Traudl Junge and Sophie Scholl: Two Young Women in Nazi Germany, Part 3 - Trials

Traudl Junge (tumblr.com)

L to R: Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst (jewishvirtuallibrary.com)

Continued from Part 2

Four days later, on February 22nd, the three White Rose defendants, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst, appeared before the so-called people’s court, presided over by Roland Freisler. This was a show trial, as were all trials that came before Freisler. The outcome could never really be in doubt. Freisler was infamous for verbal abuse screaming among other things, personal insults, and other means of showmanship. Although we have no footage of Sophie’s trial, we do have an example of Freisler’s courtroom demeanor. Here he is shown berating one of the conspirators involved in the botched July 20, 1944 attempt on Hitler’s life. Like all defendants was dressed plainly because showing up dressed magnificently in a business suit or a uniform doesn’t help the propaganda value.

It must have been as intimidating for Sophie and her co-defendants but Hans held his own and Sophie was able to say this:

Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did.

At another point in her trial, she made this bold statement:

You know the war is lost. Why don't you have the courage to face it?

When asked for closing statement she said “Where we stand today, you will stand soon.” She might have been right, had Freisler not been killed in an Allied air raid in February, 1945 while the “People’s Court” was in session.

“Justice” was brutally swift.  The Scholls and Probst were sentenced to death and later that same day, they went to the guillotine. Several more of their associates would be tried and some like them would be executed.

Traudl Junge at this time went to the Berghof, Hitler’s retreat in the Bavarian Alps.  She was at the Wolf’s Lair when the attempt on Hitler’s life took place, and thought it horrible that they might not have a leader. And she spent the last days of the Third Reich in the bunker with Hitler. Her last duties: to take his last will and political testament. She thought that finally she could learn the real reason that Germany had lost the war.  Hitler characteristically avoided blame.  Before, he said that National Socialism was dead, yet he was making plans for a successor government. She heard the shot with which he ended his life. She was with the Goebbels children.

Traul was angry with Hitler. As much as it is difficult for most of us to believe, Hitler was gentle to Traudl, almost the kind father figure she had always been lacking. This is how in her words he “cast his spell” over her. She had faith in him that we would lead them to final victory, but he had given up while others were still fighting. She felt betrayed.

Traudl Junge made it out of the bunker, eventually being captured by the Russians. She was in prison for several months. Eventually, with the help of a benefactor to keep her out of prison and by not being caught crossing the border between the Russian zone and the British zone, she eventually made it to Bavaria in the American zone. During the so-called denazification, she would be classified as a fellow traveller, meaning she was innocent of any wrongdoings because of her age. She would live a long life as a secretary and science journalist. She often kept quiet about her war experiences. But she would occasionally appear in films, and she can be seen in an English-speaking interview for the 1970’s British documentary miniseries, The World at War.

We know fully well where Sophie Scholl stood, but Traudl Junge seems more enigmatic, more like an apathetic rather than innocent bystander. Was it the tough family life, the aspirations, the immaturity to not see beyond one’s one immediate world? There is also a message from the Second Leaflet of the White Rose that seems be what the White Rose would say to and about Traudl Junge:

...only by way of example do we want to cite the fact that since the conquest of
Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way. Here we see the most frightful crime against human dignity, a crime that is unparalleled in the whole of history. For Jews, too, are human beings - no matter what position we take with respect to the Jewish question - and a crime of this dimension has been perpetrated against human beings.   Someone may say that the Jews deserved their fate. This assertion would be a monstrous impertinence...

...Why tell you these things, since you are fully aware of them - or if not of these, then of other equally grave crimes committed by this frightful sub-humanity? Because here we touch on a problem which involves us deeply and forces us all to take thought. Why do the German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? Hardly anyone thinks about that. It is accepted as fact and put out of mind. The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals; they give them the opportunity to carry on their depredations; and of course they do so. Is this a sign that the Germans are brutalized in their simplest human feelings, that no chord within them cried out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal consciencelessness from which they will never, never awake?

 It seems to be so, and will certainly be so, if the German does not at least start up out of his stupor, if he does not protest wherever and whenever he can against this clique of criminals, if he shows no sympathy for these hundreds of thousands of victims....For through his apathetic behavior he gives these evil men the opportunity to act as they do; he tolerates this "government" which has taken upon itself such an infinitely great burden of guilt;indeed, he himself is to blame for the fact that it came about at all! Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!

Sophie Scholl demonstrates an example of resistance - non-violent and symbolic, being that her movement did not really affect change in her time. But it must have certainly alamrmed the authorities, as The White Rose was physically broken up and their actions were never really supported by the University of Munich students.  Nevertheless, she has become a German national hero. She is immortalized in memorials, sculpture, photographs, and even postage stamps. Traudl Junge comes to us as really someone without whom we might not know the full details of the bunker as soon as we did. But there’s that disturbing element that she really had the opportunity to know more than she claimed to. She was very critical of herself for this, almost to her dying day. Perhaps it is safe to say that it is the fervent wish of every decent human being that no circumstances would exist that would set the stage set for either path either young woman took.

Older Traudl Junge (imdb.com)

The Scholl gravesite outside Stadelheim Prison (findagrave.com)

Non-Internet Sources:

1. Traudl Junge and Melissa Müller. Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary pp. 42, 115, 128-130, 183-184, 187, 218, 222-226
2. Atwood, Katherine J. Women Heroes of World Wat II, (Chicago,Chicago Review Press, Inc. 2011, pp. 21-22

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 

Traudl Junge and Sophie Scholl: Two Young Women in Nazi Germany, Part 1: Growing Up

Traudl Junge (guardian.co.uk)

 Sophie Scholl (nibis.ni.shule.de)

    

At the end of the German movie Downfall and the German documentary Blind Spot, an elderly Traudl Junge is being interviewed. The same footage is in both films. If the name sounds familiar, it is because she is known as a secretary to Adolf Hitler. So naturally, the question often becomes what did she know and when did she know it? She states she knew nothing and didn’t really care to know anything at the time. But she also states she realizes that was wrong. Reflecting on her experience, she says:

Of course the horrors, of which I heard in connection of the Nuremberg trials, the fate of the 6 million Jews, their killing and those of many others who represented different races and creeds, shocked me greatly, but at that time I could not see any connection between these things and my own past. I was only happy that I had not personally been guilty of these things and that I had not been aware of the scale of these things. However, one day I walked past a plaque that on the Franz-Joseph Straße (in Munich), on the wall in memory of Sophie Scholl. I could see that she had been born the same year as I, and that she had been executed the same year when I entered into Hitler’s service. And at that moment I really realised, that it was no excuse that I had been so young. I could perhaps have tried to find out about things.

There’s almost a challenge being thrown out to compare Traudl Junge with Sophie Scholl.. This is not the first time such a comparison is done, but I’m hoping to get into a little more depth in such a way that we can compare the backgrounds and see what set them on their separate paths. Such a comparison would be of the apples vs. oranges type, but there might be some patterns. What made Sophie Scholl a dissenter and Traudl Junge anywhere from a bystander to a willing accomplice?

Traudl Junge was born Gertraud “Traudl” Humps on March 16, 1920 . She would be the older of two sisters. Her father, Max Humps, was a master brewer. This meant that he did not own a brewery but rather simply worked in one. In 1922, Humps lost his job. He would eventually find activity with a group known as the Freikorps Oberland that collaborated with the NSDAP, or..yes...Nazi for short. He actually participated in Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, but he was so low on the totem pole that he didn’t face trial. In 1925, he found brewing work in Istanbul and left his family behind. Without any income, Traud’s mother moves in with her parents.

It bears emphasizing that although Max Junge was a member of the Nazi party, he was very much an absentee father as to not have a great influence on Traudl. The closest Traudl Junge got to a father figure was her maternal grandfather: an autocrat, very stern, cold, and abusive. As far as his worldview, he was apolitical and recognized the authority of whoever was in power..

Sophia Magdalena Scholl was born on May 9, 1921 in Forchtenberg where her father was mayor. They lived in a nice apartment in the town hall. Her father was a conscientious objector in the First World War. So here we have her father political and idealistic form the outstart. Her childhood can be described as happy. After her father lost his bid for reelection, the family eventually settled in Ulm in 1933. Ulm was not enthusiastic about Hitler, and when Hitler came to power in 1933, there were no celebrations, unlike other places in Germany.

Both girls joined the the League of German Girls BDM (Bund Deutscher Mädel), and would eventually become leaders within the BDM. Sophie became disillusioned. She was aware that many people around her, teachers, other girls, and especially her father, were not too keen on the Nazis. Traudl, who was uninterested in the political part of National Socialism, saw it as a vehicle for her to express her love of dancing. She got to do this at the a festival called “The NIght of the Amazon’s.” This was a festival with pageantry that would be unusual to us. It, among other things, featured equestrians, dancers, and nude women, to show off the pure Aryan female form, of course.

Sophie Scholl’s father was put into prison for denouncing Hitler. It was said to one of his employees: "this Hitler is God's scourge on mankind, and if this war doesn't end soon the Russians will be sitting in Berlin." The employee denounced him to the Gestapo. This had an impact on Sophie.

In order for Sophie Scholl to fulfill the prerequisite for admittance into university, she needed to put in six months of national service. Eventually, she became a nursery school teacher. Finally, she was admitted to the University of Munich.

Next: The young women choose their paths

Non-Internet Sources:

1. Traudl Jung, interview by Andre Heller, “Blind Spot (Im toten Winkel),” 2001.
2. Junge, Traudl and Melissa Müller. Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary. (Munich: Ullstein Heyn List, GmbH & Co. KG, 2002.), pp.8-11, 14, 16,