Wisconsin Life

Fabu

Mildred Fish-Harnack. She still speaks. What speaks strongest today is Mildred Fish-Harnack's intelligence as an early 20th Century Wisconsin woman, educated at UW-Madison with a B.A in 1925, an M.A. in 1926 in English when most women remained on the farm or inside homes. What speaks strongest today is Mildred Fish-Harnack's global perspective as a Milwaukee, Wisconsin woman, married to German intellectual Arvid Harnack, earned a PhD in literature at the University of Giessen when most Americans never left their neighborhoods. What speaks strongest today is Mildred Fish-Harnack's determination as an academic Wisconsin woman committed to freedom of thought and faith, anti-Nazi resister through the Red Orchestra, when most people underestimated the evil of Adolph Hitler. What speaks strongest today is Mildred Fish-Harnack's courage as a grieved Wisconsin woman, husband and friends in the resistance killed, she was tortured, imprisoned, beheaded, when she was the only American woman executed. What speaks strongest today is Mildred Fish-Harnack's heart-felt decision as a transplanted Wisconsin woman to love Germany so much and so well that though dead, her life still speaks loudly.

applause