With You There Is Light: Based on the True Story about Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel

by Alexandra Lehmann

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He told her what he witnessed. What she did with the truth changed history.

As a founding member of the White Rose student resistance in Munich during World War II, Sophie Scholl helped write, produce and distribute thousands of anti-Nazi leaflets all over Southern Germany and Austria.

Sophie's boyfriend, Captain Fritz Hartnagel, served on the Western and Eastern fronts. Fritz witnessed SS and army atrocities and wrote Scholl about them. This information propelled Sophie deeper into political activism against their country's dictator. Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel's relationship demonstrates the moral complexity of living in a totalitarian society, and is ultimately, a love story.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

306 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 2016

About the author

Alexandra Lehmann received her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from the State University of New York at Albany in Political Science and German. Her German fluency is born of heritage and studying Germanistik at universities in Wuerzburg, Braunschweig, and Munich.​​ After nearly a decade of working in New York City as a copywriter and in Munich as a translator, Alexandra continued her Masters of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing from Sarah Lawerence College in Bronxville, New York. She completed her graduate thesis under the guidance of Vijay Seshadri. It compared the letters and diaries of Sophie Scholl and Anne Frank. Yad Vashem in Jerusalem requested a copy for their research library.

With a Fulbright Scholarship, Alexandra began archival research in Germany for "With You There Is Light." She won a fellowship to the Wesleyan Writers' Conference and has guest lectured on German Resistance history at St. Paul's German Church in New York City, Mt. Holyoke College and Western Connecticut State University.

She works as a business writer and lives in Connecticut. Praise for the author can be found in the book.

Reviews

[Marquise · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think that the idea of showing a lesser-known side to Sophie Scholl, that of her relationship with Fritz Hartnagel in the context of her evolution from childish support for Hitler to informed resistance as a grown-up, is very neat and one that would interest many other readers, as it did me.

But Alexandra Lehmann didn't handle this premise well. Historicity here is correct, for the most part, but the way the author presents Sophie and Fritz's story is terrible. The writing itself is bad enough, but is made even worse by the bad storytelling. There's an awkward presentation of the sequence of events, one thing happens and then another thing follows right after that without the first scene ending. Scenes are cut abruptly, like when you go from Sophie distributing leaflets at the Munich University to child Sophie having a "blood oath" ceremony with her girls' group and then abruptly throwing the reader into a town party one year later where she meets Hartnagel. The author simply has no idea of how to tell a story, she often leaves a scene mid-sentence, cannot write good dialogue, and leaves huge plotholes because she simply can't connect one event with the next or fill in the gaps that history left. The result is that the narration is one clunky and disjointed recitation of events in the correct timeline but told as if the writer wants to check boxes in a "this happened, then this happened too, and this other thing happened next" way. It's made the book frankly unreadable.

To make things worse, there seems to be an attempt to make up for the poor writing and storytelling by liberally splattering excerpts from Sophie and Fritz's surviving letters in-between scenes. Is this supposed to be a historical novel or a novelised biography? Whichever the intention was, this book doesn't succeed at either.

And as a final kick, at least for me, the author makes the same mistake as a gazillion other authors have: improper use of a foreign language. For the love of all that's holy, why can't authors just stop doing this? I am speaking, of course, of this stupid habit of having your character say a phrase in a foreign language, and then immediately make them say the same thing in English in the same sentence. How on Earth would Sophia Magdalena Scholl, a native German speaker, say something like "Kommen hier her, come here." when addressing a group of other native German speakers?! The ridiculousness of this never ceases to annoy.

I wouldn't recommend this novel, better to either read the original letters that survived and were published by Sophie's sister, or a better novel about the White Rose, like the one by Emily Ann Putzke.

[Bill P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth reading, enjoyed it very much.
I found this to be an excellent story
with a good pace and strong imagery that had me feeling that I was eavesdropping on Sophie’s life as well as a terrible point in history. I also found the story to be timely and a chilling reminder of what can happen to a society when free speech is suppressed, the press aligns with a government and people are afraid to speak out about the abuses of power. It’s all here.

[Markus · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I am (variously) interested in the Second World War and the German resistance movements therein, included but not limited to the White Rose, I struggled to finish reading this book, i.e. The primary issue(s) for me were the style of writing and approaching this story through a romantic lens and/or as historical fiction in the form of a romance novel. Unfortunately, I think the writing style and romantic approach diminished the story of the White Rose and, therein, the stories of Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel rather than illuminating the story and their stories (in their personal, relational, and historical dimensions). That said, I think this was a fairly well researched work of historical fiction become romance novel (most particularly in drawing from the surviving journals and/or letters), and I hope this style of writing and type of (romance) approach is a helpful and useful door through which others might learn about the story of the White Rose, the stories of Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel, and the ongoing importance and relevance that their lives and these stories have for our contemporary world...

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: goodreads giveaway winner

I really enjoyed this book, and as always, stories of those standing up to evil is inspiring. The use of diaries and letters add authenticity to the story. Unfortunately, sticking to that also leaves holes in the story and I don't see a way to fill them.

It did leave me with questions (what happened to the other members of the White Rose?).

Also, considering it was the basis for a grad student's paper, I was disappointed in the number of spelling and grammar mistakes that were included. Granted, some could be the result of translation from the original German.... but the author is noted as speaking the language fluently.

[lola Franco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm biased, because I knew the author growing up. I ordered the book awhile ago and just picked it up again, and finished it quickly.

I love reading both fiction and non-fiction from this era, and I think Lehmann did a wonderful job telling the story of Scholl and Hartnagel, and the White Rose Society - which I knew little about until the past few years. I particularly appreciated the translations of their letters. I wish there had been more photographs.

We need to know more about the resisters of evil in the world.

[Alison Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it was first released, and was captivated by the historical depth and texture, the way in which the author finely elaborated on deeply interior sense-feelings of the characters throughout their development. I enjoy the interpersonal aspects of their history, for me, in the end, this is so much a part of the story, it fills in so much and makes these events live on far beyond the reading of the book. Highly recommend.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters. I am very interested in the White Rose movement and Sophie Scholl, but this book is very disjointed and poorly written. I will need to find another book on this topic. Any recommendations?

[Lucinda Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

Such a sad but very inspiring story. Hard to imagine living under Nazi rule but through Sophie's eyes we learn the terror ..... & then feel the strong determination of one young German woman who has a strong belief in God and her country..

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a confusing book in terms of the genre choice of the author and not nearly as good a book as it should have been. Find out more at www.cloquetriverpress.com. My actual rating is 2 and 1/2 stars.
Peace
Mark

[Athena Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

inside look at the makings of The White Rose Society and proest against Nazism National Socialism. a look at what free speech SHOULD be and how our simplest "rights" can be stripped away if no one steps up

[Richard Hessney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess to a certain bias because I know the author and how hard she labored on this historical novel. Still, I've read a lot of historical fiction and With You There Is Light is a high-quality work in terms of its themes (resistance to an evil regime and romance doomed by the ravages of war), memorable characters, dramatic tension, historical accuracy, creative imagination and readability. The role of Fritz Hartnagel in laying the groundwork for Sophie Scholl's active resistance, along with her brother Hans and others in the White Rose group, is finally given its just due. Sophie needs to be better known among freedom-loving people everywhere, and this fine book contributes greatly to that goal.

[Lavonna Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad that I stumbled upon this book...not only was it a very engaging, active narrative of Sophie and Fritz's experience as told by letters and diary entries, but it also gave a glimpse into the perspectives of other notable White Rose members such as Hans, Alex, Willi and Christoph. This book quickly held my attention, was easy to read and offered wonderful insights into a few of my favourite Germans. I am going to share this with my German clubs at University - it is highly recommended.