Traute Page who is known by many in the Anthroposophical Society and The Christian Community, for her role as a member of the White Rose, and her contribution to the Anthroposophical movement, has crossed the threshold in the late evening of 6 March 2023.
She was 103 years old, and surrounded by her family. She lived the late golden years of her life with her daughter’s family in Yonges Island, South Carolina, not far from Charleston.
She comes from Germany, and was a teenager during the rise of the National Socialist regime. She is most well-known by the public for her involvement in the White Rose, a resistance movement formed primarily of young people (Hans and Sophie Scholl being two of the most well-known). With her death, the last of the White Rose resistance movement are now all across the threshold.
Traute emigrated to the United States, completed a medical degree, married and had four children while eventually settling in Chicago. There, she began the Esperanza School, a therapeutic school for developmentally disabled children. She was also deeply connected to the Anthroposophical movement in the United States and served as the General Secretary in the mid-1990s.
To learn more of her incredible life, Peter Normann Waage wrote a book, “Love Live Freedom! Traute Page and the White Rose”, and there are many articles (for pictures of her, see this german language article, a Wikipedia entry for an overview of her life, and an article in Being Human, from the Anthroposophical Society).
We celebrate and honour the life Traute lived, and accompany her in our prayers as she continues her journey digesting a long life full of so many connections, and prepares for the next life to come.
References :
- The email notice sent out by The Christian Community Greater Washington- Baltimore
- https://goetheanum.ch/en/news/traute-lafrenz-page
- https://spartacus-educational.com/Traute_Lafrenz.htm