Traute Lafrenz

Lafrenz was born on 3 May 1919 in Hamburg to Carl and Hermine Lafrenz, a civil servant and a homemaker; she was the youngest of three sisters. Together with Heinz Kucharski, Lafrenz studied under at the '''', a liberal arts school in Hamburg. When coeducation was abolished in 1937, Lafrenz moved to a convent school, from which she and classmate Margaretha Rothe graduated in 1938. Together with Rothe, Lafrenz began to study medicine at the University of Hamburg in the summer semester of 1939. After the semester she worked in Pomerania, where she met Alexander Schmorell who had begun studying in the summer of 1939 at the Hamburg University Medical School but continued his studies from 1939 to 1940 in Munich. == Involvement in the Weiße Rose ==

In May 1941, Lafrenz moved to Munich to study, and while there she got to know Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst. She attended many talks and discussions of the White Rose group, including those with Kurt Huber. She and Hans Scholl, one of the group's leaders, were briefly romantically involved in summer 1941. and distributed them with her former classmate Heinz Kucharski. When Hans and Sophie Scholl were arrested at the University of Munich on 18 February 1943 for spreading anti-war leaflets, Lafrenz was also put under investigation by the Gestapo. She was arrested, along with Alexander Schmorell and Kurt Huber, on 15 March. During her interrogation by the Gestapo, Lafrenz succeeded in disguising the full extent of her involvement in the distribution of leaflets. As a result, she was sentenced to one year in prison on 19 April 1943, by the Volksgerichtshof (People's Court, first senate) for her role as a confidante. After her release, she was arrested and imprisoned once again by the Gestapo. == After the war ==

In 1947, she immigrated to the United States, completing her medical studies at Saint Joseph's Hospital in San Francisco, California. In the United States, she met Vernon Page, an ophthalmologist. They married in 1948 and had four children together. a private, therapeutic day school serving students with developmental disabilities between the ages of 5 and 21. She was involved in the anthroposophical movement in the United States for more than half a century. In 2019, she received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on her 100th birthday and was praised by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who called Lafrenz a "hero of freedom and humanity". On 6 March 2023, Lafrenz died on Yonges Island, South Carolina, at age 103, as the last living member of the White Rose group. ==References==