“White Rose” leaflets

I learned about the “White Rose” leaflet for the first time through the poet Dr. Schwarz, who lives in Solln. He received this anonymously through the mail and turned it over to the Secret State Police [Gestapo] when he received it. I do not recall any specifics regarding the content of the leaflet. I believe this has to do with the first leaflet, in case he received the second one as well.

To this day, I do not know whether he received a second leaflet as well. I heard about the dissemination of this leaflet from a colleague, Jörgen [sic] Wittenstein, currently in the Student Company at the Bergmannschule.

As far as I know, my colleague Hubert Furtwängler, currently in the Student Company at the Bergmannschule, has also heard about this leaflet.

If I am now being accused of having been shown such a leaflet by the female student Traude Lafrenz, residing in Munich at Steinsdorf Str. 7, I will admit that it is possible that this happened, but I cannot recall that event at this time.

It is also possible that I – along with several other persons – read this leaflet in a corridor of the university. I cannot recall anything further today.

The accused was confronted with the fact [Note 1] that it had been possible to determine that the same person wrote the leaflets of “the White Rose” and the leaflets of the Resistance Movement Call to All Germans and Fellow Students!. He was shown that on the one hand, both [sic] leaflets had been typed on the same typewriter; and on the other, that the political concepts of all the leaflets were the same, leading to the compelling conclusion that the accused had also written the leaflet [Note 2] of the White Rose. Once he was confronted with these facts, he declared that he was [now] willing to make a candid and complete confession.

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Note 1: There are no grammatical indications – e.g., quotation marks or special offset of the paragraph – to prepare the ‘reader’ for the transition from first-person confession to third-person accusation. Same with next paragraph.

Note 2: Singular.

Editor’s note: Difficult to know how to “date” this. Used the date of the publication of the last “White Rose” leaflet as a placeholder date. – Most critical: This interrogation documents the moment that the Gestapo realized that White Rose leaflets had been produced by the same group that produced the Leaflets of the Resistance (leaflets #5 and #6).

But included here as well because Hans Scholl is documenting the people who told him they knew about White Rose, which indicates they were outside the circle of friends who produced the leaflets.

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Source: Hans Scholl’s fourth interrogation, February 20, 1943