Traudl Junge and Sophie Scholl: Two Young Women in Nazi Germany, Part 2 - Starting Their Paths

Traudl Junge (lewisheatonbooks.com)

Sophie Scholl (livesofthedissidents.com)

Continued from Part 1

Once at university, Sophie would eventually join the White Rose movement. The White Rose movement did not start out as an anti-Nazi movement. In fact, it was a group of students - mostly medical students, and mostly male -who had several things in common. They started getting together in about 1939. Sophie’s brother Hans read a sermon given by Nazi critic Bishop August von Galen in 1941. Eventually, the subject among the group came to politics, and by the summer 1942, they determined they were all against the Nazis That was the formation of the White Rose movement. Sophie begged to join, but her brother tried in vain to protect her by keeping her out. Finally, Hans brought Sophie into the group.

The group expressed their dissent by sending out leaflets or the leaflets of the White Rose,. They had a typewriter, acquired a hand-cranked duplicating machine, and managed to get paper. Possession of all these things was dangerous, and the group knew full well what the consequences could be.. Sophie would go to various post offices to buy stamps. If someone bought too many stamps all at one time, that would arouse suspicion. The first leaflet was Bishop Galen’s sermon.

In 1942, the Nazi’s were trying to keep the med students from being idle, so they implemented a program: service on the Russian front for three months. The idea was that they would have experience under fire and serve in field hospitals. But these young men who were already opposed to the Nazis saw the various atrocities committed in the East. They also saw very worn-down German soldiers. What they saw no doubt also fortified their confidence in the rightness of their cause.

By December, 1942, Traudl Junge was ready to embark on a dance career. She had been a secretary, which she had seen as means to an end. It would be a way of making a living until she could live her dream. But Germany at that time had a law that allowed a worker to change employers only if her employers approved. But Traudl was apparently too valued an employee, and her employer would not let her go. Traudl was angry, thinking that her employer stood in the way between her and the life of a dancer.

While she saw her life as stagnant, her sister Inge knew Albert Bormann (brother of Martin Bormann) and that there was an opportunity for her in the Reich Chancellery. This would trump her employer and Traudl could hope for some revenge. It wasn’t at this point she met Hitler, for he was conducting military operations in the Wolfschanze, or “Wolf’s Lair” in East Prussia. She describes herself as looking to keep herself busy.

Then the opportunity of a lifetime (at least for a German at that time) came: Hitler needed a personal secretary. She and nine of her co-workers were selected to to be tested - mainly on dictation - for Hitler. Out of the ten, Traudl was chosen, although she had a little probationary period to go through.

Traudl Junge was officially made Hitler’s secretary on January 30. Her first job was dictating a speech celebrating Hitler’s coming into power - 10 years prior in 1933, when then-President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor. A major event she doesn’t record until weeks afterward occurred the very next day: the defeat at Stalingrad. This could not be kept from the German people, and it was thus announced on February 3, 1943. Thus began the downward spiral for Nazi Germany, even though it would not be apparent to the average German.

Where Traudl Junge was cautioned not to bring up Stalingrad in front of Hitler, Stalingrad encouraged the White Rose movement. Although they already thought that Germany would lose the war from what they saw, the defeat was another confirmation of Germany’s defeat. That was the second event that encouraged them.

The first happened on January 13 when the Gauleiter (a Nazi party-appointed governor-like position) for Bavaria spoke and said essentially that young women should be home producing sons than attending university. That caused a lot of women to start for the door and the Gauleiter called for the Gestapo to arrest them. The students, many of them in uniform, then took the student leader hostage until the Gauleiter had his men let the women go..

So, fully fired up, Hans Scholl and some others decided to go painting slogans aand crossed-out swastikas on buildings on Ludwigstrasse and the University. On the 3rd, 8th, and the 15th, they did just that., using tar and black paint.

On February 18, Hans and Sophie Scholl enter the atrium at the University of Munich with a suitcase to distribute the sixth leaflet, many copies of which they had already mailed.. Classes are in session, so the halls are empty.  They plant piles outside each of the classroom doors. After doing this, Sophie realizes they still have more, so they both head upstairs to distribute more leaflets. At this point, Sophie throws some leaflets out over the balcony onto the atrium. This would seal their fate and the fate of the White Rose. A janitor spots them, and they are taken in by the Gestapo. They are interrogated intensely. Finally, Hans confesses. Sophie, upon learning this, took full responsibility. Later the Scholl siblings are joined by Christoph Probst, who was only apprehended because his handwriting for what might have been the seventh leaflet was found on Hans. Hans was trying to destroy it while he and Sophie were in Gestapo custody.


Next: Trials

Non-Internet Sources:

1. Traudl Junge and Melissa Müller. Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary pp. 28-29, 
2. Franz Muller, Interview, Sophie Scholl: DIe Letzen Tage (The Last Days) - Special Features