Red Orchestra

This riveting account of German resistance is based on years of research by the distinguished journalist Anne Nelson. This is a beautiful and moving portrait of ordinary but heroic figures -- an untold story of a circle of Germans and German-Americans in Berlin who took a principled stand against Hitler and the Holocaust. They expressed their opposition by infiltrating the Nazi ministries, distributing samizdat literature to break through the information blockade, and trying to help...
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This riveting account of German resistance is based on years of research by the distinguished journalist Anne Nelson. This is a beautiful and moving portrait of ordinary but heroic figures -- an untold story of a circle of Germans and German-Americans in Berlin who took a principled stand against Hitler and the Holocaust. They expressed their opposition by infiltrating the Nazi ministries, distributing samizdat literature to break through the information blockade, and trying to help the Allied forces achieve a military victory. The narrative is constructed around the life of Greta Kuckhoff, an "ordinary woman" educated at the University of Wisconsin, who returned to Germany only to see it sink into a fascist nightmare. The book relates the history of her resistance circle against an explanation of how Germany's civil society was systematically eroded. Greta and her friends grapple with questions of ongoing concern today. How can a citizen balance the tensions between patriotism and ethics? How can civic duty be defined in a period when peaceful protest fails? How do government restrictions and the concentration of media ownership compromise democratic expression? Included in this group were: *Greta Kuckhoff - who blended easily into the ranks of blond, neatly-dressed Aryan housewives. *Adam Kuckhoff, Greta's husband, who helped to produce the fluffy musicals and comedies that offered Germans a welcome distraction over the war. *Arvid Harnack who had risen briskly through the ranks at the Nazi Economics Ministry. Just past his 40th birthday, he was central to the planning of one of the most powerful economies in the world. *Mildred Harnack, Arvid's wife, was an American. It had been a little tricky for her to join the Nazi women's auxiliary, and she found it paradoxical to present her Daughters of the American Revolution certifications as proof of her Aryan purity. *Harro and Libertas Shultze-Boysen were perhaps the most glamorous couple in the Kuckhoff's circle. Harro was a dashing young intelligence officer in the Luftwaffe, or German air force. Libertas was a social butterfly who worked in the movie industry. Her husband's boss at the Luftwaffe, Hermann GÖring, found her enchanting. *John and Sophie Sieg, were definitely blue-collar types. John worked for the Reichsbahn, the German state railways - the arteries of the German war effort, transporting soldiers and materiel to the front, moving booty and captives back to the Reich. It was John's job, quite literally, to make the trains run on time.