Red Orchestra

February 16, 2009
In this inspiring account, noted journalist and playwright Nelson documents the wartime journey of Greta Kuckhoff, a young German, and her valiant colleagues who formed a potent resistance to the Hitler regime in its glory days. When Kuckhoff returned home from America in 1929 after university study, she joined with a band of young Communists, leftist Jews and other German antifascists to thwart the rise of Hitler at the risk of torture and death. Nelson explains in telling detail about the Nazis’ tight grip on power after the 1933 Reichstag fire, eliminating all political foes, including Jews and other “non-Aryan” types, yet the Kuckhoffs, Mildred and Avrid Harnack, and other members of the Red Orchestra (Rote Kapelle
) fought fascist censorship, slid their people into Nazi ministries, helped Jews to flee and provided the Allies with vital information to aid the war effort. Nelson’s riveting book speaks proudly of Greta, Mildred and all of the nearly three million Germans who resisted Hitler’s iron will, and gives the reader a somber view of hell from the inside.

February 15, 2009
Inspiring history of Germans who risked and mostly lost their lives to oppose the Nazis.

Journalist and playwright Nelson (Murder Under Two Flags: The U.S., Puerto Rico, and the Cerro Maravilla Cover-Up, 1986) emphasizes that the famous 1944 bomb plot by disaffected Army officers obscures the existence of substantial, ongoing resistance in the broader population. She tells their story through the eyes of Greta Kuckhoff, a rare survivor whose 1972 memoir of her antifascist activities was mangled by the dogmatic alterations of her East German editor. (Nelson got a look at the original manuscript.) Kuckhoff spent years 1927 to 1929 doing graduate work in economics at the University of Wisconsin, where she befriended several other German students later prominent in the resistance. All returned home to experience the Depression and the spectacular rise of the Nazi Party, which struck many of them as wildly irrational. Opposition was always strongest in Berlin, a vibrant city whose intellectuals and artists thought for themselves and whose millions of factory workers had more leftist sympathies than those in other cities. Kuckhoff and her friends struggled to make a living while meeting and plotting with likeminded comrades. A substantial number joined the civil service or the military and rose to high positions while passing information to the local underground or foreign diplomats. Kuckhoff fell in love with a popular writer and participated in groups dominated by intellectuals. Their sexism shunted her into minor tasks such as typing, which may have saved her life when her husband and most of their friends were caught, tortured and executed in 1942–43. Nelson admits that many resistance activities, such as printing and distributing leaflets, had no noticeable effect on the German war effort, and the Allies ignored a surprising amount of the information dissidents risked their lives to convey. Nonetheless, their courage and sacrifice deserves a permanent place in history books.

A modest but important account of a heroic movement.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 15, 2009
Tom Cruise is currently starring in "Valkyrie", which tells the story of the June 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler, certainly exciting stuff and probably worth the price of admission. But Nelson has a tale to tell herself, and she does it quite well. The Red Orchestra was a group of intellectuals, artists, and even German military officers who gathered secretly in Berlin during the Nazi era and sought to oppose Hitler and his henchmen through the distribution of leaflets, newsletters, and other forms of stealthy communication. Although many members of this clandestine group were sympathetic to the Soviet Union, they were all united in their disgust and horror of what had become of Germany as the Nazis slowly tightened their control over all aspects of German life. Led by Greta Kuckhoff and her husband, Adam, the small group of resisters was eventually discovered; many were either imprisoned or executed. Despite its tragic demise, the Red Orchestra represents yet another relatively unknown aspect of the German resistance, which, as the archives are now starting to reveal, was much more extensive and organized than originally thought. Recommended for most collections.Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2009
Hitler and the Nazi Party never achieved total political and social control over Germany. Even after the onset of World War II, a few brave voices continued clandestine but active opposition. The best known were the group of military and religious figures led by Klaus von Stauffenburg and the White Rose organization centered around university students and siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl. Nelson, a playwright and foreign correspondent, has examined the personalities and activities of another tiny and courageous group. Dubbed the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo and led by young Germans and German American members, the group was remarkably successful at serving in government positions while gathering intelligence, disseminating anti-Nazi information, and saving the lives of Jews. Nelson effectively conveys the sense of determination and tension that characterized members, particularly as the Gestapo closed in on them. A large percentage of the group was captured and executed. Nelson plays down the pro-Soviet views of many members, but this is still a worthy tribute to their courage and dedication.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)