From Publishers Weekly
Brysac's aim is not to provide a biography in the usual sense but to share tantalizing insights into the espionage efforts of Mildred Fish-Hamack, the only American woman executed in Nazi GermanyAunder Hitler's personal ordersAas an underground conspirator and co-leader, with her German husband, Arvid Harnack, of the leftist resistance group the Nazis dubbed the Red Orchestra. It is also Brysac's aim to vindicate Mildred and Arvid, long believedAbecause Arvid had assumed a position in the Third Reich (as a cover) and so little information was available until recentlyAto have "gone Nazi." Using Mildred's own letters and those from the daughter of FDR's ambassador, a friend in Berlin, as well as the recollections of survivors who knew her, newspaper articles and intelligence documents from Germany, Russia and the U.S., Brysac (co-author with Karl E. Meyer of Tournament of Shadows), concedes that her book is filled with inconsistencies and contradictions (a by-product of memories more than half a century old), but she offers a gripping narrative. Unfortunately, her presentation leaves some questions unanswered: for example, it is not clear how much of the couple's spying actually aided the U.S. or the Soviets, whose political vision the they embraced, although the Nazis blamed the Red Orchestra for the German defeat at Stalingrad, considered the turning point in the war. Yet Brysac presents a compelling tale of anti-Nazi resistance along with a colorful and vivid portrait of Fish-Harnack. This title should get attention in major book review media, and students of espionage, of WWII and general readers intrigued by the tale of a long-forgotten heroine will seek it out. 10-city author tour. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Brysac, an Emmy Award-winning producer, writer, and director of CBS documentaries, has painstakingly compiled personal interviews, letters, and historical documents into a balanced narration of the life of Mildred Fish-Harnack and her times. The book chronicles the story of several "Aryan elite" Germans, dubbed the Red Orchestra by the Nazis, who organized resistance to Hitler's regime. They included the Wisconsin-born Fish-Harnack, a teacher and scholar; her husband, Arvid Harnack, an economics minister in the Reich; and numerous friends and family (many of whom were later executed). Additionally, newly discovered information of this groups' Berlin activities are detailed here due to recently released documents from the KGB, FBI, and CIA. Although other books have been written about the Red Orchestra (notably, The Red Orchestra: The Soviet Spy Network Inside Nazi Europe), none has concentrated solely on the actions of the Berlin network. By detailing the life of Fish-Harnack, whose guillotining in 1943 made her the only American woman executed for treason during World War II, Brysac is able to put a very human face on these troubled times. With a supporting cast of Fish-Harnack's friends such as Martha Dodd, Brysac has developed a scholarly analysis of this forgotten group. Containing a lengthy bibliography, notes section, and index, this work is recommended for academic libraries.DMaria C. Bagshaw, Lake Erie Coll., Painesville, OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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