Gestapo summary memorandum

Secret State Police [Gestapo]

State Police Headquarters Munich – Munich, February 20, 1943

Regarding: Scholl Hans Fritz, single, medical student – Born September 22, 1918 in Ingersheim – With regards to preparation for high treason

In the night of January 28/29, 1943, approximately 1300 leaflets of the so-called “Resistance Movement” were distributed in the city of Munich. The leaflets had been produced by duplication process.

Publications of the same name were posted in standard envelopes on January 25, 1943 in Augsburg, on January 26, 1943 in Salzburg, on January 27, 1943 in Vienna, on January 27 and 28, 1943 in Stuttgart, and likewise on January 27, 1943 in Linz/Danube.

On February 16, 1943, several hundred treasonous leaflets with the title “Fellow Students!” were mailed from several post offices in Munich as so-called “bulk mail” or as regular post. In several of these mailings, the leaflet named above was accompanied by another of the “Resistance Movement”.

In the night of February 3/4, 1943, 29 places in Munich were plastered with the words “Down With Hitler” and a swastika that was crossed out twice. The graffiti was applied using a stencil and black tar-based paint. In addition, the word “Freedom” was applied to the university building.

In the night of February 8/9, 1943, the words “Down with Hitler” with a crossed-out swastika were painted on the university building, this time using green oil-based paint. The word “Freedom” was painted four times on the university building.

In the night of February 15/16, 1943, the words “Down with Hitler” and “Hitler the Mass Murderer” were painted on Hugendubel Bookstore on Salvatorplatz in 30 to 40 cm high letters [12” – 16”] (total area 1 x 1.5 m [3-1/3’ x 6’]), using black tar-based paint. There were 4 more locations in the downtown area where the inscription “Down with Hitler” along with a crossed-out swastika had been painted.

[Note 1] On February 18, 1943 around 11:15 am, Jakob Schmid, who resides at Türken Str. 33/I and is the maintenance man employed by the University of Munich, was making his rounds. He noticed that a large quantity of leaflets was thrown off the third floor platform of the university’s Lichthof. Schmid immediately made his way to the place in question and determined that the student Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie Scholl were the presumptive perpetrators, since no one else was nearby.

The University of Munich’s Chief Privy Councilor Hefner immediately advised the State Police Headquarters in Munich of this incident. They immediately occupied the university building (which had been sealed off in the meantime), together with a large number of municipal police officials. Several hundred leaflets with the inscriptions “Fellow Students!” or “German Students” were seized in the university building. The Scholl siblings that Schmid pointed out as the perpetrators were apprehended and taken to State Police Headquarters in Munich. It was not possible to identify potential co-conspirators during an inspection in the university building.

Late on the evening of February 18, 1943, the student Wilhelm Graf and his sister Anneliese Graf were taken into temporary custody as acquaintances of the Scholl siblings, with regards to suspicion of complicity in the treasonous intrigues of the Scholl siblings. Additional acquaintances of the Scholl siblings – the student Gisela Schertling and the pupil Otto Aicher – were likewise taken into temporary custody. However, both of them were later released, since a criminal offense could not be linked to either of them.

On February 20, 1943, the student whom Scholl named as his assistant – Christoph Hermann Probst – was taken into custody in Innsbruck on orders from this bureau. He was transferred here.

The other assistant named by Scholl – the student Alexander Schmorell – is currently a fugitive. Search measures have been initiated.

/Initialed: Schm. [Note 2]/

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Note 1: This entire page is marked as important by means of double lines down the left-hand margin. The bolded portions were also underlined by a Gestapo agent.

Note 2: Likely Schmauβ.

Note 3: It’s probable that Schmauβ prepared this memorandum for the prosecutor, who still had to draft an indictment against Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst.

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Source: ZC13267 (20 – 21)