®, Martin wrote about Nietzsche and Schopenhauer as well.)
**We see their resolute acceptance of the consequences of their actions from the example set by Josef Furtmeier, who walked away from a good-paying job, because he was asked to sign an oath of loyalty to Hi**er. Furtmeier's quiet strength inspired them.
**We feel Katharina Schüddekopf's fear at being physically disabled in an era when that could mean classification as a useless eater, her anger at Hans Scholl for abuse of Traute Lafrenz and what that meant to their resistance, her wisdom as she first tries to navigate a family divided by politics and decides to come down on the side of justice.

Since these people and others are omitted from the usual tellings of White Rose history, I spent a little additional time fleshing them out, laying a strong foundation, before I proceeded with the rest of the story. This post explains what I mean in more detail.

This basic principle - getting the foundation right before tackling a project - has applications to just about every aspect of life. Whether business, marriage, home renovations, politics, law - the foundation has to be strong, must be secure.

Otherwise, your driveway will crumble as those in Lehi, Utah did in 2007/2008. And your business will fail for lack of foresight.

We have a sign of hope. It reveals that when we have done all that is humanly possible, there is still something else we can do – something that cannot be touched and is eternal. (Hermann Krings)

06/07/2024

This is a new venture for me personally, for Center for White Rose Studies in general. Serialized audio book of our White Rose History, Volume 2.

In this very first chapter, you’ll see what happens when historical process is properly applied. I fell off my chair in April 1995 when Fritz Hartnagel told me that Sophie Scholl had asked him to submit a military requisition form for a duplicating machine on her behalf - her first week in Munich. He added that he always thought the leaflets were entirely her idea.

This blew established legend out of the water.

My Substack is entitled WHY THIS MATTERS because of parallels to our era. People like Mark Jacob fight for integrity of the press. People like Jack Hopkins fight for political integrity, holding politicians accountable for propaganda and lies. People like Heather Cox Richardson shine a bright light on daily events in historical context.

We need all of us to fight the good fight now.

Otherwise, eighty years from now, some poor historian will be fighting historical revisionism about our era, same as I now fight historical revisionism about German resistance during the Shoah.

Yes, this matters!

-- Denise Heap
Founder and Director, Center for White Rose Studies

May 1, 1942. And not one of these students understood the journey on which they were embarking.

05/15/2024

Many White Rose survivors and their families and friends became close, special to us as we interviewed them. Traute!, the Schmorells, the extended Probst family, Geyers - every one of them. Just to name a few.

Not many touched our hearts as did Lilo. Our dearest Lilo. Lieselotte Fürst-Ramdohr.

A dancer, gymnast, artist, sculptor, flirt, she also was a thinker. Hermann Ramdohr had resigned from his position as 'Supreme Couirt' justice, defied Adolf Hi**er, and earned that dictator's wrath. Lilo admired him, emulated him. Which estranged her from her mother and most siblings.

Her life was one hardship after another. During our interview, Joyce asked her, “Have you ever regretted then what you did, wished you could undo it, knowing what you know now about how much it would cost you?” This was the only time Lilo hesitated before answering.

But her answer was clear. “No. I would do it all over again, even knowing what it would cost me.”

If you have an extra three minutes today and wish to have your spirits lifted by the utter courage of a very young, very pretty woman who could have lived out the war in comfort - and chose not to do so - click on the link in comments. I think you'll understand why she was so special to us.

In Memoriam, unsre liebste Lilo. Born October 11, 1913. Died May 13/14, 2013.

https://deniseelaineheap.substack.com/p/in-memoriam-lieselotte-furst-ramdohr

“I would do it all over again, even knowing what it would cost me.” - Unsre liebste Lilo.

05/08/2024

Last month I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Gettysburg Film Festival. It was supposed to be a time for me to 'cleanse my palate,' to not think about White Rose for just a few minutes.

Yeah, right. Ken Burns, Sam Waterston, and Martin Sheen had other ideas.

These are the three questions I came away with from that night.
1) Can people be national “symbols” – untouchable?
2) How do we proceed when a legend, such as the Inge Scholl legend about her siblings, has become entrenched because of government funding (both USA and Germany) and unwillingness of “historians” to challenge the legend? Especially, as is the case here, when the three major sources and driving forces behind the legend were all überzeugte (convinced) N**is during the war? I am, of course, speaking of Inge Scholl, Franz Josef Müller, and Jürgen Wittenstein.
3) What is the definition of a hero? And how should historians write about heroes?

Today's Substack post dealt with how the discussion at the film festival provoked those questions in me. I already knew Ken Burns would be erudite and thoughtful. Totally unprepared for Sam Waterston's depth. Now I need to rewatch Law & Order. Heh. Of course, I meant to say Gore Vidal's Lincoln.

Tomorrow's Substack will just be for paid subscribers, but it's less lighthearted, more about the nitty gritty. Especially the immense obstacles that historians in Germany face when writing about Shoah. Makes me glad to be HERE.

Oh, and - sincerely - happy V-E Day! The world is a better place because of it.

Adams County Historical Society at Gettysburg

White Rose leaflets, for which they gave their lives!, came from the depths of anguish and sorrow over injustice. You’re not hearing me. You’re hearing their voice, their witness.

05/07/2024

This may not be Louis Colombo's "Gratitude Thursday," but I wanted to share acknowledgments to the people who made White Rose History, Volume II possible.

First and foremost: Hans Forster (1957-2003). Initially Hans told me, "Don't write another White Rose book. There are too many already!" Once he realized I wasn't writing just any old rehash of the legend, he became my strongest ally. He sourced books, papers, photos. He walked me through the paths they took when the students painted "Down With Hi**er" and "Hi**er the mass murderer" on N**i 'holy' sites. He explained nuances of life in Munich that made things make sense. Without him, there'd have been no White Rose history, no Center for White Rose Studies.

I still treasure his phone call when he said, "If anyone can find the truth of White Rose resistance, it's you."

Second, White Rose family and survivors who granted interviews, and who followed up with unpublished documents. People I corresponded with for years, as they helped me get nitty gritty details just right.

*Frau Braun, who was in Sophie Scholl's Jungmädel troop and told true stories that filled in gaps in the image.
*Clara Geyer, widow of Wilhelm Geyer, and her "kids" Hermann, Wilhelm Jr., Martin, and Elisabeth).
*Fritz and Elisabeth Hartnagel. Elisabeth is a Scholl, and the one who fought her older sister Inge's legend until the day she (Elisabeth) died. She was so angry at the falsehoods that she ensured I got a copy of unpublished documents that Inge had quashed.
*Anneliese Knoop-Graf. Unpublished documents, truth.
*Friedlinde and Hellmut Kohlermann, children's sanatorium where Sophie Scholl worked. Context matters.
*Hermann Krings, friend of Willi Graf, who spent his life advocating for the freedom and justice his friend had died fighting for.
*Traute Lafrenz. Can't even describe the impact this woman made on my life.
*Herta and Michael Probst, who cautiously talked to me after being burned by two different groups of "historians," but once trust was gained, provided invaluable insights into group dynamics. Also, "don't make it political!"
*Lilo Ramdohr, niece of a supreme court judge who resigned in protest over the Enabling Act and who suffered Hi**er's wrath. Lilo's openness and honesty...
*Domenic Saller, Lilo's grandson, another truth-seeker.
*Gustel Saur, whose brothers died at the hands of N**is, and who talked frankly about the Scholl problem.
*Erich and Hertha Schmorell... If I started writing here, I'd never stop. My biggest fan club, and I theirs.

Other VIPs: Betsy Colquitt, Clare Colquitt, Kathy Eaves, Georg Forster, Elfriede Forster, Gwen Miertschin, John Miertschin, Finley Shapiro, Armin Ziegler, Brigitte Ziegler, Marie-Luise Pieratt nee von Gronau, Harriet Dishman nee Grooters, Irmtraud Feigs, Olan Hankins, Joe Wilson.

Thank you. You made - and are making - a difference.

To order White Rose History, Volume II, click here: https://www.exclamation-publishers.com/products/white-rose-history-volume-ii-journey-to-freedom-may-1-1942-october-12-1943

Through May 31, you can get an 18% discount by using the discount code Facebook-Friends-Are-Good-18 to receive an 18% discount on *all* Holocaust education publications.



https://deniseelaineheap.substack.com/p/acknowledgments

I want every single one of you to thrill to what these frail, annoying, loving people did, who they were, what they accomplished despite the times they lived in. What they did, said, wrote... MATTERS.

03/22/2024

A conversation this week with a German historian took the usual twists and turns of most discussions involving the Shoah. This particular historian takes great care not to avoid painful topics. I knew that going in and looked forward to our time at table.

We talked about White Rose resistance, about Thomas Mann, and a complicated Bavarian writer named Ludwig Thoma, and about people who reinvented themselves after the war. We talked about DP-Lager, about Eisenhower in Germany, about legends that have been perpetuated in service of scrubbing the resumes of former National Socialists.

This historian made a statement that didn't sink in until I was driving back to the hotel. 'Sometimes it can be next to impossible to discern the difference between perpetrators and victims.' We were speaking specifically about postwar Germany, about the American occupation and the living conditions for Jewish survivors of the extermination camps. 'Sometimes it can be next to impossible to discern the difference between perpetrators and victims.'

I wondered at the time what he meant. He followed up the next morning with a transcript of General Patton's 1945 diary. I searched the online PDF (from National Archives in DC) for references to DP-Lager, and my new friend's comment made perfect and agonizing sense. Because Patton pretty much supported the efforts of the NSDAP to exterminate Jewish Europeans. Patton deemed Jewish survivors in the DP-Lager subhuman. His rhetoric was almost indistinguishable from that of N**i Germany.

I've long known that my White Rose work is important, not just as accurate record of resistance to National Socialism, although it is that. But it's also important as a glimpse into the evolution of virulent antisemitism in a country where Jewish scholars, musicians, writers, teachers, accountants, and attorneys ***had been*** celebrated. If we don't pay attention to the artificial, senseless fanning of the flames of hate, we are bound to repeat the ghastly history of that era.

These tough conversations are therefore crucial. We may not talk in terms of black and white, all-good, all-bad. We need to remove our blinders.

It's hard to face these truths. The alternative is even harder.

Once you hear Martin Hake's words, 'Sometimes it can be next to impossible to discern the difference between perpetrators and victims,' the tapestry of White Rose resistance begins to make sense.

03/04/2024

Women of the White Rose contributed far more to the circle's resistance efforts than most historians will admit. Without the women, it is highly likely there would not have been White Rose resistance.

We need deeper and more meaningful biographies of these women. Read on to learn why.

https://deniseelaineheap.substack.com/p/strong-women

01/22/2024

Note their names.

In the fourth White Rose leaflet, Hans Scholl adopted a very theological POV. He had only recently sat at the feet of a prominent, though banned from publication, theologian named Theodor Haecker. Haecker's influence comes through clearly in Leaflet 4. It's almost as if Hans Scholl wanted postwar Germany to be a theocracy.

However.

This otherwise disjointed leaflet closes with strong words that have inspired thousands upon thousands over the past eighty years. Countless t-shirts in a Babel of languages bear its final remarks. "We will not keep silent. We are your guilty conscience. The White Rose will not let you alone!"

As much as I dislike this particular leaflet (impractical, flighty, elitist), Hans Scholl also penned a sentiment that the Allies did NOT take to heart after VE-Day in 1945. "Do not forget even the little scoundrels of this regime. Note their names, so that no one escapes! After all these atrocities, they should not be able to change sides at the last minute and thereby pretend as though nothing had happened!"

Our denazification laws - as well as subsequent de-Baathification policies, and previous laws regarding those who had renounced American citizenship to become Confederates - allowed high-ranking N**is to remain in critical positions of power. Not just political or judicial, but also as directors of contemporary history nonprofits, determining how the history of 1933-45 was taught in German (and US) schools.

We need to figure this out. Clearly what we have been doing is not working.

Fourth leaflet of the White Rose: "Do not forget even the little scoundrels of this regime. Note their names, so that no one escapes!"

01/19/2024

Two weeks ago, I determined I would post on this page 3-4 times a week. I'm not looking for a job. I am not trying to drum up translation or accounting business.

But in 2024, I *do* want to hand off Center for White Rose Studies to the next generation. I want my work to outlive me. By a lot. And that will require getting eyes on our work.

Of course, almost immediately I got sick. Nothing fatal. Just enough to make me realize that this "hand-off" is critical for 2024.

Here is bullet list of 2024 goals. If you're interested in working with us on anything, you know where to find me!

*Finishing digital version of White Rose History, Volume II. Print version has been available since 2002/2003.
*Acquiring additional archival materials.
*Finding permanent home for Center for White Rose Studies.
*Publishing remaining Protokolle (trial and Gestapo interrogation transcripts, plus other primary source documents for Traute Lafrenz, Christoph Probst, Susanne Hirzel, Hans Hirzel, Robert and Magdalena Scholl).
*Going after plagiarists. Giving plagiarists fair warning!

In the meantime, maybe next week I can actually start with posting 3-4 times per week!

Finishing digital version of White Rose History, Volume 2; finding a permanent home for CWRS; acquiring additional archival materials... honoring White Rose friends and family.

01/04/2024

We were all sitting in a big conference room in Bremerhaven, learning Fulbright rules and expectations before heading off to our individual universities. Seventy Americans, most seeing Germany up close and personal for the first time.

Somehow, I fell in with a nice Jewish boy whose Fulbright focused on, "Jewish life in Germany thirty years after the war." Oh, I know how we fell in together. My topic was "Humor in German literature." Both topics seemed a bit... odd.

During that orientiation, Eric and I took most of our meals together. While most Fulbrighters studied obscure Goethe texts or Leibniz's theodicy-mathematics, we were more interested in the soul, the heartbeat of this country that had inflicted such a grievous injustice on the European Jewish community, on Roma, Sinti, dissidents, and more, and that had - in the meantime - become the strongest ally of the USA and Israel.

Eric was among the few in that group who had already been to Germany. Over dinner, he told of going to see a Marx Brothers' movie in Germany. He had practically memorized dialog from all those classics, so he held his breath, ready to burst out into laughter when Groucho says, "It's all right, that's in every contract. That's what they call a sanity clause." To which Chico replies, "You can't fool me! There ain't no Sanity Claus!"

Only in the German version of Night at the Opera that Eric saw, Groucho said, "Das nennt man eine Vernunftklausel (sanity clause)." To which Chico replied, "Es gibt doch keine Vernunftklausel." Totally missing the joke.

Often it's the nuances that trip us up when working in another language. Matters not whether it's business or historical research or politics. Understanding nuances matters.

If you're reading German financial statements for a US-loan application, and the German CFO doesn't use the standard verbiage for fixed assets or current liabilities, ask why. Should you study a religious pamphlet, notice usage of fromm vs. gläubig. The first is negative, the second positive, both meaning pious. In a political document, it makes a difference whether the author says Tyrann or Tyrannei or Tyrannis. Nuances. Tyrant, tyranny, or the system of tyranny. Author is placing culpability on person, government, or political system.

International work is not for the faint of heart, regardless of your specialty. Google Translate may be decent for rough translations, but avoid relying on it when things matter.

Because the devil is most certainly in the details.



Photo: Unknown Author, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

For specific example of how nuances matter, read White Rose Leaflet #6, penned by Kurt Huber. https://www.white-rose-studies.org/pages/leaflet-6

01/02/2024

Willi Graf and friends, 3 Jan 43: 'What if we win the war, God forbid? Then resistance will be more necessary than ever. We are dead either way.'

The first week of 1943, the students and older friends of the White Rose set about the task of expanding their circle. They understood that if they were to effect the change their country desperately needed, they needed more than 30-50 workers. What if 2% of the population would join the resistance? What then? Would there be hope? But 2% = 1.5 million. How could they convince that many fellow citizens?

In fact, as they recruited among childhood and high school friends, they encountered one brick wall after another. People who had long cursed Hi**er, had said someone should DO SOMETHING!, when approached with the opportunity to, well, do something, they turned their backs. Too hard. Too risky.

It is the fact that the smaller group stayed with it, continued to proclaim to neighbors and acquaintances that their own country was committing unthinkable atrocities, that makes their unsuccessful attempt at regime change so poignant. The Gestapo estimated that 180 persons in total were involved with White Rose resistance. I've identified 95. That means 85 to go.

That first week of 1943, Christoph, Sophie, and Hans had no way of knowing they had 53 days to live. Schurik and Prof. Huber would have brushed off suggestions that their days would be numbered at 194. Willi may not have been surprised at the brevity of his remaining life - after all, he was considering *active* resistance, which had higher probability of death - but even he would not have expected that he had 285 days left from the moment he sat with Heinz and Willi Bollinger in their Saarbrücken living room, tentatively broaching the topic of their working with the Munich students to produce leaflets.

Had any of them known, it would not have changed what they did those first six days of January 1943. If anything, they likely would have worked harder, not less. Nor would it have affected Traute, Katharina, Geyer, Grimminger, and the rest. They were all in. No turning back.

Few of us - few people on this planet - undertake something so firmly believed in that we are willing to risk death in 53, or 194, or 285 days. But! Where that happens, nothing stays the same.

That's the only way to change this tired old world. Tikkun olam.

Willi Graf and friends, 3 Jan 43: "What if we win the war, God forbid? Then resistance will be more necessary than ever. We are dead either way."