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Willi was born in 1918 in Kuchenheim near Euskirchen. In 1922, his family moved to Saarbrücken, where his father was a wine wholesaler and managed the Johannishof, the second largest banquet hall in the city. At the age of eleven, he joined 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, he joined the Grauer Orden ("Grey Order"), another Catholic movement which became known for its anti-Nazi stand.  

In 1937, Willi began his medical studies at the University of Bonn. In 1938, he was arrested along with other members of the Grauer Orden and charged by a court in Mannheim with illegal youth league activities. The charges were later dismissed as part of a general amnesty declared to celebrate the Anschluss. The detention had lasted three weeks. His time in jail did not weaken his decision to participate in anti-Nazi activities or organizations.

After his release, Willi was allowed to return to the University of Bonn to continue his medical studies. Willi had chosen the University of Bonn because his aunt and uncle lived in Bonn and offered to let him live with them, as well as the fact that many of his friends (including his then girlfriend Marianne Thoeren) went to that University. While there, he was required to report for military duty in August 1939. The next month, September 1939, the war officially began. The University of Bonn was then closed for the duration of the war.  After it closed, he transferred to Munich University, having completed four semesters at the University of Bonn.

While his parents never placed much emphasis on literature and written works (the only books the family owned were religious books), Willi  was a voracious reader. Serious and intelligently minded, he enjoyed reading Christian works, with one of his favorite Christian authors being  (Servant of God) Romano Guardini (see Blogs Aug. 2016 & Oct. 2017 update), one of the leading figures of the liturgical revival of the Catholic Church in Germany. He conducted an in-depth study of Christian authors in his teenage years, with a special focus on works by Romano Guardini. He also enjoyed reading poetry, foreign works, and works banned by the Nazis. Throughout his life, books were a lifeline for him. When he was serving on the Eastern Front, he would write to his friends to see if they could send him more books. In the last year of his life alone he read forty books

When in Bonn he met Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell  who were introduced to him by Christoph Probst, who took part in fencing with Willi. When Hans met Willi, he remarked, "he is one of us."

In June 1942, the activities of the White Rose first started. Having learned about mass murder in Poland and the Soviet Union, Hans and Alexander felt compelled to take action. They began writing leaflets, quoting extensively from the Bible, Aristotle, Goethe, and Schiller.  These leaflets were left in telephone books in public phone booths, mailed to professors and students, and taken by courier to other universities for distribution. Willi  was not part of the group at first. But was officially brought in July 1942.

 (Photo: Left to right: Hubert Furtwangler, Hans Scholl, Willie Graf and Alexander Schmorell on the Eastern Front, 1942)

 A few weeks later, the three men were deployed to the Russian Front. On the train ride to Russia, the train passed through Poland. While there, they saw the Evacutation of the Warsaw Ghetto.  In Russia, they would sneak away at night and go to the homes of Russian natives. They were allowed to return to Munich in November 1942. Returning to Bonn, he threw himself into the White Rose activities with vigor. A “favorite” activity  was graffiti on public buildings with slogans such as "down with Hitler" and "Hitler the Mass murderer!"

These graffiti campaigns put the Gestapo on high alert.  On 18 February 1943, several went to the  University to leave flyers out for the students to read. They were seen by Jakob Schmid, a custodian at the university who was also a Gestapo informer. At around midnight on 18 February, Gestapo agents arrested Willi when he returned to his apartment after meeting with his cousins. When he was captured, he asked to be allowed to go to his bedroom and change into his Wehrmacht uniform. The agents agreed to his request. While changing, he was able to hide his diary under his many books. The diary was later found by his sister Anneliese, who was also arrested by the Gestapo at the same time. She was released a few months later.

At his trial, Willi was sentenced to death for high treason.  He was beheaded on 12 October 1943 at Stadelheim Prison in Munich, after six months of solitary confinement. During this period the Gestapo used psychological torture to try to extract information from Willi about other White Rose members and other anti-Nazi movements.He  never gave up any names, taking on blame for the White Rose activities in order to protect others who had not yet been arrested.

 In his last letter to his family, he wrote:

On this day I'm leaving this life and entering eternity. What hurts me most of all is that I am causing such pain to those of you who go on living. But strength and comfort you'll find with God and that is what I am praying for till the last moment. I know that it will be harder for you than for me. I ask you, Father and Mother, from the bottom of my heart, to forgive me for the anguish and the disappointment I've brought you. I have often regretted what I've done to you, especially here in prison. Forgive me and always pray for me! Hold on to the good memories.... I could never say to you while alive how much I loved you, but now in the last hours I want to tell you, unfortunately only on this dry paper, that I love all of you deeply and that I have respected you. For everything that you gave me and everything you made possible for me with your care and love. Hold each other and stand together with love and trust.... God's blessing on us, in Him we are and we live.... I am, with love always, your Willi.

      The French street artist Christian Guémy did the portrait of Willi Graf as graffiti