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

White Rose The White Rose (german: Weiße Rose, ) was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students (and one professor) at the University of Munich: Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmore ...

Early life

Susanne Hirzel, daughter of

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

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 (german: Bund Deutscher Mädel, 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. ...

(where

Sophie Scholl Sophia Magdalena Scholl (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of high treason after having been ...

was her group leader), but distanced herself increasingly from those in power. Hirzel became a student at the State Academy for Music in Stuttgart, 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 Franz Josef Müller (8 September 1924 – 31 March 2015) was a member of the World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast ...

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 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, to Ger ...

Willi Graf Wilhelm Graf (better known as Willi Graf) (2 January 1918 – 12 October 1943) was a member of the White Rose (Weiße Rose) resistance group in Nazi Germany. The Catholic Church in Germany included Graf in their list of martyrs of the 20th centu ...

and

Alexander Schmorell Alexander Schmorell (; russian: Александр Гугович Шморель, translit=Aleksandr Gugovich Shmorel', ; 16 September 1917 – 13 July 1943) was a Russian-German student at Munich University who, with five others, formed a resis ...

were sentenced by the People's Court under

Roland Freisler Roland Freisler (30 October 1893 – 3 February 1945), a German Nazi jurist, judge, and politician, served as the State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice from 1934 to 1942 and as President of the People's Court from 1942 to 1945. A ...

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 cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

teacher. She wrote a number of books on

cello technique Playing the cello is done while seated with the instrument supported on the floor. The fingertips of the left hand stop the strings on the fingerboard to determine the pitch of the fingered note. The right hand plucks or bows the strings to sound ...

. 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 ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

'. 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. It has been described as conservative, right-wing, nationalistic and as the "ideological supply ship of right-wing po ...

'' in 2002, and to the blog ''

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

'' in 2010. She lived in Stuttgart in her latest years, and became actively involved in the

counter-jihad Counter-jihad, also spelled counterjihad and known as the counter-jihad movement, is a self-titled political current loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, street movements and campaign organisations all linked by apocalyptic bel ...

organisation Citizens' Movement Pax Europa (BPE) against the "Islamisation" of Germany, seeing parallels between the subversion of democracy by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

and the aims of the

Jihad Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...

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