White Rose Read online

  Contents

  * * *

  Title Page

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  The End

  February 18, 1943

  Interrogation

  Before

  1935

  I Know

  The Five of Us

  Clipped

  Gifts for Mother

  Leading by Example

  The Boys’ Camp

  Decree of the Führer

  Our Parents

  1937

  Poetry and Prose

  Christening

  Ripples

  Dance Partners

  Rounded up

  Aftermath

  A Walk in the Woods

  Guilty

  Truth and Lies

  Badly Needed Escape

  1938

  Pen Pals

  The Verdict

  A Surprise Visit

  The North

  Snapshots

  Art Class

  Spilling the Truth

  Deutschland über Alles

  The End

  February 18, 1943

  Robert Mohr, Gestapo Interrogator

  The Mailbox

  Before

  1939

  Springtime Wish

  At the University

  Our New Flat

  A Summer Visit

  Driving Lesson

  War

  Front and Home Front

  P.S.

  Response

  1940

  Toy Soldiers

  Life at the Rear

  Selflessness

  Dark Nights

  The Field Hospital

  Truth in Rumors

  Women’s Work

  Fathers and Sons

  Changes

  Love Letter

  Solitude

  The End

  February 18, 1943

  Innocent

  Before

  1941

  Krauchenwies

  Feelings

  Trapped

  Birthday

  This Is Love

  Student Life

  Sermon by Bishop August von Galen

  Leaflets

  Police Order of the Identification of Jews

  Disappearances

  Winter Relief

  A Prayer

  1942

  Homesick

  Behind Closed Doors

  Mutiny or Loyalty

  My Purpose

  Dangerous Games

  Between the Lines

  The End

  February 19, 1943

  Silenced

  My Confession

  Before

  1942

  Munich Hauptbahnhof

  My Arrival

  The English Garden

  Sunset

  Rumors

  A Prayer

  A Leaflet

  The Future

  Inky Hands

  Another Leaflet

  A Promise

  White Rose

  A Last Respite

  An Apology

  Robert Mohr, Gestapo Investigator

  The End

  February 20, 1943

  Robert Mohr, Gestapo Interrogator

  The New Prisoner

  Before

  1942

  Manfred’s Trip

  Saving Lives

  Expectations

  The Warsaw Ghetto

  The Armament Factory

  The Vast Landscape

  Duplication

  Vati’s Trial

  Factory Life

  Mutti’s Plan

  Suffering and Survival

  Robert Mohr, Gestapo Investigator

  Humans and Monsters

  Visiting Hours

  Thank You

  Intermission

  Dead Boys and Girls

  Decided

  Action

  The Future

  Ominous Autumn

  Ulm Hauptbahnhof

  The Breadwinner

  Arrival in Munich

  Franz-Josef-Strasse

  Too Young

  Alex and Christoph

  The Real Me

  Supplies

  Robert Mohr, Gestapo Investigator

  Day Zero

  February 18, 1943

  Doing Something

  The University

  Willi and Traute

  No Turning Back

  Paper Soldiers

  Hurry

  Escape

  Finishing the Job

  Release

  Before

  1943

  Wartime Wishes

  A New Draft

  A Moral Obligation

  The Gathering

  Dissent

  Robert Mohr, Gestapo Investigator

  Pervitin Wachhaltemittel

  A Long Night

  Jitters

  On the Train

  First Stop

  Another Chance

  Two Days Later

  Secrets

  Life and Death

  Left Behind

  A Visit from Ulm

  Armed Forces Report

  Victory and Defeat

  Hopelessness

  Night Mission

  Fresh Air

  Down with Hitler

  The Most Beautiful Artwork

  Day Zero

  February 18, 1943

  Paper Snow

  Jakob Schmid, Custodian

  Captured

  Robert Mohr, Gestapo Investigator

  Hummingbird

  Evidence

  Caught in the Trap

  Jakob Schmid, Custodian

  Gestapo Headquarters

  Before

  1943

  The Professor

  Our Shameful Army

  Hans and Alex

  Heavy Words

  Doing Something

  Transformation

  Mountains of Paper

  Machines

  Hans’s Idea

  Planning a Revolution

  The End

  February 22, 1943

  Freedom

  Else Gebel, Prisoner

  Enemy of the Reich

  Before

  1938

  Aftermath

  The End

  February 22, 1943

  First, Hans

  August Klein, Defense Attorney

  My Brother, the Panzerfaust

  Roland Freisler, Judge

  Next, Me

  August Klein, Defense Attorney

  Silence

  Roland Freisler, Judge

  Finally, Christoph

  Ferdinand Seidl, Defense Attorney

  The Children

  Roland Freisler, Judge

  Before

  1935

  Disciplined

  Nuremberg Laws

  The Architect of It All

  The End

  Verdict: February 22, 1943

  Three Terrible Words

  A Realization

  An Unwelcome Guest

  Roland Freisler, Judge

  Before

  1934

  My Big Brother

  League of German Girls

  Hans and Vati

  Confirmation

  My Jewish Friends

  The End

  February 22, 1943

  A Prayer

  Home

  Last Letter

  A Gift

  Together

  Execution

  Epilogue

  1932

  Soaring Skyward

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  Dramatis Personae

  Glossary

  Selected Sources

  More Books from HMH
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  More Books from Versify

  About the Author

  Connect with HMH on Social Media

  Copyright © 2019 by Kip Wilson

  All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

  Excerpts from Damit Wir Uns Nicht Verlieren: Briefwechsel 1937–1943 by Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel. Edited by Thomas Hartnagel. Copyright © 2005 by S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main. Paraphrased and translated with permission. All rights reserved.

  Versify is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  hmhbooks.com

  Cover illustration © 2019 by David Curtis

  Cover design by Sharismar Rodriguez

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Names: Wilson, Kip, author.

  Title: White Rose / by Kip Wilson.

  Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2019] | Summary: Tells the story of Sophie Scholl, a young German college student who challenges the Nazi regime during World War II as part of the White Rose, a non-violent resistance group. | Includes bibliographical references.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018026607 | ISBN 9781328594433 (hardcover)

  Subjects: LCSH: Scholl, Sophie, 1921–1943—Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Novels in verse. | Scholl, Sophie, 1921–1943—Fiction. | White Rose (German resistance group)—Fiction. | World War, 1939–1945—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.5.W56 Wh 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018026607

  eISBN 978-0-358-04917-3

  v1.0319

  For Megan, Lyra, and Violeta:

  May your sisterly love

  forever be fierce

  For Sophie and Hans:

  Allen Gewalten

  Zum Trutz sich erhalten

  —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  THE END

  FEBRUARY 18, 1943

  Gestapo Headquarters

  The cars screech to a

  halt, officers pull

  us out by the arms, haul

  us inside and off to

  separate

  rooms, my heartbeat

  pounding

  all the while,

  boom-boom,

  boom-boom.

  They swing

  the door shut, unlock

  my handcuffs, order

  me to sit, rush about with

  coats, hats, cases, papers

  as I try not

  to give in to the

  overwhelming,

  sickening

  knowledge spreading through me:

  the two of us are trapped

  in this net because

  of me.

  Boom-boom,

  boom-boom.

  I take

  a deep breath and prepare

  to fight

  for our lives.

  INTERROGATION

  I carefully blend

  a cupful of lies

  into the bucket of truth

  spread out in front of me

  as Herr Mohr shoots

  question after question,

  trying to catch me off-guard.

  Fräulein Scholl, why were you carrying

  an empty suitcase with you to the university?

  So I could pick up clean laundry

  from home.

  And why were you at the university

  if you were planning to head to Ulm?

  So I could let my friend Gisela know

  I couldn’t meet her for lunch after all.

  Why were you and your brother

  in the corridor upstairs?

  So I could show him the Psychological Institute

  where I take classes.

  His eyes narrow,

  his voice icy,

  Herr Mohr is good at this,

  but he doesn’t know

  that I’m good, too.

  Boom-boom,

  boom-boom.

  My voice sounds

  so calm telling these lies,

  I barely recognize

  the words as my own.

  BEFORE

  1935

  Fresh Air

  I step outside, inhale

  the frische Luft deep

  into my lungs, make

  my way to the Iller,

  fourteenth-birthday

  sketchbook and

  pencils in hand,

  alone

  but never

  lonely.

  Slim, tall birch trees reach

  up toward the sky

  like fingers,

  the river rushes

  past its banks,

  and I sit

  on my favorite rock, write

  Sophie inside the

  new cover, open to

  a blank page, draw

  the beauty of this world,

  one line

  at a time.

  I KNOW

  I might not be

  the best-behaved

  girl

  I don’t want to be

  the prettiest

  girl

  but

  I’m most decidedly

  the smartest

  girl.

  THE FIVE OF US

  In a family with five

  teenagers, five

  strong opinions, five

  lives entwined,

  we often travel

  as a pack.

  Inge!

  Hans!

  Liesl!

  Sophie!

  Werner!

  Mutti calls the lot

  of us to the table, to grace, to

  the discussion and togetherness

  that await.

  We traipse

  in from the world

  beyond our doors, our

  young blood

  thick as mud as we

  talk, sing, laugh,

  think

  very

  much

  as

  one.

  CLIPPED

  I won’t ever come

  close to the German ideal:

  long blond braids

  shining blue eyes

  thoughts of Kinder, Küche, Kirche

  (children, kitchen, church).

  Instead I decide

  to become the most me

  I can.

  I bend

  my head forward, delight

  in the snip, clip of

  the scissors, the chunks

  of hair quietly cascading

  over my shoulders to

  the ground below,

  the scrape

  of the razor at the bottom

  of my boyish cut.

  I aim to become

  not only the most

  me

  but the best

  me

  I can.

  GIFTS FOR MOTHER

  It’s Mother’s Day, and

  we five carry

  out our plans to free

  Mutti from the mundane.

  We rise

  with the sun, sneak

  out of our rooms, divide

  the tasks.

  Inge and Liesl prepare

  eggs, toast, marmalade,

  Hans produces a

  sheet of paper to compose

  an original poem,

  Werner and I step

  outside, head

  for the garden, pick

  a bunch of daisies.

  Like sunlight warming

  the breakfast table,

  Mutti shines, reveling

  in the glory of her

  day before leading

  the lot of us

  to church, basking

  in what truly makes

  her happiest:

  the five

  of us. />
  LEADING BY EXAMPLE

  One warm summer night

  a group of us gather

  around a campfire

  my sisters

  our closest friends

  just us girls.

  The fire crackles, shooting

  sparks into the dark

  night, humming with

  possibility, and soon I’m stepping

  closer to the flames, prepared

  to inspire the others.

  Everyone leans

  close as I pull the booklet from

  my pocket—

  a worn, beloved copy of

  The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke

  by Rainer Maria Rilke,

  one of my favorite poets—

  and share the story of a

  young soldier charging

  into battle, sacrificing

  himself

  in a moment of true glory.

  The girls sigh

  in unison, enraptured,

  as my voice trembles

  over the last line,

  of an old woman weeping

  over the cornet’s death.

  May we all become

  so noble.

  THE BOYS’ CAMP

  Not far away, my brothers gather

  with their friends around their own

  campfire.

  I imagine

  Hans sharing

  a Swedish or Russian folk song,

  all the boys welcoming

  him back

  to their sides when he finishes,

  tackling him with

  open arms, claps on the

  backside.

  Hans isn’t much older than

  I am, and yet he’s already managed

  to charm most everyone who crosses

  his path:

  teachers

  parents

  girls

  and even

  boys

  some of whom seem

  to charm

  him right back.

  DECREE OF THE FÜHRER

  June 1935

  Concerning the duration of service

  and the strength

  of the National Labor Service

  to Article 3

  of the National Labor Service Law

  I hereby decree:

  that the duration of service

  amounts to six months