Posts Tagged ‘Fritz Hartnagel’
Dear Sophie from Fritz Hartnagel, sent from Occupied Poland, February 17, 1943
Context: Captain Fritz Hartnagel was one of the last Officers from the Sixth Army flown out of surrounded Stalingrad. Although this letter exists, it is doubtful that Sophie received it. It was written on the day before her last leaflet protest, capture and arrest. My dear…
Read MoreChristmas Greeting from Stalingrad
Translated here into English for the first time with permission of S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt. To Sophie Scholl from Fritz Hartnagel, December 1942. Yesterday, my dear Sophie, as the Russians fired on our position with heavy artillery and the sirens went berserk, a little bird suddenly sat at the edge of our trench and peeped…
Read MoreReading #4 from “With You There Is Light: Based on the True Story about Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel”
November 17, 2017. Books & Books in Grand Cayman, B.V.I. “Is today’s information overload the opposite problem of censorship?” The interested diverse crowd at my reading in November wanted to talk about Nazi Germany’s censorship and elimination of personal freedoms. We were discussing the Party’s control…
Read MoreWas Fritz Hartnagel a Nazi?
An Often Asked Question Gets Answered Again The last question came from a very bright student at the end of the fifth class I taught at my alma mater on “Sophie Scholl and the German Resistance against Hitler.” She asked, “Was Scholl’s boyfriend, Fritz Hartnagel, a Captain in the Wehrmacht, a Nazi?” During the last…
Read MoreSophie Scholl’s “Library” 1937-1943
Sophie Scholl gave us a very thorough “intellectual history,” often quoting from and mentioning the books she read in her letters and diaries. Sophie decided to engage in “inner emigration” by retreating into literature as the Nazi hold on society grew more restrictive. The Reich Cultural Directorate had declared many of Sophie’s books “degenerate or subversive.” She read…
Read MoreReview by Rebecca Odessa, The Wisdom Daily
When Hitler came to power in the early 1930’s, Nazi ideology pervaded the German education system, leading to the indoctrination of an entire generation. When war enveloped Europe less than a decade later, that same generation trailed their maniacal leader into the abyss. A small group of Munich students, however, refused to follow. Instead, they…
Read MoreEnter to Win a Free Copy of “With You There Is Light” at Goodreads
October 24, 2016. Ridgefield, CT. At the time of this writing, 150 readers have entered the goodreads.com contest for a free copy of “With You There Is Light: Based on the True Story about Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel.” Enter for your free copy here. Goodreads Book Giveaway With You There Is Light by Alexandra…
Read MoreHartnagel writes Scholl about Belgian Resistance, 1940
“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…
Read MoreSophie Scholl Defiantly Enjoyed Art Labeled “Entartete Kunst” (Morally Degenerate)
Historical Context: Summer, 1937. There was no stopping “American Swing” from making its way across the ocean. “Negermusik” was the Nazis’ pejorative term for Jazz and Swing. In July at the newly built “House of German Art,” the Nazi Minister of Culture infamously put on his first exhibit of “degenerate” paintings. Many of these now…
Read MoreCadet Fritz Hartnagel at the Potsdam Military Academy, 1937
“You Shall Know Obedience In Order To Command” Historical Context: 1937. Jehovah’s Witnesses protest the Nazi Party by distributing 70,000 leaflets. Buchenwald near Weimar concentration camp is built. Average unemployment is at 8.3%. EXCERPT FROM “WITH YOU THERE IS LIGHT” by Alexandra Lehmann: Cadet Fritz Hartnagel stared out of the classroom’s window at the sky as…
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