“Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 My second YA mystery, published in 2015, is set in Munich, Germany. In addition to what I learned living there for six years (from 1986-1992), I did a lot of background research about the city during the era of Hitler’s National Socialism, and the book has a mystery connected to those times.

In October 2014, with the book manuscript finished but as yet unpublished, my husband and I made a return visit to Munich. It was a pleasure trip, but I also wanted him, an excellent photographer, to take some photos as inspiration for the book cover.

One spot that intrigued me was the Geschwister Scholl Platz (the Scholl siblings’ place) in front of one of the buildings of Ludwig Maximillian Universität in Munich’s Schwabing neighborhood. Stone tablets embedded in the walkway are copies of the anti-Hitler leaflets distributed in 1942 and 1943 by a few brave students and one of their professors who were beheaded for their efforts. They called themselves “The White Rose.”

Though my book isn't specifically about the White Rose, the group does play a role in influencing my characters, and I wanted some photos related to it. With that in mind, we rode the Ubahn to Universität and walked to that historic Platz. It’s located outside the entrance to the university building where students Sophie and Hans Scholl threw leftover leaflets from a high balcony into the lobby atrium as students were leaving classes. (Most leaflets were left in telephone books in public phone booths, mailed to professors and students, and taken by courier to other universities for distribution.) 

On the day we were in the Platz, some workmen were busy tearing up some of the sidewalk, but we didn’t pay them much mind. My husband was busy taking pictures, and I was engrossed in reading one of the embedded leaflets when a man approached me. He asked me in German where I was from and said he was curious to know why I was interested in the leaflets. When I explained about writing the book, he said he wanted to give me a Geschenk (a gift). He handed me a stone fragment with writing engraved on it. The text was from one of the anti-Hitler leaflets.

His kind gesture nearly brought me to tears because of what it represented, and because it had special meaning for me after all the hard work on my book. However, I was unsure if it was all right for me to have it and I asked. He pointed to a nearby area where his truck and equipment stood and said that he was a city worker and his job was to replace worn stone leaflets with new versions. He could dispose of the old ones as he saw fit.

Then he told me that there was a memorial to the White Rose inside the building that we might like to see. I asked him if it was open to the public and he said it was okay for us to go in. I thanked him sincerely and entered the building, grateful that I was able to understand and speak with him.

In the high-ceilinged marble atrium, we were able to gaze up at the balcony where the Scholls had stood on that fateful day when they were arrested. A commemorative plaque created in 1946 by Theodor Georgii and honoring the seven executed members of the White Rose resistance group (Willi Graf, Professor Kurt Huber, Hans Leipelt, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Hans and Sophie Scholl) is located on the atrium wall. There is also a bronze relief sculpture dedicated to them. It was created by Lothar Dietz and unveiled in 1958. A bronze bust of Sophie Scholl by Nikolai Tregor was adorned with a fresh white rose in a bud vase.

My stone fragment has words from the 6th leaflet, the one that got the Scholls arrested. The full text reads:

“Erschüttert steht unser Volk vor dem Untergang der Männer von Stalingrad. 330,000 deutsche Männer hat die geniale ­Strategie des Weltkriegsgefreiten sinn- und ­verantwortungslos in Tod und Verderben gehetzt. Führer, wir danken dir!

Es gärt im deutschen Volk: Wollen wir weiter einem Dilettanten das Schicksal unserer Armeen anvertrauen? Wollen wir den niedrigen Macht­instinken einer Parteiclique den Rest der deutschen Jugend opfern? Nimmermehr.”

English Translation:

“Our people stand in shock at the demise of the men of Stalingrad. The ingenious strategy of the World War II corporal drove 330,000 German men senselessly and irresponsibly to death and ruin. Leader, thank you!

It is fermenting in the German people: Do we want to continue to entrust the fate of our armies to a dilettante? Do we want to sacrifice the rest of German youth to the low power of a party clique? Nevermore.”