Mildred Harnack was not meant to be a hero. She grew up in Milwaukee, smart and full of energy, editing her school paper, excelling in sport’s, always wanting more. Then she met Arvid, married him, and moved to Berlin, just as Hitler was becoming powerful. She began teaching, first at the university and later at a night school, where she crossed a line. She turned her classroom into a quiet fight, holding study sessions that challenged the government.
She did not finish there. She contacted the American embassy through informant’s, followed the course of the Spanish Civil War, and passed the information on to the resistance. She was instrumental in the formation of the Red Orchestra, something the Nazis could no longer disregard. She and Arvid were detained in September of 1942. The courts gave her six year’s, but Hitler desired that she die. He ordered that she be executed.
January, 1943, retrial. February 16, beheading with the guillotine. Thirty four years of age. Her final words were brief but devastating: “And I have loved Germany so much.”
She was ordinary. That is what makes her terrifyingly unforgettable.
Credit to the rightful author~