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Anne Nelson
Red
Orchestra - The Story of the Berlin
Underground and the Circle of
Friends Who Resisted Hitler
Random House
In this unforgettable book,
distinguished author Anne Nelson
shares one of the most shocking and
inspiring–and least chronicled–stories
of domestic resistance to the Nazi
regime. The Rote Kapelle, or Red
Orchestra, was the Gestapo’s name
for an intrepid band of German
artists, intellectuals, and
bureaucrats (almost half of them
women) who battled treacherous odds
to unveil the brutal secrets of
their fascist employers and
oppressors.
Based on years of research,
featuring new information, and
culled from exclusive interviews,
Red Orchestra documents this
riveting story through the eyes of
Greta Kuckhoff, a German working
mother. Fighting for an education in
1920s Berlin but frustrated by her
country’s economic instability and
academic sexism, Kuckhoff ventured
to America, where she immersed
herself in jazz, Walt Disney movies,
and the first stirrings of the New
Deal. When she returned to her
homeland, she watched with anguish
as it descended into a totalitarian
society that relegated her friends
to exile and detention, an
environment in which political
extremism evoked an extreme
response.
Greta and others in her circle were
appalled by Nazi anti-Semitism and
took action on many fronts to
support their Jewish friends and
neighbors. As the war raged and Nazi
abuses grew in ferocity and reach,
resistance was the only possible
avenue for Greta and her compatriots.
These included Arvid Harnack–the
German friend she met in Wisconsin–who
collected anti-Nazi intelligence
while working for their Economic
Ministry; Arvid’s wife, Mildred, who
emigrated to her husband’s native
country to become the only American
woman executed by Hitler; Harro
Schulze-Boysen, the glamorous
Luftwaffe intelligence officer who
smuggled anti-Nazi information to
allies abroad; his wife, Libertas, a
social butterfly who coaxed favors
from an unsuspecting Göring; John
Sieg, a railroad worker from Detroit
who publicized Nazi atrocities from
a Communist underground printing
press; and Greta Kuckhoff’s husband,
Adam, a theatrical colleague of
Brecht’s who found employment in
Goebbels’s propaganda unit in order
to undermine the regime.
For many members of the Red
Orchestra, these audacious acts of
courage resulted in their tragic and
untimely end. These unsung
individuals are portrayed here with
startling and sympathetic power. As
suspenseful as a thriller, Red
Orchestra is a brilliant account of
ordinary yet bold citizens who were
willing to sacrifice everything to
topple the Third Reich.
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