Mildred Fish-Harnack :af:

was an American-German historian and anti-fascist executed by the Nazi government on this day in 1943.

Together with her husband, Fish-Harnack brought together a discussion circle which debated political perspectives on the time after the National Socialists' expected downfall. From these meetings arose what the Gestapo called the "Red Orchestra" resistance group. Beginning in 1940, the group was in contact with Soviet agents, trying to thwart the forthcoming German attack upon the Soviet Union. Fish-Harnack even sent the Soviets information about the forthcoming Operation Barbarossa.

On September 7th, Arvid Harnack and Mildred Fish-Harnack were arrested while on a weekend outing. She was executed on this day in 1943 by beheading. Her last words were purported to have been: "Ich habe Deutschland auch so geliebt" ("I loved Germany so much as well"). She is the only member of the Red Orchestra whose burial site is known, as well as the only American woman executed on the orders of Adolf Hitler.

The Red Orchestra :flag-su:

The Red Orchestra was one of the most famous resistance and espionage networks operating in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Rather than a single organisation, the Red Orchestra is best understood as a collection of resistance networks operating in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland. It consisted of three main branches, the Berlin network, a network in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and a group operating out of neutral Switzerland that included the ‘Lucy Ring’ of spies.

The name ‘Red Orchestra’ was created by German counter-intelligence, who described resistance radio operators as ‘pianists’ while investigating these networks.

At the core of the Red Orchestra was the spy ring established by Leopold Trepper, a Polish communist and agent of the Red Army Intelligence, codenamed ‘Otto’. He set up a spy network that covered France, the Netherlands and Belgium, which successfully gathered intelligence on the German war effort, including industrial production and Nazi troop movements. Importantly, Trepper provided the Soviets with information regarding the Nazis’ planned invasion of Russia, though his warnings fell on deaf ears in Moscow.

Perhaps the most effective part of the Red Orchestra was the group operating out of neutral Switzerland. Known as ‘The Red Three’ and headed by the Soviet military intelligence agent Alexander Radó.

Remarkably, the Red Orchestra also had a network of antifascists operating right under the Nazis’ noses in Berlin. By 1940/41 a group of around 150 people, including journalists, students, artists and civil servants, were organised by Arvid and Mildred Harnack, and Harrro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen, into a network of resistance in Berlin. The group took enormous risks to distribute anti-Nazi leaflets, letters and posters. They also helped persecuted people and documented Nazi crimes. They passed any information of military importance to the Soviet Union.

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