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All the frequent troubles of our days : the true story of the american woman at the heart of the German resistance to Hitler / Rebecca Donner

Donner, Rebecca, (author).

Summary:
Part biography, part political thriller, part scholarly detective story that draws on letters, diary entries, notes smuggled out of a Berlin prison, and other documents, this true story chronicles the life and brutal death of Mildred Harnack, the American leader of one of the largest underground resistance groups in Germany
"Born and raised in Milwaukee, Mildred Harnack was twenty-six when she enrolled in a PhD program in Germany and witnessed the meteoric rise of the Nazi party. In 1932, she began holding secret meetings in her apartment--a small band of political activists that by 1940 had grown into the largest underground resistance group in Berlin. She recruited working-class Germans into the resistance, helped Jews escape, plotted acts of sabotage, and collaborated in writing leaflets that denounced Hitler and called for revolution. Her coconspirators circulated through Berlin under the cover of night, slipping the leaflets into mailboxes, public restrooms, phone booths. When the first shots of the Second World War were fired, she became a spy, couriering top-secret intelligence to the Allies. On the eve of her escape to Sweden, she was ambushed by the Gestapo. At a Nazi military court, a panel of five judges sentenced her to six years at a prison camp, but Hitler overruled the decision and ordered her execution. On February 16, 1943, she was strapped to a guillotine and beheaded. Historians identify Mildred Harnack as the only American in the leadership of the German resistance, yet her remarkable story has remained almost unknown until now. Harnack's great-great-niece Rebecca Donner draws on her extensive archival research in Germany, Russia, England, and the U.S. as well as newly uncovered documents in her family archive to produce this astonishing work of narrative nonfiction. Fusing elements of biography, real-life political thriller, and scholarly detective story, Donner brilliantly interweaves letters, diary entries, notes smuggled out of a Berlin prison, survivors' testimony, and a trove of declassified intelligence documents into a powerful, epic story, reconstructing the moral courage of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history."--Provided by publisher

Record details

  • ISBN: 0316561703
  • ISBN: 9780316561709
  • Physical Description: xvi, 560 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 21 cm
  • Edition: First Back Bay paperback edition
  • Publisher: New York : Back Bay Books, [2022]

Content descriptions

General Note:
"Originally published in hardcover by Little, Brown and Company, August 2021"--Title page verso
Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index
Formatted Contents Note:
The boy with the blue knapsack (1939) -- I (1902-1933). We must change this situation as soon as possible -- Yankee Doodle Dandy -- Good morning, sunshine -- The BAG -- II (1933-1934) -- Fragment -- Chancellor Hitler -- Two Nazi ministers -- A whisper, a nod -- The people's radio -- The Reichstag fire -- An act of sabotage -- Mildred's recruits -- Tumbling like dominoes -- Torched -- Dietrich does battle with the Aryan clause -- Arvid burns his own book -- III (1938-1939). American in Berlin -- Don't dawdle -- IV (1933-1935) -- The proper care of cactus plants -- Fair bright transparent -- Two kinds of parties -- Bugged -- Esthonia, and other imaginary women -- Arvid gets a job -- Thieves, forgers, liars, traitors -- Rudolf Ditzen, aka Hans Fallada -- The night of the long knives -- V (1939). A Molek©ơl and other small things -- The Kansas Jack gang -- VI (1935-1937). Fragment -- A new strategy -- Bye-bye, Treaty of Versailles -- Tommy -- Monkey business -- Rindersteak Nazi -- An old pal from ARPLAN -- Spies among us -- Beheadings are back -- Ernst and Ernst -- Identity crisis -- VI (1937-1939). Homecoming -- Georgina's tremors, big and small -- Jane in love -- My little girl -- A circle within the circle -- A child, almost -- Stalin and the dwarf -- Boris's last letter -- Seeking allies -- VIII (1937-1940) -- Morgenthau's man -- Joy ride -- Lunch before Kristallnacht -- Getting to be pretty good -- A fateful decision -- Air raid -- Louise Heath's diary -- Mamzelle and Mildred and mole -- IX (1940-1942). Fragment -- Foreign excellent trench coats -- Corsican drops a bombshell -- Libs and Mildred among the cups and spoons -- AGIS and other agitations -- Zoya Ivanovna Rybkina's eleven-page table -- Stalin's obscenity -- Hans Coppi's first message -- Anatoly Gurevich, aka Kent, aka Vincente Sierra, aka Victor Sukolov -- Code red -- A single error -- Gollnow -- One pain among so many -- Oil in the Caucasus -- X (1942-1945). Fragment -- Arrest -- The Gestapo album -- Knock-knock -- Falk does his best -- Wolfgang's seventh interrogation -- Kassiber -- The Red Orchestra is neither all red nor particularly musical -- Anneliese and witch bones -- Hitler's bloodhound -- The first of many trials -- Mildred's cellmate -- The greatest bit of bad luck -- The armband she wore -- The Mannhardt guillotine -- All the frequent troubles of our days -- Stieve's list -- The final solution -- Gertrud -- XI (1942-1952). Harriette's rage -- Valkyrie -- Recruited -- By chance -- Arvid's letter -- XII (1946). Don goes back
Subject: Harnack-Fish, Mildred, 1902-1943
Rote Kapelle (Resistance group)
Anti-Nazi movement > Germany > Berlin > Biography
World War, 1939-1945 > Underground movements > Germany > Berlin
Espionage > Germany > Berlin > History > 20th century
Executions and executioners > Germany > History > 20th century
Americans > Germany > Biography
Germany > History > 1933-1945
Genre: Biography
Biographies.
History.
Biographies.
Biographies.
Biographies.

Available copies

  • 1 of 1 copy available at SPARK Libraries.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Bangor Public Library B 92 HAR (Text) 75011000394343 Adult Biography Available -


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