March 24, 2023
Hello ,
It's past my bedtime and I'm tossing in the towel. I'm sorry, I was not able to finish this week's feature story. Too many threads I am trying to pull together.
But I promise to have it for you next week, and you will not want to miss it!
It's the story of the only American executed on direct orders from Hitler. I have never heard of her. Probably because, for decades, the United States government tried to cover up her story.
Why? An officer in the Army Counter Intelligence Corps believed she was a communist.
The woman's great-great-niece is alive today and discovered the truth after World War II documents were declassified.
“It was very
shocking to me to read these declassified memos written by members of the CIC after the war," says Rebecca Donner.
"On one hand there was this acknowledgment that [she]had tried to fight the Nazi regime…but a high-ranking officer basically said she deserved her punishment. An American citizen who fought the Nazi regime and was then beheaded… He used the word ‘justified.’ It just took my breath away."
Catch my newsletter next week for the story of Mildred Fish Harnack. The Nazis had her strapped to a bench and guillotined, February 16, 1943. They noted it took her seven seconds to die.
