Red Orchestra Lib/E: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler

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?

About the Author :
Anne Nelson is an acclaimed journalist, playwright, and lecturer. She has received numerous awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a New Harmony Dramatists Fellowship. Her articles have been published widely, and she is the author of The Guys, one of the first major plays to address the September 11 attacks. She also served as a war correspondent in El Salvador and Guatemala from 1980 to 1983, and her articles appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. Her first book, Murder Under Two Flags: The United States, Puerto Rico, and the Cerro Maravilla Cover-up, was made into a feature film. Anne Nelson is an acclaimed journalist, playwright, and lecturer. She has received numerous awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a New Harmony Dramatists Fellowship. Her articles have been published widely, and she is the author of The Guys, one of the first major plays to address the September 11 attacks. She also served as a war correspondent in El Salvador and Guatemala from 1980 to 1983, and her articles appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. Her first book, Murder Under Two Flags: The United States, Puerto Rico, and the Cerro Maravilla Cover-up, was made into a feature film. Anne Nelson is an acclaimed journalist, playwright, and lecturer. She has received numerous awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a New Harmony Dramatists Fellowship. Her articles have been published widely, and she is the author of The Guys, one of the first major plays to address the September 11 attacks. She also served as a war correspondent in El Salvador and Guatemala from 1980 to 1983, and her articles appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. Her first book, Murder Under Two Flags: The United States, Puerto Rico, and the Cerro Maravilla Cover-up, was made into a feature film.

Review :
Nelson has a tale to tell herself, and she does it quite well.-- "Library Journal" "Nelson effectively conveys the sense of determination and tension that characterized members [of the Red Orchestra], particularly as the Gestapo closed in on them." -- "Booklist" "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." -- "Publishers Weekly" "The Red Orchestra was the great classic spy network of the 1930s and World War II. Anne Nelson's Red Orchestra, superbly researched and sharply written, is about the real, very brave people who made up this network--who they were, what they did, and the price they paid for their resistance to tyranny in Europe's darkest hour." -- "Alan Furst, author of The Spies of Warsaw"