I finished reading Shareen Blair Brysac's Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra (in German: Mildred Harnack und "Die Rote Kapelle")and can recommend it for anyone interested in German resistance activities during the Nazi era. I first came across the story of Mildred Harnack while doing some research into the life of Martha Dodd, the daughter of the US ambassador to Germany during the early years of the Third Reich. I had never heard of Harnack - a close friend of Martha Dodd - and was amazed to learn the story of this brave woman - the only American woman executed under direct orders of Hitler. Why wasn't she known in her native country?
Brysac explains that Mildred Harnack's story fell victim to the Cold War: she was viewed as a "communist" and therefore a traitor to America, even though her actions were directed against Nazi Germany. That same general fate befell the "Rote Kapelle" or "Red Orchestra". While the heroes of the July 20 resistance are known and celebrated in Germany and the United States, the Rote Kapelle is largely unknown, and has been seen as primarily a Soviet spy network. Brysac is able to set the record straight with her book. Mildred's husband - Arvid Harnack, a leader of the Rote Kapelle - did work for the Soviet NKVD primarily because he saw the Soviet Union as the Hitler's greatest enemy. But through her research Brysac is able to document that the Harnacks were also providing intelligence to Donald Heath - an American intelligence agent attached to the State Department who was in Berlin in 1938-1940. Harnack's contribution of vital intelligence to the United States has never been acknowledged. Brysac's book is the first attempt to get at the historical truth.
The strength of the book is Brysac's well-documented research. She was able to speak to a number of people close to the Harnack's family (both Mildred's American and Arvid's German) including Arvid Harnack's brother Falk, who himself was implicated in the Munich Weisse Rose student resistance group. She had access to archives in east Berlin and to private letters between Mildred and her sisters. Brysac was even able to speak with Martha Dodd (by telephone) twice before Martha's death in 1990.
Brysac was able to gain access to the transcripts of the Harnacks' first trial in December 1942. It was the usual farce of Nazi justice, but Mildred's life was spared (Arvid was immediately hung, along with other key members of the Rote Kapelle). Goering was enraged at the court's "leniency" and the matter was referred to Hitler, who ordered a retrial. This time, the judges did their duty and found Mildred guilty of high treason. She was guillotined on February 15, 1943. Those who were responsible for the executions of the Harnacks and the other members of the Rote Kapelle were never brought to justice after the war. Brysac describes how Manfed Roeder, the Nazi prosecutor in both of Mildred's trials, was able to use his knowledge of the soviets to ingratiate himself with the US military occupation. But that is the subject for another book.
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