Couples in Nazi resistance group maligned as 'Communists' after WWII
End of Cold War sheds light on Berlin's executed resistance fighters
BERLIN (14. October, 2024) — Recent media products are telling new, compelling stories of Berlin man-and-wife couples who dedicated their lives — and lost them — to resisting fascism here during World War II.
Three works are notable — each about a couple working for the “Red Orchestra” (Rote Kapelle) group*. The anti-war, anti-fascist organization sent military secrets to the Allies — Nazi Germany’s enemies, East and West — from 1941 until 1944, helping to defeat the fascist regime and thereby ending the war. Today, we’re looking at several “Red Orchestra” stories, told in relatively new works:
— “The Bohemians” (“Harro und Libertas” in German), Norman Ohler’s 2020 book (nonfiction) about the work of Libertas and Harro Schulze-Boysen, whose discovery and arrest by the Nazis contributed to the fates of countless others, creating a domino effect across the network. (This was a network that extended from London through Switzerland, Paris, Berlin and Moscow — or vice-versa.)
— A 2011 film, “Wisconsin’s Nazi Resistance: The Mildred Fish-Harnack Story,” by Wisconsin’s Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). This is the story of Milwaukee native Mildred Fish-Harnack and her German husband, Arvid Harnack. The Harnacks were executed in 1942-43 — Mildred beheaded — under the direct orders of an embittered Adolf Hitler; and
— A German film opening this month, “In Liebe, Eure Hilde” (See trailer, above), about Hilde and Hans Coppi, whom the Nazis also executed for committing “treason” against their thuggish regime. Hilde Coppi was one of two Rote Kapelle prisoners who were pregnant when they were arrested, charged, and sentenced, in the fall of 1942. Both were allowed to give birth to their children in prison. (Frau Coppi gave birth to a son, Hans, on November 27; Hans Jr. became an advocate for his parents, joined by many others.) On orders directly by der Führer, these women, along with other co-conspirators of the Red Orchestra, were quietly executed by guillotine the following spring. Like Arvid Harnack and Harro Schulze-Boysen, Hans Coppi was sentenced and executed in December 1942.
If this were only the end of their story….
* Rote Kapelle was something of a code-name applied to the communications/spy group by their Nazi prosecutors. The “Red,” of course, paints them politically, as communists — either as party members or intellectual “true believers.” Alternative English translations of Kapelle include “the Red Chapel” and “Red Choir,” but these are incorrect. The Gestapo’s identification of the organization/conspiracy as an “Orchestra” referred to individuals’ ability as “pianists,” or radio/telegraph operators. -ts