Mildred Harnack: An Unknown Hero

On August 30, 1942, the Gestapo arrested a Russian spy who revealed information about the resistance. Soon after, the transmitters were discovered and the arrests of circle members began. A total of 118 people were involved. Of them, 22 were released and the courts tried 75, including the Harnacks.

Arvid was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. He was garroted at the Plotzensee on Christmas Eve, 1942. Mildred was also found guilty, but being a woman, was sentenced to 4 years of hard labor in a concentration camp. At some point, Hitler decided to make an example of Mildred, most likely because she was an American. He personally requested the court reconsider their sentence. On January 16, 1943, the Senate of the Reichs war tribunal, without any new evidence, sentenced Mildred to death.

Mildred spent the last month of her life translating works by Goethe in her cell. She was beheaded on February 16, 1943. Her last words were, "And I have loved Germany so much." Her family did not discover her death until after the war was over, but they had known she was in trouble since she sent a letter saying, "Better not write, but don't forget me."

As the only female American executed inside the German Reich for opposing Hitler, Mildred Harnack is remembered by a date of honor (February 16) observed by Wisconsin school children. Her intelligence and bravery have also been honored by a school in former East Berlin named after her and at the memorial in Berlin's former political prison, Topogratie des Terrors.

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