workingclasshistory:

On this day, 16 February 1943, US-born translator, writer and German anti-Nazi resistance activist Mildred Fish-Harnack was beheaded in Berlin: the only US woman to be executed on dictator Adolf Hitler’s personal orders.
Fish-Harnack was a leading activist in the largest underground resistance group in Berlin, known to its members as the Circle, but better known to many by the name given to it by the Nazis: the “Red Orchestra”. The group recruited other resistance activists, distributed anti-fascist propaganda, and some of its members provided valuable intelligence on Nazi military plans to rival governments, including the US and Soviet Union.
Fish-Harnack was arrested alongside her husband, Arvid Harnack, and brutally tortured, tried and sentenced to hard labour, while Arvid was executed. But her sentence enraged Hitler, who ordered she be retried and sentenced to death.
Upon reviewing the case after Germany’s defeat in World War II, US intelligence determined that Fish-Harnack’s execution was justified. The US then recruited the Nazi who prosecuted Fish-Harnack, and helped him avoid being charged with war crimes at Nuremberg. Meanwhile, British intelligence recruited the Nazi responsible for Fish-Harnack’s arrest and torture, faking his death and giving him a new identity as a factory manager in West Germany.
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We have nearly finished producing a double podcast episode about Mildred Fish-Harnack in conversation with Rebecca Donner, Mildred’s great great-niece and author of the fantastic book about Mildred’s life, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days. Our patreon supporters will get to listen to these episodes first. Join us and get early access to our podcasts at https://patreon.com/workingclasshistory https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1922623287922812/?type=3