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Willi Graf

Willi Graf (born 2 January 1918 in Kuchenheim near Euskirchen; died 12 October 1943 in Munich) was a member of the White Rose (Weiße Rose) resistance group in Nazi Germany.

Willi Graf's family moved to Saarbrücken in 1922, where his father ran a wine wholesaler's. He went to school at the Ludwigsgymnasium. It was not long before he joined, at the age of eleven, the Bund Neudeutschland, a Catholic youth movement for young men in schools of higher learning, which was banned after Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933. In 1934, Graf joined the Grauer Orden ("Grey Order"), another Catholic movement which became known for its anti-Nazi rhetoric. It, too, was banned and for this reason, it formed many youth groups.

After his Abitur in 1937, Willi Graf did his six-month Reichsarbeitsdienst and afterwards began his medical studies. In 1938, he was detained along with other members of the Grauer Orden and charged by a court in Mannheim with youth league activities – the Bünde having been banned – in relation with his unlawful field trips, camping excursions and other meetings with the Grauer Orden. The charges were later dismissed as part of a general amnesty declared to celebrate the Anschluss. The detention had lasted three weeks.

From 1940 to 1942, Graf participated in various war deployments in Europe as a medical orderly. In 1942, as a member of the Second Students' Company in Munich, he came into contact with the White Rose. He became an active member of the resistance group around Hans and Sophie Scholl.

On 18 February 1943, Willi Graf, along with his sister Anneliese, was seized in Munich. On 19 April 1943, he was sentenced to death at the Volksgerichtshof for high treason, Wehrkraftzersetzung (undermining the troops' spirit), and furthering the enemy's cause. Willi Graf was beheaded on 12 October 1943 at Stadelheim Prison in Munich, after months of Gestapo interrogation during which Graf yielded up no names. His grave is in the St. Johann Cemetery in Saarbrücken. Seven schools in Germany have been named after him, among them the Willi-Graf-Gymnasium in Munich and Saarbrücken-St. Johann; a student residence in Munich also honours Graf by bearing his name.

In 2003, Willi Graf was posthumously awarded the status of honorary citizen of Saarbrücken.

• Tatjana Blaha: Willi Graf und die weiße Rose. Eine Rezeptionsgeschichte, Saur, München 2003, ISBN 3-598-11654-3.
• Hans-Josef Gebel: Konsequent - von der Schulbank bis zum Schaffott, in: Gedenkschrift zum 50. Jahrestag der Hinrichtung des Saarbrücker Widerstandskämpfer Willi Graf, Stadtverwaltung, Saarbrücken, S. 28-37.
• Hans-Josef Gebel: Willi Graf, ein Lebensbild. Zum 40. Jahrestag seiner Hinrichtung am 12. Oktober 1943, in: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Saargegend Jg. 31 (1983).
• Theo Heinrichs: Willi Graf, Mitglied der Widerstandsgruppe "Weiße Rose", in: Gerg G. Koenig (Hrsg.): Cuchenheim 1084-1984, Euskirchen 1984, S. 153-163.
• Anneliese Knoop-Graf, Inge Jens (Hrsg.): Willi Graf. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, Fischer, Frankfurt/M. 1994, ISBN 3-596-12367-4.
• Helmut Moll: Den Widerstand mit dem blutigen Tod bezahlt. Katholiken unter Hitlers Terror im Euskirchener Raum, in: Euskirchen im 20. Jahrhundert, Stadtverwaltung, Euskirchen 2002, S. 239-260.
• Klaus Vielhaber u.a. (Hrsg.): Gewalt und Gewissen. Willi Graf und die "Weisse Rose". Eine Dokumentation, Herder, Freiburg/B. 1964.
• Hildegard Vieregg u.a. (Hrsg.): Willi Grafs Jugend im Nationalsozialismus im Spiegel von Briefen, Gruppe Willi Graf im Bund Neudeutschland, München 1984.
• Klaus Vielhaber: Willi Graf. Von den Wurzeln der "Weißen Rose", in: Hirschberg Jg. 10 (1983)

• Works by and about Willi Graf in the German National Library catalogue
• (German) Extensive information about the Willi-Graf-Realschule in Euskirchen
• Page about Graf at site about White Rose