By Art Heitzer and Elizabeth Hoffmann
Dr. Mildred Fish Harnack was a Milwaukee native who gave her life in the fight against fascism during World War II. Born in Milwaukee in 1902, as Mildred Fish, she met her husband Dr. Arvid Harnack at UW-Madison. They both were involved in the famed “Friday-nighters” circle around John R. Commons, whose ideas were later adopted by the New Deal in response to the Depression. Mildred’s academic focus was literature; she taught in both the United States and Germany and translated important American novels as part of her pioneering role in establishing recognition in Europe for American literature (not just English literature). Arvid, an economist and lawyer, was part of one of Germany’s most prominent intellectual families.
They moved to Germany in 1929 and 1930 and remained after the Nazis and Adolf Hitler were given state power in early 1933 by the established conservatives at a time when both the Communists on the left and the Nazis on the right were gaining popular support. However, soon Hitler introduced censorship, and, following the suspicious Reichstag (parliament) fire in 1933, the Communists, Socialists, and trade unionists were rounded up and their parties were outlawed.
Mildred and Arvid’s antifascist activism began by regularly hosting a small group in their living room. This grew to become a network of left-wing and other resistance fighters, which the Gestapo nicknamed the Red Orchestra. One of the largest underground resistance groups in Berlin, the Red Orchestra stands out among other groups in the resistance for the vital role that women played.
The couple aided the antifascist resistance on many fronts. As a translator with excellent language skills, Mildred helped publish a multilingual underground newsletter addressed to forced laborers imported into wartime Germany from occupied nations. With her key contacts in the U.S. embassy and Arvid’s position in the Economics Ministry, they fed economic information to the U.S. and Soviet embassies. They also transmitted military intelligence to Moscow concerning Germany’s invasion of the USSR.
The Gestapo arrested Mildred and Arvid in September 1942. Arvid was sentenced to death and was executed by the Nazis shortly before Christmas. Mildred was initially sentenced to six years in prison. However, Hitler took a personal interest in her punishment and demanded a retrial, resulting in her being sentenced to death by guillotine on Feb. 16, 1943. This was shortly after the Red Army defeated the German 6th Army at the Battle of Stalingrad, widely considered the turning point in the war. She is the only American known to have been executed at Hitler’s direct orders and the only U.S. citizen executed by the Nazis for being part of the German Resistance.
While the role of Arvid, Mildred, and the Red Orchestra was hailed from the start by the U.S. occupation newspaper in Berlin, and even picked up by the UW Alumni Magazine, the rise of McCarthyism and the Red Scare effectively blocked their positive recognition for decades.
In 1985, after President Ronald Reagan provoked much anger in the U.S. and worldwide by laying a wreath at the Bitburg German military cemetery which included graves of SS troops, the Wisconsin legislature enacted a law to make Mildred’s birthday a Special Recognition Day throughout the state’s schools. In recent years, both the Milwaukee Turners and the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America have held events to honor her legacy.
But overall, recognition of her has been spotty and not without some controversy. The state legislation listing her September 16 birthday as a special recognition day is not self-enforcing, and statewide compliance has been inconsistent at best.
There have been at least two specific events challenging her recognition. First, former state Rep. Robert Welch proposed repeal of this state recognition in response to local American Legion correspondence asserting that it was shameful to honor someone whom they alleged was “un-American.“ That initiative went nowhere.
Second, a plaque in her honor erected in Milwaukee’s Turner Hall was stolen, perhaps by one or more individuals who thought the recognition was improper of someone with alleged communist affiliations. The Turners appointed former Socialist mayor Frank Zeidler to investigate the incident and recommend whether a plaque in her honor should be reinstalled. Zeidler concluded that while the possibility of communist affiliation could not be ruled out, her actions against Hitler and the Nazi regime merited positive recognition by the Turners. A new plaque was installed, which remains in Turner Hall today.
Mildred Fish Harnack’s heroism and the continued need to fight fascism still will be commemorated on Friday, Sept. 1, at Turner Hall, 1034 N Vel R Phillips Ave (doors open 6 pm) with an exciting lineup of regional musical talents including Ruth B8r Ginsburg, Glutton for Insurrection, Brandon Payton-Carrillo, Lil’ Guillotine, and DJ Dr!psweat.
Tickets are available here. For more information regarding the ongoing recognition of Dr. Fish Harnack, contact artheitzer@gmail.com.
