Shmorel, Alexander Gugovich

Schmorel’s father, Dr. Hugo Karlovich, was a German whose ancestors moved to Russia in the middle of the 19th century from East Prussia ^[4] , born and raised in Russia . Alexander’s grandfather, Karl-August, was a merchant of the 2nd guild and the founder of the first steam sawmill in Orenburg ^[1] . Shmorel’s mother, Natalya Petrovna Vvedenskaya, was a Russian woman, the daughter of a college assessor from Kremenchug. Alexander Schmorel was baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church . His mother died of typhoid during the Civil War in Russia, when he was only two years old ^[1] .

In 1921, Shmorel’s father, who married a second marriage to the daughter of Yegor Hoffmann, the owner of a brewery in Orenburg, moved with his family to Germany , where he settled in Munich . His Russian nanny Theodosia Lapshina came to Germany with him, was engaged in raising children with her stepmother. Alexander grew up bilingual, spoke Russian and German equally well, recognizing himself both a Russian and a German at the same time. He was an active parishioner of the Munich Orthodox parish ^[4] . A frequent guest in the family was Leonid Osipovich Pasternak ^[1] . After receiving the enrollment (certificate of secondary education, giving the right to enter the university ), he was obliged to serve the “ Imperial labor service ” ( German: Reichsarbeitsdienst ).

Military Service

In 1937, Alexander was drafted into the army for a year and a half, in the battalion of horse artillery , but refused to take the oath of allegiance to Hitler and asked for his dismissal from the army ^[1] . Only thanks to the generosity of the squad leader, the story of the refusal of the oath was hushed up ^[4] , and later (under the pressure of his parents) Alexander nevertheless swore allegiance to the Fuhrer . In 1938, he took part in the annexation of Austria , and in the spring of 1939 he was transferred to the reserve. Returning to Munich, he entered the medical department of the University of Munich , but from the second year in 1940 he was again drafted into the army ^[4] . As part of the sanitary company, he came to France .

As a military doctor in 1941-1942, he participated in the war with the USSR , where, together with his comrade in arms Hans Scholl and Willy Graf, he witnessed ill-treatment of Soviet prisoners of war and civilians in the occupied territories of the USSR. ^[4] He served in the 252nd Infantry Division in the area of Gzhatsk . He perceived his stay in Russia as a return to his homeland: Alexander made contact with the local population, translated conversations with peasants to his White Rose comrades, and even organized a choir of prisoners of war ^[1] .

Returning from the front, Alexander again began his studies in the autumn of 1942. In the spring and autumn of 1942, Schmorel, together with his friend Hans Scholl , composed and distributed leaflets, rallying the comrades who united into the White Rose group. It included: Willy Graf , Christoph Probst and Sophie Scholl , and a little later, the guys involved in their work professors of philosophy Kurt Huber . With Willy Graf, he put the slogans “Down with Hitler!” ( German Nieder mit Hitler! ) And “Freedom!” ( German Freiheit ) on the walls of houses at night. After which he was arrested, after exposing the group on February 18, 1943, he tried to hide in Switzerland with a Bulgarian passport, but returned to Munich, where he was handed over to the Gestapo ^[4] .

Alexander Schmorel was sentenced to death on April 19, 1943 by the Reich People’s Court of Justice during the second trial against the White Rose organization ^[4] . July 13, 1943 , at the age of 25, he was guillotined with Kurt Huber in the Munich prison Stadelheim ^[4] . Buried in the cemetery ^[4] .

In the early 1990s, at the initiative of the Archbishop of Berlin and Germany, Mark (ROCOR), the canonization of Alexander Schmorel was initiated. On July 11, 1994, by the decision of the Council of Bishops, he was glorified in the German Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad as a locally revered saint ^{[5] [6] [4]} . On February 4, 2012, the canonization procedure was completed in a ceremony and Schmorel (Alexander of Munich) was numbered among the Russian Orthodox Church ^[2] .

In January 2014, a guillotine was found in Germany, on which Alexander Schmorel was executed ^[7] .

• Films are dedicated to Alexander Shmorel: “In Search of a White Rose” directed by Savva Kulish ^[4] (TC “NETSKI”, 2000), “Return” dir. Tatyana Sablina (State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company “Orenburg”, 2004), “Letters from the Province” dir. Vladimir Polukhinsky (TC "Culture", 2009), "Personal Opinion" dir. Sergey Palko (Zvezda shopping center, 2009), “The White Soul Russian soul”, (doc. Film by Oksana Shubina, Orenburg State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, 2010), The White Rose standoff, dir. Sergey Lintsov and Roman Saulsky (“Constellation of the Cinema”, 2015), “White Rose: Followers” ​​dir. Roman Saulsky ("The Constellation of the Cinema", 2016)
• Alexander Schmorel became one of the characters in the play by Pavel Rykov, "Call me into the past." Production of the Orenburg Regional Drama Theater (dir. R.V. Israfilov, 2015)
• In Jerusalem, at the Alexander Alexander Metochion in 2010, a memorial plaque was erected in honor of A. G. Shmorel ^[8]

• Alexander Shmorel: Gestapo interrogation protocols, February-March 1943 Orenburg: Dimur Printing House, 2005. - 182 p .; Orenburg Book Publishing House, 2013.182 s
• Igor Khramov: Alexander Schmorel. Series "Life of wonderful people." Moscow: "Young Guard", 2018. - 212 p.
• Igor Khramov: The Russian soul of the White Rose. Orenburg: Publishing House "Orenburg Book", 2001. - 224 p .; Orenburg: Manor, 2009 .-- 224 p.
• Igor Khramov: Saint Alexander of Munich. Orenburg: Publishing House "Orenburg Book", 2017. - 280 p.
• Gregor Fernbach (Hrsg.): “Vergesst Gott nicht!” - Leben und Werk des heiligen Alexander (Schmorell) von München , Edition Hagia Sophia, ISBN 978-3937129839, Wachtendonk, 2013
• Lilo Fürst-Ramdohr: Freundschaften in der Weißen Rose. Verlag Geschichtswerkstatt Neuhausen, München 1995, ISBN 3-931231-00-3
• Christiane Moll (Hrsg.): Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst. Gesammelte Briefe , Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86732-065-8
• Elena Perekrestov: Alexander Schmorell. Saint of the German Resistance , Holy Trinity Publications, New York 2017, ISBN 978-0-88465-421-6
• Christian Petry: Studenten aufs Schafott. Die weiße Rose und ihr Scheitern , Piper Verlag, München 1968
• Hans Pointner: Alexander Schmorell. In: Russische Spuren in Bayern , Verlag MIR e. V., ISBN 3-9805300-2-7
• Jutta Schubert: Zu blau der Himmel im Februar , Kulturmaschinen, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-943-977-01-1
• Inge Scholl: Die Weiße Rose. Fischer Verlag, ISBN 3-596-11802-6
• Peter Selg: Alexander Schmorell. 1917-1943. Der Idealismus der “Weißen Rose” und das geistige Russland , Verlag des Ita Wegman Institutes, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-905919-55-4

• Schmorel Alexander (Schmorell) on the website zarubezhje.narod.ru
• On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Alexander Schmorel (1993), an article from the Herald of the German Diocese 4/1993
• Ksenia Krivosheina “White Rose” and “Resistance”, “NEVA” magazine http://magazines.russ.ru/neva/2009/10/kk11.html

• weisse-rose-stiftung.de - Website about the organization "White Rose". Organization Details
  • 6 Pamphlets at weisse-rose-stiftung.de
  • Biography of Alexander Schmorell on weisse-rose-stiftung.de
• Alexander Schmorel on jlrweb
• Political statement (Testimony of Alexander Schmorel) political testament of A. Schmorell (March 8, 1943).
• Pamphlet of the White Rose Movement No. I (see text in German / PDF original on bpb.de (German) )
• Pamphlet of the White Rose Movement No. II (see text in German / PDF original on bpb.de (German) )
• Pamphlet of the White Rose Movement No. III (see text in German / PDF original on bpb.de (German) )
• Pamphlet of the White Rose Movement No. IV (see text in German / PDF original on bpb.de (German) )
• Pamphlet of the White Rose Movement No. V (see text in German / PDF original on bpb.de (German) )
• Pamphlet of the White Rose Movement No. VI (see text in German / PDF original on bpb.de (German) )
• Article by Alexander Schmorell on the Bundeszentrale fur politische bildung (German)
• Archpriest Nikolai Artemov: "Triumphalism closes Russia's eyes"