by Kip Wilson
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
Teen
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