Read Mildred Fish-Harnack Factoids

Below is a compilation of facts and explanations that will expand upon Mildred Fish-Harnack's story.

Red Orchestra Background
Six-hundred members belonged to this group that Mildred and her husband, Arvid, helped organize. She spent 9 years fighting Hitler by typing fliers, maintaining contacts and arranged secret meetings. They distributed an underground publication in 6 languages. She translated the speeches of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill and illegally distributed them around Berlin.

Red Orchestra Code Names
Real names were not used by the Red Orchestra. Instead, aliases were used so if they were ever captured they could not incriminate any other member of the group during torture. Arvid's code name was discovered in a KGB file in 1993. He went by "Corsican." One of his contacts, a Soviet spy by the name of Anatoli Gurevich, went by "Kent." Arvid's step-nephew, Wolfgang Havemann, was "Italianer" and Karl Behrens was "Beamer." In all, the KGB believed there were more than 60 people in the Harnack resistance circle.

Source: "Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra" by Shareen Blair Brysac. Copyright by Shareen Blair Brysac. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

The Trial

The trials were a state secret and closed to the pubic and families. The Gestapo explained the absence of their suspects as an official trip abroad. Lawyers and clients were often forbidden to talk with each other and they couldn't always review the evidence. Their lawyers could not even show their clients the charges against them. Mildred wasn't allowed to hear those who testified against her.

During their trial on Dec. 15, 1942, Mildred and Arvid saw each other for the first time in three months. The verdicts against 13 so-called Red Orchestra members were read on Dec. 19. Arvid is sentenced for preparation of high treason, undermining military strength, aiding the enemy and espionage.

Mildred was sentenced as an accessory to espionage not a conspirator. She was originally sentenced to six years in prison and six years loss of honor. Her defense argued she only followed the directions of her husband. Hitler disagreed with the prison sentence and had Mildred and Erika Von Brockdorff, another member of the Red Orchestra, retried. The second trial started on Jan. 13, 1943. Both Mildred and Erika would be sentenced to death. No records of their second trial have ever been recovered.

Aftermath Of Mildred, Arvid's Execution

The Nazis weren't only brutal in their torture but in the mental anguish they inflicted on the families. After the executions, the Nazis sent the Harnack family two bills. They had to pay the cost for boarding at Gestapo headquarters and prison charges for both Mildred and Arvid. The families also had to pay court and execution costs and it wasn't cheap. They were even charged for the postage stamp used to mail the bill. Personal belongings weren't returned.

In fact, the Harnack family had to go to the Finance Ministry to "buy" back some items.

The executioner made 80 marks for every head and a bonus ration of eight cigarettes. No German court has ever reopened the case of the Red Orchestra to see if what happened constituted murder.

Mildred Fish-Harnack's Journalism Career

The Home Front
Monthly underground anti-Nazi newspaper published in six languages. It was intended to reach foreign workers brought to Germany and soldiers.

Wisconsin State Journal
Her first year at the University of Wisconsin, she worked for the Wisconsin State Journal as a drama and movie critic. She eventually wrote feature articles and became society editor.

Wisconsin Literary Magazine
She joined the magazine in 1922 and eventually became its editor. At one time, The Lit could be bought as far away as New York City. It was a rival to the Daily Cardinal Newspaper. She wrote poems and sketches.

Comet: West Division High School Milwaukee
In high school, Mildred wrote for the Comet, her school newspaper. She was in school during World War I and that influenced her poems and sketches.

Mildred Fish-Harnack Poem "OUR BOYS"
They saw the need and went: their life
Narrowed in the sterner living,
Stripped of its tinsel, leaving the bare intent:
To fight and love.
Perhaps a nobler life is theirs in death-
How little of the debt can we repay!
Even our gratitude they need not now!
'Tis not enough to give our thanks,
Thanks that they justified our high ideal.

Source: "Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra" by Shareen Blair Brysac. Copyright by Shareen Blair Brysac. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

Translating Goethe Poetry

The language of German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe moved Mildred Fish-Harnack up to the moment of her death. The writing might have held the horror at bay. This is the poem that she was translating on the day of her death. A book of Goethe poems and Mildred's translations was smuggled out of her prison cell by a chaplain and is preserved at the German Memorial Resistance Center in Berlin.

VERMACHTNIS
Translation by Mildred Fish-Harnack

No being can to nothing fall.
The everlasting lives in all.
Sustain yourself in joy with life.
Life is eternal; there are laws
To keep the living treasure's cause
With which the worlds are rife.

The old old truth was long since found
And noble mind to mind has bound.
Take hold of ancient truth a main.
Thank for it, son of Earth, the One
Who laid her path around the sun
And bade her Brother wax and wane

Now straight way turn to your own soul.
There find the center and the pole
No noble spirit would gainsay.
There no rule fails and all give light
Your own indwelling sense of right
Is sunshine to your moral day.

And once you know the benediction
Of dwelling deep in the conviction
The fruitful only is the true-
You can scan things in their general sway;
They'll keep disposing in their way
Your place is with a chosen few.

(The phrase "with a chosen few" is the name of the exhibit by Franz Rudolf Knubel at the German Memorial Resistance Center)