WEBVTT - Mildred Fish-Harnack 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.279 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.440 of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:17.000 I'm Holly Fry and I'm tra Phoebe Wilson. Hey. Fair 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.640 warning you guys, this is not a particularly fun episode. Uh. 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.919 It is, in fact, I'm fun. Uh. It is the 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.640 story of Mildred fish Harnack, who was a woman from 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.760 Wisconsin who found herself at the center of a resistance 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.520 group working to undermine the Nazis in Germany as Hitler 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:36.879 came to power and catalyzed World War Two. While it 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.280 is not fun, it's an important story because it offers 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:42.559 a glimpse into some of the ways that the historical 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.599 record can get blurry, simply because in some cases there 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.240 are people trying to do the right thing and having 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:53.120 to cover their tracks, and as a consequence, their own 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:55.840 life stories kind of get blurry enough that they can 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.760 become tools of propaganda as a result. So that is 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.639 the story that we are telling to day. Uh. Like 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:03.720 I said, it's not a super upbeat one. So if 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.240 you're in a place where a downer is gonna make 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.880 you have a bad day, maybe save this one. It 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.080 will still be here waiting for you. When you get back. So. 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:16.720 Mildred was born Mildred Elizabeth Fish on September sixteenth, nineteen 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:20.039 o two. Although her birth certificate lists heer's name is 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:25.120 simply Maddie Fish. Her parents, William C. And Georgina Fish, 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:29.080 had three other children. They were Harriet, Marian, and mar Beau, 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:33.880 and they raised their family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mildred went 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.600 by Millie growing up, and because of the family lived 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.399 in a city with a large German population, she learned 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.440 to speak German. Yeah, she could also read and write it. 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:44.640 And the family moved around quite a bit, and that 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:47.920 was because William, who was an insurance agent, kind of 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.160 struggled to keep up financially and he often couldn't make rents, 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.240 so they would just pick up and move over time. 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:57.520 His problems with money led William and Georgina to become 0:01:57.560 --> 0:01:59.360 a strange so he was not really living with the 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:03.560 family for most of high school. Milly attended West Division 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.800 High School, which has since changed names to Milwaukee High 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.359 School of the Arts. Prior to her senior year, however, 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:15.000 her father, William died and Georgina and the children moved 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:19.320 to Chevy Chase, Maryland. Georgina had taken classes to learn 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.280 things like shorthand and taking dictation, so she was able 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:25.320 to secure a good job in Washington, d c. That 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.040 enabled her to provide for the family on her own. 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.680 Millie completed high school at Western High School in Baltimore, Maryland, 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.840 attending in the nineteen eighteen to nineteen nineteen school year 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.760 as a senior. And even though she only spent that 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.880 one year in school in Maryland, Millie did not seem 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:44.400 to have any problems with jumping into a variety of 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:49.200 school activities. She played sports, both baseball and basketball. She 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.240 acted in the senior play, and she also edited the 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.720 school paper, which was right in line with her career 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:58.400 goal of becoming a writer. Throughout her early years, she 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.200 wrote poetry and she became skilled as a writer of 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.440 both verse and prose. And when she wrapped up her 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:07.600 whirlwind final year of high school, she attended First George 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:12.400 Washington University, but she missed Wisconsin and so she transferred 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.720 to the University of Wisconsin Madison to complete her degree, 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:20.680 which she did in During her undergrad years, Mildred seems 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:22.840 to have been the kind of person that you'd love 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.240 to meet. She became part of a group known as 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.040 the Friday Night Ers. This was a progressive circle of 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:32.880 friends and intellectuals who met to socialize to discuss issues 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.440 such as women's equality and labor rights. One of the 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.640 other things Mildred did during college was to memorize the 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.960 first book of the Iliad in Greek. She was able 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.600 to recite the entire thing. This was something that her 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:49.240 professors occasionally had her do for their classes after she graduated. 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.440 It's one of those mind blowing things. To me. I 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:56.080 can't imagine ever being able to do it. Uh. With 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.840 her bachelor's degree in hand, Mildred continued into graduate studies 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.400 also at the University of Wisconsin Madison, which she completed 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.560 in nine. Her senior thesis was titled a Comparison of 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.440 Chapman's and Pope's translations of the Iliad with the original 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.440 and during that time in graduate school, she had also 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.240 worked on the Wisconsin Literary Magazine as an editor, and 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.160 she also taught English at the university, and it was 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.960 while teaching that she met her future husband. The meat 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:28.719 cute story for Mildred and Arvid Harnack goes like this. Harnack, 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.839 who was from Germany and was studying in the US 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.799 as a Rockefeller scholar, accidentally ended up in the wrong 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:40.200 classroom in the wrong building. That classroom was where Mildred 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:44.200 was teaching, and Arvid was immediately taken with her. When 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.320 the class was over. According to the story, Arvid introduced 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.640 himself and he and Mildred each apologized, he for his 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.960 halting English and she for her rusty German. So they 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.800 decided that they would study together so that they could 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:01.960 each improve their fluency, and this very quickly blossomed into 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:06.200 more of a date situation than study time. Arvid immediately 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:08.720 wrote to his family that he had met someone special 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:11.120 and he would continue to write to his mother about 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:13.680 the dates that he and Mildred went on, and then 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.880 on June n six, he wrote quote, I am very 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.799 happy I've got engaged. The whole thing is actually very curious, 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.080 because I can hardly speak English and Mildred knows no German. 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:26.159 I made up my mind when I saw her for 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.440 the second time. We got engaged yesterday. This engagement was 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:34.160 pretty short, just two months. Mildred and Arvid were married 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.920 on August seven, nine six. That was two days after 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.279 Mildred completed her exam for her master's degree. Per Arvid's 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:44.880 letter to his family quote, we celebrated the wedding on 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.680 her brother's farm. A large part of the Fish family 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:51.480 was gathered there. Mildred's mother is simple and yet very fine. 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.880 We arrived at the farm at five p and Mildred 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.680 and I left again at nine p. We were married 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:00.400 on the farm by father Johnston, methodist of his couple 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.560 of church. He made it short and painless. In a 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.719 very progressive move for the time, Mildred hyphenated her last 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.840 name to Fish Harnack rather than taking Arvid's last name. 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.479 I love how kind of just direct his letters are. 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.080 He manages to be both very clearly like into her 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:23.560 and yet not super florid and romantic in his writing style. 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:28.040 It's kind of adorable. So for the nine school year, 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.799 Mildred taught English in Baltimore at Goucher College. Arvid's fellowship 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.640 ended and he returned to Germany, initially by himself. Mildred 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:40.320 joined him in nine and she fit right in with 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:44.000 his family, who, like Mildred, valued education, and she became 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.200 very close with Arvid's sisters. Mildred wanted to continue her 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.840 studies to get a doctorate degree, and she did so 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.720 in her new home country. The couple moved away from 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.520 the Harnack home to Berlin in nine thirty, and she 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.920 got a job at the university, teaching English language literature 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.480 classes while also working towards her doctorate. That made her 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:07.160 not only one of the first Americans ever to teach there, 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.760 but it also made her a colleague of Albert Einstein, 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.800 who was also on the faculty. Of course, if you're 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:16.040 doing the math in terms of timeline, that decision to 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:18.440 move to Germany at the end of the nineteen twenties 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.920 meant that Mildred and Arvid were there as Hitler's rise 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.160 to power was gaining momentum, and they were, of course 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.640 troubled by it. Soon, their gatherings of friends to discuss 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:33.840 intellectual matters evolved into a resistance group. Mildred, as a 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:37.400 woman and a foreigner, lost her job. It also seems 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:39.080 that part of the problem was that she was not 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.640 aligned with the ruling Nazi party. She was able to 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:44.560 find work after that, but it was all sort of 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:48.200 piecemeal teaching, tutoring and translation work. None of it was 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.560 particularly lucrative. But Mildred was an ardent lover of literature, 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.760 so She continued to both translate German works into English 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.640 and to share the works of US writers like Faulkner 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.160 and Thomas Wolfe, who she met a one point with 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:05.400 her German students. Arvid was an economist. In the fallout 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.480 from the US market crash, he felt that capitalism was 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:12.640 a troubled economic structure, and he became fascinated with Marxism 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.680 and communism. He formed a study group that traveled to 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.400 Moscow in ninety two. That was a moment that might 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.560 have led to him being approached by Soviet agents about 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:26.640 sharing information on what was happening in Germany, but this 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.800 also meant that he had to become more and more secretive. 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:34.120 As both paths of his double life widened. He rose 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.559 through the ranks of the economics ministry, and soon he 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.800 was actively using the knowledge that he gained there to 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:45.520 help Germany's enemies. Both Mildred and Arvid also joined the 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.680 Nazi Party. This was so Mildred could continue to find 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:51.480 work and so Arvid could continue to work in the 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.400 economics ministry and just learn as much as he could. 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:57.680 They also both started working with a resistance group that 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.480 fought the Nazi regime in a number of ways. First, 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.480 they published a secret newsletter in Berlin to try to 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:07.040 warn people about the dangers of Hitler's regime. If you 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.400 listen to the episode in the archives about the White 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.679 Rose by previous hosts, you know that printing a newsletter 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:17.280 was inherently dangerous. Obtaining enough paper to print such things 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:21.079 automatically aroused suspicions, so even this seemingly simple act took 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:26.559 a great deal of stealth planning and smuggling of needed materials. Second, 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.840 as we mentioned a moment ago, they started sending information 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:34.240 to Germany's enemies, both the US and Soviet Union. By 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.320 giving information they had to contacts at the embassies for 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:41.959 those countries in Berlin. Mildred was close friends with Martha Dodd, 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.720 the daughter of the US ambassador stationed in Berlin, and 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.840 Arvin had professional connections to the embassies through his work. 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:51.360 In a moment, we're going to talk about some of 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.280 the other resistance efforts of Mildred and her husband, but 0:09:54.320 --> 0:10:04.679 first we will pause for a sponsor break. We mentioned 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:06.760 before the break that both of the har Knacks joined 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.439 the Nazi Party so that they could continue their work, 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:11.760 but that also meant that they could continue to meet 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.280 with their friends without arousing suspicion, and that meant they 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:20.120 could keep planning their resistance strategies. Mildred, like her husband, 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.160 used her work as part of their anti Nazi efforts. 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.000 She actually started recruiting students to the cause, and she 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:30.520 also used her translating work in the publishing industry, which 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.040 required business trips around Europe, to make contacts in other 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.240 countries who were sympathetic to Germans trying to fight their 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:41.480 dictatorship from within. There is evidence that Mildred helped Jews 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.840 escape from Germany, but exactly what she was doing to 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.320 do this, or how she got anyone out, is a 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.679 little bit unclear. It is highly possible that her personal 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.960 connection to the US embassy probably greased the wheels to 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.240 getting at least some people out with travel visas. And 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.560 throughout all of this they continued to document Nazi violence 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.880 and to write anti Hitler tracts, and they became part 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.880 of the larger affiliation of loosely connected groups that got 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:12.520 the umbrella nickname Red Orchestra. That name, to be clear, 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.079 was not a name that they used, It was one 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:17.679 that the Nazis assigned to them. It was wrote a 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:21.920 cappelle in German, and that translates literally to red chapel 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:26.080 or red band. The name arose because the Soviet code 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:29.880 for a radio operator was a musician, and the transmitters 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.360 were called music boxes. The Soviets had supplied radios to 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.600 the resistance groups in Berlin. It's still a little bit 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.720 unclear how much any of those radios actually got used. 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.680 I there's one documentary that interviewed some researchers that said 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.680 that like the effort had gone awry, like they didn't 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.199 really know how to use them, but uh, this still 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.560 kind of all got amalgamated into their name and in 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.720 their work with the orchestra, they shared information about Germany's 0:11:55.800 --> 0:12:00.240 finances gained largely through Arvid's work. Information about very as 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.079 companies and their contracts made their way to the US 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:07.440 and Soviet intelligence agencies, so data regarding the allocation of 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:11.720 assets could help predict Germany's movement. In nine thirty seven, 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.760 Mildred and Arvid took a trip to the US. This 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.640 was a work trip for Arvid. The US was not 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.040 yet at war with Germany, and Mildred arranged a concurrent 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.840 lecture tour with a topic titled the German relation to 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:30.280 current American literature. This trip was also arranged because Mildred's mother, Georgina, 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.520 was ill at the time. Arvid was willing to share 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:37.800 information about German activities, but he was running into a problem. 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.360 As a member of the Nazi Party. It was naturally 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.320 assumed that he was a Nazi, and while the US 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.320 wasn't in the war at this time, that didn't exactly 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:52.239 make anyone in the US government feel especially comfortable trusting him. Additionally, 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.840 both Mildred and her husband believed that they might have 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.679 been followed by German spies, so they couldn't exactly reveal 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.559 that their affiliation with the party was strictly for show. 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.640 Arvid was known for his economic study of communism, so 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.679 there was a whole second layer of distrust at play. 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:13.320 Also in ninety seven, once they returned to Germany, there 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.679 was a personnel change at the U. S Embassy. William 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.760 Edward Dodd, whose daughter had been close with Mildred, stepped 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.240 down from his position and he was replaced by Hugh R. Wilson. 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.640 Mildred and Arvid became good friends with the embassy's new 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.120 first Secretary, Donald R. Heath, as well as his family, 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.880 and he understood that they were Nazi party in paperwork 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.920 only as a ruse, and as tensions mounted in Berlin, 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:41.000 Mildred started tutoring he son, Donald Jr. And it was 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:43.920 through him that she and Arvid were able to pass 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:48.040 information to the US. It wasn't only Arvid's work that 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.240 provided intelligence. At one point Mildred was tutoring a German 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:54.960 soldier who, as he came to trust her, became a 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.920 little loose lipped on military matters. With this and the 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.800 military spending information gained through Arvid's post, they were able 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:07.199 to share critical information regarding Germany's rearmament, which was a 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:11.199 violation of the Treaty of Versailles. In Berlin. They also 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:16.360 disseminated information to other members of the resistance. Mildred illegally 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.320 accessed in transcribed foreign radio broadcasts so others in the 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.560 movement could know what was happening outside of Germany and 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.480 how Hitler's regime was being seen beyond their borders. As 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.760 part of their effort to keep a low profile. As 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:33.640 their involvement with the resistance effort escalated, the Harnacks moved 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.800 to a new home on the outskirts of the City, 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.160 and in their work with the Rhetor Orchestra that Harnacks 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.560 worked closely with Haro Schiltze Boizen It's a German Air 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:46.920 Ministry intelligence officer and initially Arvid Harnack thought Schiltze Boizen 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:49.880 was really too dangerous to work with, but he did 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:54.280 have a history of anti Nazi work. His revolutionary views 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.040 had gotten him arrested by the Essay when he was younger. 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:01.120 He came to their attention running a leftist periodical called Gegner, 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:05.520 which translates to Opponent. After being beaten severely and having 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.120 swastikas carved into his legs, among other tortures which led 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.920 to hospitalization, he was finally released through the influence of 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:16.880 his socialite mother. His co editor, Henry er Lange, who 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:21.040 was half Jewish, did not survive this encounter. Schiltza Voisen 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.120 is often reported as saying, after this horrific event quote, 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.680 I have put my revenge on ice. It was after 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.640 that he enrolled in pilot school and joined the German military, 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.560 again through his parents influence and apparently true to his word, 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:39.360 because as he appeared the perfect soldier and officer, he 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.520 was actually collecting intelligence and feeding it to the spy ring. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.480 He eventually earned a degree of trust from Harnack and Mildred. 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.000 As the nineteen thirties came to a close, Arvid had 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:54.600 grown increasingly worried for Mildred's safety because of her foreigner status. 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.320 He bought her an open ticket to return to the 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.680 US abort a steamship. She refused us to go, but 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.280 kept the ticket with her at all times. Her belief 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:06.880 was that she had work to do in Germany, and 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.520 she also just didn't want to leave her husband's side. 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:14.040 In the months leading up to June, the Red Orchestra 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:19.840 warned Soviet agents repeatedly about the impending Operation Barbarossa that 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:23.120 was Hitler's plan to invade the Soviet Union, but those 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.160 warnings were not heated, and the initial attacks took the 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.400 Soviet military by surprise from the top down in the structure. 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.200 And for people that were involved in the Red Orchestra, 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.640 who had really gone to great effort and endangered themselves 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.479 and their families to share this intelligence with the Soviets, 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:42.600 this whole thing was incredibly frustrating. Meanwhile, the Heaths had 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.760 been recalled from the US embassy just before the bombing, 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.360 of Pearl Harbor led to the US joining the war. 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.040 The embassy in Berlin was empty and the network of 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.960 informants that had once connected through it was broken. Ultimately, 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.200 the Red Orchestra was compromised in the fall of ninety 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.160 two biaus sloppy move on the part of the Soviets. 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.240 They reached out to a contact in Brussels via radio 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:09.600 and relayed the names and addresses of the Harnacks as 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.520 well as other associates advising resistance in Brussels, that they 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:18.800 should contact them in Berlin. That communication was intercepted by 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.960 the Germans. The Nazis quickly moved to arrest all of 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:26.320 the members, eventually taking hundreds into custody. Yeah, we're not 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.720 going super deep into the Red Orchestra itself, but there 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.280 were like it's usually laid out as like three pockets, 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.320 and so the Berlin pocket was the one obviously that 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.600 the Harnacks were part of. But they were moving to 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:43.840 arrest huge groups of people kind of across the resistance 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.919 efforts throughout Europe. Mildred and Arvid went to the Baltic coast, 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.600 and there's been speculation that they may have intended to 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.440 try to escape to Sweden, knowing that they had been 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.240 compromised and were in danger, but if they were making 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:00.080 an escape attempt that failed. They were instead arrested at 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.639 the Gestapo at the cottage that they had rented in 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.760 a seaside fishing town. Mildred was still carrying the ticket 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.840 Arvid had bought her for passage to North America with 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:14.560 the Transatlantic shipping company United States Lines. The Harnacks were 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:18.160 taken to the Gestapo headquarters and interrogated by Nazi agents 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.879 known for their use of torture. Mildred was placed in 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:26.639 Charlottenburg Women's Prison, and she was interrogated every day. We're 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.639 about to move into the Harnack's time after they were captured, 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:31.719 but before we get into that, we're going to take 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:34.240 a quick break and here from the sponsors that keep 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:45.280 Stuffy miss in history class going. The Harnack's trials were swift, 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.040 and they were not particularly interested in actually weighing the evidence. 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:51.399 That was also true for other members of the Red 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.920 Orchestra that had been captured. The Germans had long known 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:56.760 that there had to be a spy ring with a 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.320 branch operating in Berlin, and as Red Orchestra was un yield, 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:04.199 they felt justified in pursuing the harshest possible penalties for 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:08.840 that activity. Nazi judge Manfred Rhoder oversaw the trials. He 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:12.000 was known as one of Hitler's blood judges, and he 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.840 sought the steepest possible penalties. Were all involved in Red Orchestra, 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.760 demanding death sentences for most. Arvid was found guilty of 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:24.679 high treason and espionage and was sentenced to death, and 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.919 his deep love for Mildred is evident in his last 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:33.120 letter to her, which is dated December four. It opens 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.480 with quote, my dear beloved heart, in the last few months, 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.760 I found the strength to be inwardly calm and composed. 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:43.400 And when I await that which is coming as calmly 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.880 and composed, I have to thank above all the fact 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.840 that I feel a strong attachment to all that is 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:53.159 good and beautiful in this world, and that towards the 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.080 whole earth. I have the feeling which sings out of 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:00.760 the poet Whitman. As far as people come into the question, 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.120 it has been the ones close to me, and especially you, 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:09.119 who embodied these two feelings for me. Despite all the severity, 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:11.880 I look back gladly on my life up to now, 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.919 the bright outweighed the dark, and our marriage was, for 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:20.240 the greatest part the reason for this. That letter continues 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:24.200 on Arvid reminisces about moments in their life together, including 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.480 the picnic where they got engaged, and also just conversations 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.720 with Mildred that shaped the person he was. He tells 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:32.560 her that the more that he thinks about it, the 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:35.840 more good memories he recalls, and he encourages his wife 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.600 to reminisce similarly about their marriage and their families to 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:43.000 remember quote that the feelings of love merge in the world, 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:46.560 and then he concluded with quote, you are in my heart. 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.320 My greatest wish is that you are happy when you 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:51.960 think of me. I am when I think of you, 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:57.359 many many kisses. I hug you tight your A. Seven 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.680 days later was his official sentencing, and he was executed 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.600 on December twenty two by hanging at Plots and Z. 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.960 It was a particularly brutal hanging. Mildred was not informed 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:11.920 of her husband's death, but knowing that he had been sentenced, 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.880 she wrote quote, it can be assumed that I am widowed. 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:19.080 Arvid went to his death knowing that Mildred had been 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:23.800 found guilty of aiding treasonous activities and sentenced to six 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.840 years in prison. He had tried to see her one 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.919 last time, but that request was denied. Still though he 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:33.560 was confident that she could serve her sentence and then 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:38.119 would one day be free. But what Arvid did not know, uh. 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:40.400 And he also thought at this point that like things 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:44.240 were falling apart enough in in the German military, that 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:46.040 it was going to be over soon, and he kind 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:48.639 of was very hopeful. But he didn't know that Hitler 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:52.439 had called for Mildred to be retried, and while she 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:55.480 was incarcerated, this once lively woman who was so full 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:59.120 of passion for literature and just adoration for her husband, 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:02.960 turn into a much different person. Her hair turned from 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:05.760 blonde to white in a fairly short period of time. 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.159 She started to exhibit behavior that is often described as 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:12.560 bordering on madness. She had really withered away to skin 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.600 and bone. She was very thin. She at one point 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:19.639 is said to have attempted suicide by swallowing pins. But 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:24.359 despite what was obviously just a time of understandably incredible 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:27.480 stress and sorrow, she also during this time returned to 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:30.280 one of her dearest loves, which is literature and In 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:33.119 her final days, she worked on translating a book of 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:37.520 poems by Gerta in her cell. Chaplin Harold post Chal 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:41.720 visited her, and it's his account that describes her physical 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.760 condition that we mentioned just a moment ago. It was 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:50.040 through him that Mildred had Arvid's death confirmed, and that's 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:52.440 how she knew how he had spent his last days 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.760 and moments. The chaplain had also smuggled in some family 0:22:55.760 --> 0:23:00.480 photos and an orange from Arvid's sister. Mildred kissed her 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.200 mother's photo and wrote on the back quote, the face 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:05.760 of my mother expresses everything that I want to say 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:08.720 at this moment. The space was with me all through 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:13.480 these last months. Immediately before her execution by guillotine, Mildred's 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:18.719 last words were, ich haba Deutschland. Also giliped my apologies 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:21.480 from my bad German, but that translates to and I 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:25.360 have loved Germany so much. She was murdered on February 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:30.840 three at sixty seven pm. Mildred fish Harnack had the 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:34.479 sad distinction of being the only American woman executed at 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:37.760 Adolf Hitler's direct order. She was forty years old when 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:42.080