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.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Donner, Rebecca, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women spies.

Americans.

Executions and executioners.

History.

Espionage.

Anti-Nazi movement.

Germany.

Germany--Berlin.

Harnack-Fish, Mildred, 1902-1943.

Harnack-Fish, Mildred.

Anti-Nazi movement--Germany--Berlin--Biography.

Anti-Nazi movement--Germany--Berlin.

Rote Kapelle (Resistance group).

Espionage--Germany--Berlin--History--20th century.

Executions and executioners--Germany--History--20th century.

Americans--Germany--Biography.

Women spies--Germany--Berlin--Biography.

War--Underground movements.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 560 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2021.

Summary:

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 with a small band of political activists that by 1940 had grown into the largest underground resistance group in Berlin. 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 she was sentenced 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. Harnack's great-great-niece Rebecca Donner draws on archival research in Germany, Russia, England, and the U.S. as well as newly uncovered documents in her family archive to reconstruct the moral courage of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history. -- Adapted from dust jacket

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.

Contents:

Mildred

I (1902-1933)

We Must Change This Situation as Soon, as Possible p. 15

Yankee Doodle Dandy p. 25

Good Morning, Sunshine p. 29

The BAG p. 40

II (1933-1934)

Fragment p. 51

Chancellor Hitler p. 52

Two Nazi Ministers p. 58

A Whisper, a Nod p. 63

The People's Radio p. 70

The Reichstag Fire p. 74

An Act of Sabotage p. 81

Mildred's Recruits p. 86

Tumbling Like Dominoes p. 90

Torched p. 97

Dietrich Does Battle with the Aryan Claus p. 101

Arvid Burns His Own Book p. 105

The Boy

III (1938-1939)

American in Berlin p. 111

Don't Dawdle p. 121

Mildred

IV (1933-1935)

The Proper Care of Cactus Plants p. 127

Fair Bright Transparent p. 130

Two Kinds of Parties p. 136

Bugged p. 138

Esthonia, and Other Imaginary Women p. 141

Arvid Gets a Job p. 144

Thieves, Forgers, Liars, Traitors p. 148

Rudolf Ditzen, aka Hans Fallada p. 150

The Night of the Long Knives p. 155

V (1939)

A Molekül and Other Small Things p. 163

The Kansas Jack Gang p. 167

VI (1935-1937)

Fragment p. 171

A New Strategy p. 172

Bye-Bye, Treaty of Versailles p. 176

Tommy p. 180

Monkey Business p. 189

Rindersteak Nazi p. 194

An Old Pal from ARPLAN p. 198

Spies Among Us p. 203

Beheadings Are Back p. 206

Widerstand p. 210

Ernst and Ernst p. 217

Identity Crisis p. 224

VII (1937-1939)

Homecoming p. 231

Georgina's Tremors, Big and Small p. 236

Jane in Love p. 241

My Little Girl p. 247

A Circle Within the Circle p. 250

A Child, Almost p. 254

Stalin and the Dwarf p. 260

Boris's Last Letter p. 265

Seeking Allies p. 268

VIII (1937-1940)

Morgenthau's Man p. 273

Joy Ride p. 282

Lunch Before Kristallnacht p. 287

Getting to Be Pretty Good p. 292

A Fateful Decision p. 298

Air Raid p. 304

Louise Heath's Diary p. 313

Mamzelle and Mildred and Mole p. 317

IX (1940-1942)

Fragment p. 323

Foreign Excellent Trench Coats p. 324

Corsican Drops a Bombshell p. 326

Libs and Mildred Among the Cups and Spoons p. 329

AGIS and Other Agitations p. 332

Zoya Ivanovna Rybkina's Eleven-Page Table p. 338

Stalin's Obscenity p. 346

Hans Coppi's First Message p. 349

Anatoly Gurevich, aka Kent, aka Vincente Sierra, aka Victor Sukolov p. 352

Code Red p. 357

A Single Error p. 360

Gollnow p. 363

One Pain Among So Many p. 366

Oil in the Caucasus p. 370

X (1942-1945)

Fragment p. 375

Arrest p. 376

The Gestapo Album p. 382

Knock-Knock p. 392

Falk Does His Best p. 396

Wolfgang's Seventh Interrogation p. 401

Kassiber p. 403

The Red Orchestra Is Neither All Red nor Particularly Musical p. 407

Anneliese and Witch Bones p. 412

Hitler's Bloodhound p. 418

The First of Many Trials p. 421

Mildred's Cellmate p. 424

The Greatest Bit of Bad Luck p. 429

The Armband She Wore p. 431

The Mannhardt Guillotine p. 433

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days p. 436

Stieve's List p. 439

The Final Solution p. 443

Gertrud p. 445

XI (1942-1952)

Harriette's Rage p. 457

Valkyrie p. 462

Recruited p. 467

By Chance p. 470

Arvid's Letter p. 472

XII (1946)

Don Goes Back p. 477.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 487-544) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Schneidman Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9780316561693

031656169X

OCLC:

1261060080