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Gestapo Interrogation Transcripts: Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, and Sophie Scholl. ZC13267.

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This book contains all documents from ZC13267 that pertain to the four core friends of the White Rose. The focus in this volume is primarily on Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl.

Organization follows the prosecutor's initial scheme.

Volume 1, documents that applied to the entire group of White Rose These include Professor Harder's two psychological profiles of the authors of the White Rose leaflets, and interrogations of Jakob Schmid, Wolff Metternich, and Maria Berrsche. A letter from Carl Muth to Hans Scholl is also in this section, along with Gestapo memoranda prior to the arrests on February 18, 1943. The saga of the Remington typewriter is found here.

Among the most important documents in this section - indictment, trial transcript, and final verdict with reasoning for the February 22, 1943 trial.

Volume 2 contains all documents related to Hans Scholl's interrogations, beginning with the memorandum regarding the February 18 search of the Scholls' residence, and ending with his arraignment on February 21, 1943. There are a total of five interrogations of this young man.

Volume 3 mirrors Volume 2, except it is for Sophie Scholl. While Hans Scholl's intake questionnaire and initial interrogation took place at two separate times, handled by two different agents, Sophie Scholl's intake questionnaire and initial interrogation flowed almost seamlessly and are part of the same document.

Volume 5 contains the evidence the Gestapo accumulated against the Scholl siblings and Christoph Probst. It includes crime lab reports, especially testing of the typewriters used. It is also thanks to this volume that we have reliable copies of the seven leaflets, since only Professor Huber's leaflet (#6) appears to have survived outside this volume.

Volumes 8 and 10 are the execution volumes for Sophie Scholl and Hans Scholl respectively. In addition to the expected "witness of execution" documents, the "denial of clemency" and "punishment record" reports are included here.

Volumes 11 and 12 are the extraordinarily thin clemency files for Sophie Scholl and Hans Scholl respectively.

Volume 14 contains expense reports for the February 22, 1943 trial. While terribly dry and mundane, these documents provide good firsthand information about the trial and events leading up to it. They are the most accurate accounts of the time the trial began and ended, since the participants were reimbursed on the basis of the time worked.

A great number of the documents contained in this volume are "dry and mundane" - not the stuff of heroic deeds and wise thoughts. But it is precisely in the "dry and mundane" that we perceive the greatness of these In their ability to maneuver around the traps set by persistent Gestapo agent, even when they were dead tired and stretched beyond their human limitations.

Their humanity in the face of evil inspires us to keep working for "liberty and justice for all" in our less-evil era.

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 22, 2003

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Joyce Light

7 books

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