Alexander Schmorell Saint Alexander Schmorell ( 16 September 1917 in Orenburg , Russia ; – 13 July 1943 in Munich ) was one of five Munich University students who formed a resistance group known as White Rose ( " Weiße Rose " ) which was active against Germany ' s Nazi regime from June 1942 to February 1943 . In 2012 , he was glorified as a New Martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia . Early life . Schmorell ' s father , a medical doctor , was German - born and raised in Russia . Schmorell ' s mother was Russian , the daughter of a Russian Orthodox priest . Schmorell was baptised in the Russian Orthodox Church . His mother died of typhus during the Russian Civil War when he was two years old . In 1920 his widowed father married a German woman who , like him , grew up in Russia . They left Russia and moved to Munich , Germany , in 1921 , when Schmorell was four years old . His Russian nanny came along with them and she took his late mother ' s place in his upbringing . Alexander Schmorell grew up bilingual , speaking both German and Russian . His friends gave him the nickname ' Schurik ' , a nickname he would be called by his closer friends for the rest of his life . He was an Eastern Orthodox Christian who considered himself both German and Russian . Military service . After his " Abitur " ( equivalent to high level High School diploma ) , he was called into the Reich Labour Service ( " Reichsarbeitsdienst " ) and then into the Wehrmacht ( German Army during the Nazi era ) . In 1938 , he took part in the annexation of Austria and eventually in the Wehrmacht invasion of Czechoslovakia . After his military service , the artistically gifted Alexander Schmorell began studies in medicine in 1939 in Hamburg . In the autumn of 1940 , he went back with his student corps to Munich where he got to know Hans Scholl , and later Willi Graf . Together with Hans Scholl , Schmorell put together the White Rose ' s first four anti - Nazi leaflets . In the second leaflet Schmorell wrote a passage containing an outcry against the Holocaust . The Russian front . In June 1942 , Schmorell took part as a combat medic in the Russian campaign on the Eastern Front , together with Hans Scholl , Willi Graf and Jürgen Wittenstein , and came to strongly oppose the Nazis ' treatment of enemy soldiers and civilians during campaigns there . Once back from Russia , he continued his studies in Munich in the 1942 - 1943 semester . Dissident . In December 1942 , Schmorell , along with Hans Scholl , sought contact with Professor Kurt Huber . Together in 1943 they wrote the fifth leaflet " " Aufruf an alle Deutschen ! " " ( Appeal to all Germans ! ) , which Schmorell then distributed in Austrian cities . Along with Hans Scholl and Willi Graf , he also painted words such as " " Nieder mit Hitler " " ( Down with Hitler ) and " " Freiheit " " ( Freedom ) on house walls in Munich . It is suggested that he and Sophie Scholl , ( Hans ' sister ) shared a romance , although Sophie herself was previously engaged to Fritz Hartnagel . However , little evidence of this exists outside of Lillian Groag ' s play " The White Rose " . After the arrests of Christoph Probst and Hans and Sophie Scholl , Schmorell attempted to escape to Switzerland but was eventually arrested on 24 February 1943 , the day of his friends ' funeral , after being recognized in an air raid shelter . Trial and execution . Alexander Schmorell was sentenced to death on 19 April 1943 at the " Volksgerichtshof " ( People ' s Court ) in the second trial against the White Rose . In the letters he wrote from prison he tried to console his family and assured them that he was at peace with his fate and not fearful of death . On July 13 , 1943 , at the age of 25 , Schmorell was put to death by guillotine along with Kurt Huber at the Munich - Stadelheim Prison . In film . Schmorell was portrayed by Johannes Suhm in the film " " .