Hans Scholl and the Weisse Rose: An Aspect of Medical Resistance During the Third Reich

HANS SCHOLL AND THE WEISSE ROSE: AN ASPECT OF MEDICAL RESISTANCE DURING THE THIRD REICH CLAUS A. PIERACH* "Hans" was brought out first. He wore prison garb. He walked with ease and upright and nothing diminished his appearance. His face was thin and emaciated as if after a hard struggle. Affectionately he bent over the barrier and shook hands. ? have no hatred. I'm done with everything.' My father embraced him and said, 'You all will go down in history, there is justice after all.'" And it continues moments later "Hans, as he put his head on the block, yelled and it could be heard in the vast prison 'Freedom may live!'". So describes his sister, Inge, the death of Hans Scholl in 1943 [1, pp. 63-64]. Who was Hans Scholl? Born in 1918 just a few weeks before World War I came to an end, he was one of five children. His family lived in southern Germany, where his father was an employee ofvarious branches of government , at that time mayor of the small town of Ingersheim an der Jagst, where Hans was born. Hans' mother was a nurse who had met his father during World War I, when he, being a conscientious objector, had been drafted to serve as a medical orderly in a military hospital. Hans' oldest sister, Inge, later wrote in her famous book about the White Rose that her father was early in opposition to the Nazis, a circumstance that surely led to discussions and tensions within the family, since his children were at least early ardent supporters of the Nazi movement and actively involved in it. Hans joined the Hitler Youth and felt honored by being selected to carry their flag into the large Party convention at Nuremberg in 1935, when he was just 17 years old. The flavor and atmosphere of that convention are vividly described by the French Ambassador André François-Poncet, an observer at that overwhelmingly huge meeting, who wrote: "Remarkable *Abbott Northwestern Hospital, 800 East 28th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55407. Substantial help, clarification, and encouragement generously offered by Dr. Traute Page, née Lafrenz, a member of the Weisse Rose, is acknowledged with profound gratitude.© 1996 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0031-5982/97/3904-0979101.00 274 Claus A. Pierach ¦ Medical Resistance in Third Reich and not describable, this atmosphere of common enthusiasm, a peculiar intoxication, gripping hundreds and thousands of men and women, a romantic excitement, an almost mystic ecstasy, a kind of holy hallucination" [2, p. 20]. However, Hans must have returned disillusioned, since shortly thereafter he resisted the change of the flag in his Hitler Youth troup. When he was ordered to accept the swastika on the flag, he slapped his superior in the face and was promptly demoted from his leadership position in this Nazi youth organization. One could see his early and active involvement in the Nazi movement as comparable to a rabies vaccination. The intensity of the exposure heightened his awareness and showed him firsthand where the real and the potential dangers of this movement lay: in the leveling and shameless disregard of the individual, in the elimination of opposing views, and in the employ of mass hysteria to change people's minds. Hans Scholl must have changed his course within the HitlerYouth, since other youth organizations were already outlawed and usurped by the Nazi movement. Nevertheless, there existed a sort of underground movement within the official Hitler Youth, wherein some members attempted to do "their thing" [personal communication, T. Page]. As a recruit in the cavalry he was jailed for five weeks in 1937 in Stuttgart, leading to complete disillusionment; he wrote to his mother: "nobody can touch the purity of our thoughts. Our inner power and strength is our strongest weapon" [3, p. 15]. He further regretted in his letter having brought distress to his family . A general amnesty in 1938 cleared his record, so that he could begin to study medicine. Why did he study medicine? A partial yet most revealing answer can be found in one of his many letters, from 5 January 1943: I really didn't know why I study medicine. What...