Gossip about leaflets

Question: When and through whom did you first learn of the leaflet “The White Rose”? What did you have to do with this matter?

Answer: Last summer around the middle of July, Miss Traute Lafrenz, medical student (residence in Munich unknown) with whom I am well acquainted, gave me a leaflet entitled “Leaflet of the White Rose” to read during a break between lectures at the university. As far as I know, this leaflet had the number IV (Roman numeral) at the top.

I believe I can still remember that as Lafrenz was giving me this document, she told me that she had received it either that day or several days earlier. The document was mailed to her in an envelope.

As I was reading through this leaflet, my brother– and if I recall correctly, the student Hubert Furtwängler (a nephew of the famous conductor) from the Black Forest, address unknown – was standing next to me. They read the leaflet over my shoulder.

My brother did not let on either through his demeanor, facial expressions, or remarks that he had anything to do with this document, that is with its production and distribution.

Even while I was reading it, I asked the people standing around what the title “The White Rose” could possibly mean. If I recall correctly, my brother said that during the French revolution, the exiled aristocracy used a white rose as a symbol on their flags.

A few days later, I was talking to my brother once again about this leaflet. When I asked him who he thought the author of the leaflet could possibly be, he said it was not a good thing to ask about the writer [of the leaflet], because in so doing, the writer could be endangered.

I did not see or hear anything else related to the leaflet “The White Rose” in any manner. I must strongly dispute the accusation that I had even the least to do with the writing, the production, or the distribution of this document. In July 1942, a rumor was spreading among the student body – and I do not remember who told me about it back then – that the disseminator of the “White Rose” had been caught, that is, arrested, sentenced, and executed.

==========

Ed. note: Although most of the above was a falsehood used as cover, leaving it in here. There’s probably a grain of truth (e.g., about Hubert’s seeing the leaflet) in Sophie Scholl’s story. – Collecting all such stories about the first four leaflets as of date July 1, 1942.

==========

Source: Third interrogation of Sophie Scholl, February 20, 1943