Book Review of “Resistance Women: A Novel”

Resident Bill Miller’s review of Resistance Women: A Novel by Jennifer Chiaverini [New York: Harper Collins, 2019], is scheduled for Tuesday, April 19, 2022 at 7 PM in the Auditorium.

Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini is a momentous work of historical fiction.  Centered on Berlin from 1929 to 1946, it looks at the rise and fall of Nazism through the eyes of a group of brave women and their families who resisted Hitler.

Central to the book is a courageous American – Mildred Fish Harnack – a Wisconsin graduate student who marries a young German economist and accompanies him back to his German homeland in 1929.  The story unfolds with the rapid rise to power of Hitler and Mildred’s determination not to return to the safety of the United States without her husband.  Instead, Mildred surrounds herself with a small circle of friends who form a resistance group.  In 1943, Mildred was executed on the express order of Hitler.

There are three other women featured in the book.  Martha Dodd who accompanied her father, the American Ambassador to Germany. She starts off as a great admirer of the Nazi movement until she sees some atrocities firsthand.  She used her influence to help some Jews flee Germany and ended up falling in love with a Russian Communist diplomat.  Thru her eyes, we have a firsthand look at the 1936 Olympics from a box seat located right behind Hitler.

Another real person in the book is Greta Lorke Kickoff, a native of Germany, who met Mildred while she was studying at the University of Wisconsin. Greta played a critical role in helping some of her Jewish friends to escape Germany and she helped translate Mein Kampt into English so that people in Great Britain and the United States could fully understand Hitler’s intentions.  The manuscript had to be smuggled out of Germany.

Sara Weitz is a composite character inspired by three Jewish women who were active in the “Rote Kapelle” group. Each one was extremely courageous and took great risks.

While strong resistance organizations were common in occupied countries, such groups were much less prevalent in Germany where some much of the population was caught up in the nationalism of the time and viewed resistance as the enemy of the state.

This is a gripping tale based on careful research and attention to historical details.

Jennifer Chiaverini is The New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, Fates and Traitors, The Spymaster and other historical novels.

Charlestown resident Bill Miller was traveling through war torn Germany after the period depicted in this novel.

Janet Neer and Ellyn Loy, Book Review Coordinators