Status: 09.03.2023 7:36 p.m
She was the last survivor of the White Rose resistance group: Traute Lafrenz died in the United States at the age of 103. The Hamburg native had brought the leaflets to her hometown, among other things.
The last survivor of the White Rose resistance group, Traute Lafrenz, is dead. She died on March 6 at the age of 103 in the US state of South Carolina, according to the White Rose Foundation. “With sadness and great recognition, the White Rose Foundation honors her courageous resistance and her lasting testimony. For decades, Traute Lafrenz was a discreet and impressive witness to the White Rose.”
Traute Lafrenz was born in Hamburg in 1919 and moved from the Hanseatic city to Munich University in 1941 as a medical student.
Image: Wikipedia
Lafrenz and Hans Scholl fell in love with each other
Traute Lafrenz was born in Hamburg in 1919 and moved from the Hanseatic city to Munich University in 1941 as a medical student. In the summer she met Hans Scholl at a concert, the two were in love for a while. As a member of the group, she brought, among other things, flyers from the White Rose to Hamburg, where, according to the foundation, they were passed on by former friends.
After the arrest of Hans and Sophie Scholl in February 1943, Lafrenz drove to Ulm and informed the family. After the murder a few days later, according to the foundation, she was the only one outside of the family to attend the funeral of the two – a great personal risk.
In March 1943 Lafrenz himself was arrested, indicted in April and sentenced to one year in prison for “compliance”. The foundation writes that she cleverly managed to disguise her actual participation in the resistance.
After her release from a Munich prison, she returned to Hamburg and was remanded in custody after investigations into the “Hamburg branch of the White Rose” – and was imprisoned in several prisons in Hamburg, Cottbus, Leipzig and Bayreuth.
Awarded the Cross of Merit, 1st Class
In April 1945, she was liberated from Bayreuth prison by US troops. She emigrated to the USA in 1947 and, as a doctor, ran a special education school for mentally handicapped children in Chicago. She had four children. In 2019 she was awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic.
The White Rose had organized student resistance in Munich during the National Socialist dictatorship in Germany. The best-known members of the group against the National Socialists, the siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friend Christoph Probst, were executed by the Nazi regime 80 years ago.