Susanne Zeller ( Hirzel; 7 November 1921 – 4 December 2012) was a German resistance member who was part of the

White Rose The White Rose (, ) was a Nonviolence, non-violent, intellectual German resistance to Nazism, resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students and one professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, University of Munich ...

Early life

Susanne Hirzel, daughter of

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

pastor Ernst Hirzel and granddaughter of the geographer Robert Gradmann, was initially an enthusiastic member of the

League of German Girls The League of German Girls or the Band of German Maidens (, abbreviated as BDM) was the girls' wing of the Nazi Party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only legal female youth organization in Nazi Germany. At first, the League consis ...

(where

Sophie Scholl Sophia Magdalena Scholl (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active in the White Rose non-violent German resistance to Nazism, resistance group in Nazi Germany. Raised in a politically engag ...

was her group leader), but distanced herself increasingly from those in power. Hirzel became a student at the State Academy for Music in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, where by spring 1942 her exceptional musical ability was being recognised.

Hirzel and White Rose

In late 1942, while a music student, she again met Sophie Scholl, who called for resistance. At the end of January, at the request of her teenage brother Hans she distributed envelopes containing the fifth "White Rose" leaflet in mailboxes in Stuttgart. This secret operation was prepared together with Hans' classmate Franz Josef Müller in

Martin Luther Church behind the organ. Her father Ernst Hirzel was then pastor at this parish. After the arrest and execution of the Scholls, Susanne, her brother Hans, and Franz Josef Müller, were also arrested and convicted in the second "White Rose" trial (in which

Kurt Huber Kurt Huber (24 October 1893 – 13 July 1943) was a German university professor and resistance fighter with the anti-Nazi group White Rose. For his involvement he was imprisoned and guillotined. Early life Huber was born in Chur, Switzerland, ...

Willi Graf Wilhelm "Willi" Graf (2 January 1918 – 12 October 1943) was a German member of the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany. The Catholic Church in Germany included Graf in their list of martyrs of the 20th century. In 2017, his cause for ...

and

Alexander Schmorell Alexander Schmorell ( – 13 July 1943), also sometimes referred to as Saint Alexander of Munich, was a Russian- German student at Munich University who, with five others, formed a resistance group (part of the '' Widerstand'') known as White ...

were sentenced by the People's Court under

Roland Freisler Karl Roland Freisler (30 October 1893 – 3 February 1945) was a German jurist, judge and politician who served as the State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice from 1935 to 1942 and as President of the People's Court from 1942 to 194 ...

to death). Hirzel was sentenced to six months' imprisonment because her knowledge of the leaflets could not be established.

After the war

After the collapse of the Nazi dictatorship in 1945, she became a

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

teacher. She wrote a number of books on cello technique. After retiring she published her memories of life in Nazi Germany, in her book, ''From Yes to No. A Swabian Youth 1933–1945'', published in 2000.

Later political activities

Like her brother Hans, a functionary of the Republican party and their Presidential candidate, Susanne Hirzel was active in right-wing circles, particularly among the Republicans. In her memoirs ''A Swabian Youth'' she writes, inter alia, to the effect that 'The Allies had been "trying to eradicate as many Germans" in their air raids on German cities, and the German concentration camps were of the "model" that Stalin used and that the British followed in the

Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic an ...

'. Furthermore she gave interviews to ''

Junge Freiheit The ''Junge Freiheit'' (JF, "Young Freedom") is a German weekly newspaper on politics and culture that was established in 1986. Junge Freiheit is politically conservative, right-wing, and nationalistic; it is further described as the "ideologic ...

'' in 2002, and to the blog ''

Politically Incorrect "Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...

'' in 2010. She lived in

in her latest years, and became actively involved in the

counter-jihad Counter-jihad (also known as the counter-jihad movement) is a self-titled Islamophobia, anti-Muslim political movement loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, demonstrators, and other activists across the Western world. Proponents are ...

organisation

Citizens' Movement Pax Europa The Citizens' Movement Pax Europa (, BPE) is a German anti-Islam, counter-jihad organisation. It was formed in 2008 from the merger of two previous groups, the Federal Association of Citizens' Movements (, BDB) formed in 2003, and Pax Europa for ...

(BPE) against the "Islamisation" of Germany, seeing parallels between the subversion of democracy by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

and the aims of the

Jihad ''Jihad'' (; ) is an Arabic word that means "exerting", "striving", or "struggling", particularly with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it encompasses almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God in Islam, God ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirzel, Susanne 1921 births 2012 deaths 20th-century Lutherans Counter-jihad activists Female anti-fascists German Christian pacifists German critics of Islam German Lutherans German revolutionaries Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Lutheran pacifists Nonviolence advocates People convicted of treason against Nazi Germany People from Hohenlohe (district) Protestants in the German Resistance White Rose members Women in World War II