All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner 

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All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner: 3. The Handshake

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner

3. The Handshake

BBC Radio 4 - All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner, 3. The Handshake

Mildred and Arvid's resistance to Hitler leads to a momentous decision for the pair.

Rebecca Donner's story of the woman at the heart of the German resistance to the Nazis continues. Mildred and Arvid Harnack take audacious steps to defy Hitler. Kelly Burke reads.

The true story of the  woman at the heart of the German resistance to the Nazis continues. Today, Mildred and Arvid Harnack take audacious risks to defy and ultimately bring down the Fuhrer. Kelly Burke reads.

Mildred Harnack's remarkable story is told by her great-great-niece, Rebecca Donner, who draws on diaries, letters, notes smuggled out of German prisons and de-classified intelligence reports to reconstruct the story of a woman of extraordinary bravery and compassion. In the early 1930s, living in Berlin, Mildred and her husband, Arvid, are horrified by Hitler's rapid and meteoric rise to power.  Both find themselves compelled to act and take extraordinary and audacious risks to pass secrets to the Allies as World War II looms.  But soon the Gestapo start to close in, and a high price is exacted.

Rebecca Donner is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, Sunset Terrace, and Burnout, a graphic novel about ecoterrorism. Her essays, reportage, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times and Guernica.

Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Elizabeth Allard

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3. The Handshake

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