Hartnagel writes Scholl about Belgian Resistance, 1940

belgium-resists

              “With You There Is Light” contains translated excerpts from Fritz Hartnagel’s letters to Sophie Scholl. In this important historical document, Fritz informs Sophie about Belgium resistance. Antwerp, May 18, 1940. My dear Sophie, […] Yesterday I had enormous luck, if one can speak of luck and not of Providence. I was with…

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Hans Scholl (1918-1943)

EXCERPTED FROM “WITH YOU THERE IS LIGHT”: Hans and Sophie’s mother knew what to do. She hurried down the hallway into her son’s room. The voices in the living room grew louder and louder. She grabbed a basket and started tossing books into it. Thomas Mann. Heinrich Heine. George Bernard Shaw. Jack London. Ernest Hemingway.…

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Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemoeller Criticized the “Aryan Paragraph”

Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemoeller Criticized Nazi Policies

Historical Context:  Like most Protestant pastors, Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemoeller was a national conservative, and openly supported the conservative opponents of the Weimar Republic. He welcomed Hitler’s accession to power in 1933, believing that it would bring a national revival. However, he opposed the Nazis’ “Aryan Paragraph“. In 1936, he signed the petition of…

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Fritz Hartnagel Writes to Sophie Scholl, October 1938

Historical Context: October, 1938. German troops invade the Sudetenland (north, southwest and western Czechoslovakia). Jews must identify themselves in their passports with a “J.” Approximately 30,000 German “political suspects/undesirables” flee the Sudetenland; 17,000 German-Polish Jews are deported to the border.  Augsburg, October 21, 1938 Dear Sophie! […] Although it was very difficult in the first days…

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