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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    • john_browns_beard [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      Congrats on the new job!

      I started at a new job 2.5 months ago and it's the best feeling ever fucking over your dickhead boss. I do feel a little bad for my former coworkers but most of them can handle themselves. The department has been collapsing since I left and my former boss will probably end up fired soon.

      Since they always drag their feet on replacing people and just delegate work, everyone got super pissed. Two employees are out on medical, one retired, another is retiring within a couple of months, one left the company for another job, and the only remaining supervisor (there were two of us until I left) just injured herself and will probably be out for several weeks. This was a department that originally had 14 people 😂

      Best part is that I was warning my boss about one of the medical leave people for months. She is very high risk for covid and they were hell bent on forcing her back into the office even though she was doing phenomenally from home. I told him that she would just take a leave and he would be paying her to do nothing instead of working at home, and he didn't listen...well, surprise surprise!

        • john_browns_beard [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          The brain drain is pretty bad there, they have managed to brainwash some good people into thinking they need to work 70 hours per week to climb that ladder, but the really smart ones just leave. For the past three years, the work was always going to slow down in "just a few more months".

          The peak moment was during my last week where I was doing basically nothing except training everyone else how to perform my responsibilities, my boss comes to me and asks "Why is [KPI] so low this week? Should I be concerned?" It took everything I had in me not to laugh in his face.