The Milwaukee Woman Who Resisted The Reich
Only one American woman was ever executed by direct order of Adolf Hitler, and that woman was born right here in Milwaukee. Her name was Mildred Fish-Harnack, and she was amazing.
Born Mildred Fish in 1902, she would go on to attend West Division High School here in town as well as the Milwaukee State Normal School (what is now UWM). She would even meet her future husband, Arvid Harnack, at UW-Madison. So how exactly does she go from Wisconsin born-and-bred to being embroiled in World War II subterfuge and subversion? The usual answer to a life of extreme excitement and danger: Higher Education.
You see, Mildred and Arvid having wed, moved to the University of Giessen in 1929, then later to the University of Berlin. They both ended up interested in Communism and the Soviet Union, and would pursue those interests strongly. In 1932, with the Third Reich roaring its engine and flexing its power, Mildred would lose her job at the University of Berlin thanks to being a foreigner. She would tour the Soviet Union later that year, but return to Berlin and begin teaching at an evening school.
With World War 2 in full swing, Mildred and Arvid would become and instrumental part of the Red Orchestra, a resistance group. They would smuggle intelligence to Soviet agents as well as the United States, but their main activities were printing and distributing literature to try and instill the German people into rising up against the fascist regime. They even just printed anti-Nazi stickers to place all over – resistance through graffiti.
Sadly in 1942 the Gestapo would intercept a radio transmission that would lead to the capture and arrest of dozens of members of the Red Orchestra. Her husband Arvid was executed first, with Mildred being sentenced instead to six years in prison. Hitler refused to sign off on that sentencing and ordered a retrial where she was sentenced to execution.
This entry barely touches upon the woman and her life, and I’d definitely recommend reading Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra to anyone who would like to learn much more about the woman and her work. For those more visually inclined, check out Wisconsin’s Nazi Resistance, a documentary by Wisconsin Public Television about Mildred.