"The Red Orchestra was a group of very different people  In terms of temperament, sex, political direction and education ... that were connected to each other  by their clear rejection of National Socialism  and the desire to end the Nazi regime and bring an end to the war." "It was a group of people  who quickly wanted to make that terrible war end." "They fought for human freedom." "They were idealists, whatever their background" "The feeling was getting stronger  that something had to be done against Hitler ." "There were people who had been in concentration camps ... and they had not forgotten it, of course ." "This is a film that recalls one of her phrases:" "You can talk, but no one does anything." "That was said by Cato (Bontjes van Beek)." "Harro (Schulze-Boysen) often took us as children on his sailing boat." "Then we went on picnics and had delicious baking and roast food" "A new world open to us." "They played guitar and harmonica and sang beautiful songs." "I did not want to discuss what our beloved Fuhrer was up to every day." "We met in the Grunewald, just for a day out." "Kurt Schuhmacher disappeared." "He had a practice grenade of the Wehrmacht." "Wooden, but it looked like a grenade." "He was practising in the bushes to throw a grenade." "To throw and take cover." "He ​​was preparing for the revolution." "There were people who were not living in the brown crap" "I do not understand why they were so excited  those guys running around in their mustard yellow uniform." "It looked like baby poop." "Some said 'Heil Hitler', ...others said nothing" "It could have been a Nazi who pretended to be opposed  or someone who just did not care." "And I often felt everywhere a dark cloud was over us." "Most people were just scared  because there was hardship if they were arrested  and a sore head as the pianist Kreiten (executed 1943) discovered ..." "He had made negative remarks about Adolf Hitler in the house of one of his mother's friends" "You always kept your ears open, so you would hear if something was up." "You also learned not to talk with people you did not know." "It is hard to imagine." "You could only really talk freely in the bathroom, with running water  or in a moving car." "We listened to BBC London with that famous pom-pom-pom-pom." "When I hear that now, I still get a chill" "If you did not listen to it alone you could get the death penalty." "It surprised me that in 1939, when Hitler started the war... that there were about 800,000 people ... mostly Social Democrats and Communists awaiting trial or who were already in camps  for being a dissenter, opposition, etc." "." "Germany was not a monolithic place, and we are only discoverring this now." "You had the Fertsch family, who lived just around the corner in the Landhausstrasse." "I met them through a dentist called Himpel." "who was a staunch anti-Nazi." "I got on well with him" "His fiancée was a girl called Terwiel." "We were there together and started talking." "Later he asked me, when we were alone somewhere  if I wanted to work with him." "I first I did not understand what he meant." "But when he said :" "" I put my fate in your hands."" "I knew what he meant and I said:" "Yes, I will." "Helmut Himpel went to the homes of his Jewish patients and treated them." "Free, of course." "There was a Jewish architect, called Nachtlicht" "Helmut (Himpel) always brought them food when they got together" "My sister wore the Star of David, of course." "Helmut Roloff (father of the man making this film, a Pianist) was with her at that time." "There was this policeman who said:" "Stay away from that woman." "She is a Jewish." "But Helmut Roloff did not support that ridiculous Nazi propaganda." "and he just kept on walking together along with my sister." "On the corner was a shop where the exterior was completely destroyed." "All the shop's windows were broken." "There were a lot of people watching." "But inside there still hung curtains or something." "Behind the curtains there was apparently a Jewish family." "At one point she was foolish" "One of the sons, who was about 15 or 16, suddenly looked out" "As soon as they saw him, they broke his legs" "All those people who were watching, were gone ..." "..so afraid were they ." "But had they behaved bravely they would have been beaten" "I was in the S-Bahn from Wannsee to the Zoo." "suddenly I saw that the synagogue in the Fasanenstrasse was on fire we were in the train, everyone saw it and nobody said anything." "I looked around and asked:" "Why do they not get the fire-service" "Why does that not happen?" "The people sat there quietly and no one looked up or said anything." "I was so wound up about it." "The people knew what was going on." "And that the Jews were rounded up... .. at Grunewald station and then taken to the east." "How did you know about something like that?" " The news went around quickly" "Some people happened to know, or railwaymen who were there  who told it to their wives, and it gets back to her mother or aunt  and so it came out" "They disappeared and died, you came to know about it   because it was your friends." "We asked for a Visa to immigrate to the U.S.." "They said:" "Fine, your turn is in about eight years, in 1944." "Then you can emigrate" "By then my parents were all killed and my sister survived in hiding." "And I was in England with the Kindertransport." "Resistance in Berlin had no hierarchical system." "They were different circles of friends who formed the resistance  these circles overlapped." "Loose groups coalesced at the end of the 30s." "The centre point was (Harro) Schulze-Boysen, an Air Force officer and Arvid Harnack (A lawyer and economist)" "Arvid Harnack worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs ... And since the 30s he had been in contact with people of the Soviet embassy." "In early 1941 SchuIze-Boysen and Harnack went to the Soviet embassy." "There, they told someone ... that Hitler would probably attack the Soviet Union soon" "Harnack did not see himself as a traitor." ".. he ​​thought it his duty to warn others  that the Nazis were criminals and traitors." "They were renegades, because of the policies of Hitler ... so they opposed Hitler wherever they could." "... with information for the enemies of Hitler, amongst other means" "Just as there was contact with the Soviet embassy  there was also contact with the U.S., by Mildred Harnack." "... she came from Wisconsin and was the only American  who was executed for treason by the Nazis, in 1943." "My mother had met Mrs. Harnack and my father was excited  that Harnack had been in to the U.S. sought him out and asked:" "maybe we can go to lunch sometime?" "And Arvid said:" "I would really like that." "Donald Heath befriended Arvid Harnack in 1938" "Heath was 1st secretary of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin." "But he was also gathering information for Henry Morgenthau  The US Secretary for the Treasury" "We went to Krumme Lanke, a suburb of Berlin  and went for a long walk with Arvid and Mildred." "I listened to the conversation and I thought, wow." "My father and Arvid were good friends and they argued and called each other names ... and this is secret." "When we got home, my father said:" "... you must not tell where we are going and with whom  or who's calling us." "What my father needed most  was as much detail as possible about the Russian invasion" "Through his job, SchuIze-Boysen had information ... about what reconnaissance aircraft had found  and about troop movements." "Harnack knew a lot about the economic preparations and stuff." "Morgenthau and Roosevelt let my father know that a priority was  to find people who would warn about anything that Hitler and Mussolini might do that could lead to ... Wall Street collapsing again." "Donald Heath and Arvid Harnack became friends." "Arvid explained as we walked through the Spreewald" "I can be the bridge between the U.S. and the Russians, here in Germany" "I understand them and they understand me." "I can be very useful for both camps." "The Soviet Union suggested that the group in Berlin use radios  but things just did not work." "Hans Coppi took the radio to Fritz and Hannelore Thiel   who hid the radio in their home." "These actions to send messages   they were real acts of resistance here in Berlin." "As were pasting posters, and distributing leaflets on the Eastern Front... .. and helping persecuted people" "My father helped many people to get away from Germany." "To America, where he had contacts." "I heard from my sister that she met with Cato and another friend  on a part of the S-bahn ... along which the French prisoners of war were transported" "Any contact with foreigners was totally opposed my most people" "It was prohibited in all cases." "We found that nonsense." "It started with notes on paper where they tried to say .." "... what they needed most." "Every day I went from Witzleben to Westkreuz." "I waited near a tunnel, where the French came" "Then I joined in that group, gathered notes and disappeared." "It was a kind of adventure." "But there was also human warmth." "The French were happy and I was happy too." "In the spring of 1942 they had a large anti-Soviet Exhibition in Berlin  under the title:" "The Soviet Paradise." "They're back: the Huns, fast becoming a nightmare" "A fist in our face" "At this exhibition the Red Orchestra wanted to do something." "For example, they made small posters with slogans like:" "The Nazi paradise:" "War, hunger, lies, Gestapo" " How much longer?" "They went in pairs, usually a man and a woman  Who then pretended to be a couple in love while the girls stuck the posters." "In the background stood Harro Schulze-Boysen, watching the action." "In uniform, with a gun." "He ​​covered them, so nothing happened to them." "He looked like the perfect German officer:" "Slim, a head like a greyhound, his eyes..." "But he was extremely intelligent." "That did not fit the image." "He wanted people to realize that there were war crimes  and that human rights were being violated." "These Jews were agitating against the Wehrmacht" "When the German attack on Moscow was repulsed  they began to make and distribute pamphlets" "Schulze-Boysen took photographs, which was very dangerous  And foreign newspapers, Swiss and Spanish  told us how the war was going." "That gave us courage." "The broadsheet AGIS (named after a Spartan King) ... was written and distributed by the group in the winter of '41-'42" "That was a very sharp, critical text about the Nazis." "In the name of the State atrocities against... civilians and prisoners are made" "Every day that the war lasts longer, brings more suffering and casualties" "Each new war day increases the debt that we will have to pay" "What can we do to show our free will?" "... one must ensure that he does what he can  the opposite of what this state demands of him." "There were very careful with secret address books  with important people in it, names removed  and those people were sent letters very carefully." "Anonymously?" "Anonymoulys, of course." "Sometimes we provided a return address" "Then I put the name von Adelsheim on the back." "That brought some laughter" "The members of the Red Orchestra took a typewriter  Typed pamphlets on it and put everything in envelopes." "We used gloves." "It was hard to get envelopes." "And it was difficult to put so many similar items in a mailbox... .. because they could be noticed in the Post." "I took the subway to the Thiel Platz, from the Hohenzollern Platz, where we lived." "I had a briefcase on my lap  which was filled with anti-government leaflets." "For my safety no-one else knew what i was doing" "So it was not possible, should they be arrested  for them to say anything incriminating" "Many of them did not know anyone else other than three, four,or five people   with whom they worked." "It also happened that you could, for no reason ... be searched by a group of Gestapo ... and they suddenly went searching through all your stuff" "But it was part of your approach, to not appear worried." "You did not think:" ""What can happen"?" "You just thought, I need to behave as inconspicuously as possible." "Many people who received such a pamphlet, did not read it anyway and threw it away." "Most handed them to the Police and the Gestapo." "In the Gestapo files we find lists of recipients and Post Offices" "Some investigators worked out that it was the work of the Red Orchestra but detailed investigations by the Gestapo, in 1942   came to nothing." "At this time, the Russian Military Intelligence had an employee in Brussels." "There was a radio message from Moscow ... .. in the autumn of 1941, that he had to go to Berlin." ".. because the radio traffic between Berlin and Moscow did not work." "In that radio message were also the coded addresses  of three members of the Red Orchestra, here in Berlin." "After the Gestapo had crushed the Brussels and Paris branches of the Orchestra in 1942   they had learnt to decipher their radio messages" "It was on September 12, 1942." "It was very early in the morning and I was asleep in the room where we children slept ... Suddenly I heard loud voices:." "Halt." "Stop, or I'll shoot" "I carefully looked out the window..... ... and saw that they had got their hands on my father, who had ... .. escaped through the basement." "On the 16th September 1942 the Gestapo came   with as many men as we had rooms" "Libertas (Schulze-Boysen) pulled me off the bus and said   something terrible has happened Harro (Schulze-Boysen) is arrested." "After the arrest of Schulze-Boysen... .. the Thiels no longer wanted the radio in their house" "They put it into a stroller and brought it to Helmut Himpel." "One day Freulein Terwiel called me... the fiancée of Himpel." "She said I had to come soon." "There was something and she had for me." "It was urgent." "So I went there." "I only found Herr Himpel there." "Freulein Terwiel was not there." "Himpel said to me:" "Take these home and hide them." "What was I supposed to do?" "Did I say ... .. I can not." "My parents know nothing, I have to ask them." "That would have been ridiculous." "So I took them." "Because nobody stopped me and checked, nothing happened to me." "When my father was allowed visitors." "I remember, we were sitting on the terrace." "He was handcuffed." "And we still talked to those young men ... as if ... it was quite common." "We really did not understand how bad it was." "My father had a stomach ailment and asked the Gestapo officers  If he could take his pills." "No, you might take poison." "My mother and aunt Busset and I were drinking tea." "When the bell rang." "I went to open it, unsuspectingly." "There were two obnoxious guys, one had a wart on his forehead:" "'Crime Squad. " So I ask:" "What do you want from us?" "'Is your brother at home? " I say:" "No, he is not here." "'Where is he?" "' I do not know." "I should have said:" "Am I my brother's keeper?" "Then they ask:" "Where is his room?" "They pushed me aside and went there." "After a while someone put the key in the lock it was my brother coming home." "'We're looking for a suitcase. " So I ask:" "What kind of case?" "Then they said "do not lie", Herr Himpel has told us everything." "That was stupid of them, because when I knew that they had already Himpel." "I did not have to hide the fact that I knew him." "So I said:" "Oh, are you looking for that." "He had never opened the suitcase." " I could not." "The key was gone in fact." "This, later, saved my life." "It happened again" "We hardly dared to breathe or talkout of fear and terror." "When Helmut came out  with those two guys on his heels." "who didn't leave him alone" "After a while my father came home." "Then we had so tell him." "Then I was very worried about him!" "He sat at his desk with his hands before his eyes and there were tears." "I had never seen my father cry." "Terrible." "The prisoners went to the so-called "house prison"  In the headquarters of the Gestapo on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8." "My father and my sister went to Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse." "My mother and I went to Alexanderplatz." "The infamous prison is now demolished." "We had to go to be identified, photos and stuff." "When I was put down... at that device ... I formed an idea  from what I could say." "I assumed they wanted to know everything" "What were you thinking?" "I just thought:" "How come I am here   and what can I say that sounds a little convincing  and does not betray others?" "He thinks that he is OK because he could remember exactly  when the bag got there ...and he was someone who knew nothing but who played music with Terwiel and Himpel." "They were very musical and had a record collection." "The second was that his friends did not like him, nobody liked him." "That's Schulze-Boysen." "This is Graudenz, I believe." "Yes, that's Graudenz." "This is Himpel." "And right after that comes his girlfriend, the girl Terwiel." "In the fall of 1942 the Gestapo arrested  more than 100 people who belonged to the so-called Red Orchestra." "My mother and I were both put alone in a cell." "I was 16 a dreamy and romantic child." "I really was desperate, there alone in that cell." "You did not know how long it would take, or if you would get out, what you should say." "He gave me a pat on my head, what a father might do, and said:" "Goodbye, son." "When the interrogation by the Gestapo began." "That went for hours." "Then they asked if I knew someone, they actually had all the names." "She always asked:" "Do you know this or that?" "No, I did not know all them" "If you say no, he says:" "You're lying." "If you say yes, you are responsible for someone." "The first interview was conducted by a Gestapo man." "He was not friendly  but he did not hit me immediately" "I thought that perhaps would still came." "But when these hearings involved beatings and torture   the secretaries looked the other way when the interrogator hit" "The Gestapo used all means against the Red Orchestra." "Not only torture, but of course also psychological tricks." "My father had a birthday on November 12th" "We had duck that was his favorite food, duck." "For his birthday, we were in the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse  we set the table in the office of the Gestapo guy ...we girls had roasted duck at home" "The birthday meal was for him   so that the four of us could eat together" "Of course that room was bugged." "When I went down into that cell  I was handcuffed." "I remember that those handcuffs were on me all the time" "After about a week, I was taken to Spandau .." ".. when the handcuffs came off" "Did you sleep with the handcuffs on?" "of course." "You can not stay awake for one week." "The next morning my father said he went looking for Helmut" "I said, I'm going too." "First we arrived at Alexanderplatz and asked where the Gestapo was." "People looked at us strangely but they pointed us anyway." "There was one who was outrageously polite:" "Sit down, and so on." "How can I help you When we said" "My father said nothing first,so I said:" "My brother was picked up yesterday and we want to find him now." "Then he took a thick book." "He ​​flipped some pages and then said:" "He is not here." "The serious cases are in Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse." "You could ring the bell as if it were an ordinary house." "So I called and who opened the door?" "And it was the guy with the wart on his forehead." "As if he had been waiting for us." "Professor, sit down," "Then he said:" "What did your son do?" "And my father said:" "What did he do?" "We know nothing." ""Do you know anything?" And then they squeezed me." "I shouted at them:" "I've already told you that we did not know what my brother did in private." "We grumble about him at home of course." "Then he said:" "You do not need to know." "In any case, your brother will remain with us." "On a bed crawling with bugs" "If you wanted to use the bed you had to push the bugs aside." "They bit us all over and we complained about it." "We were in the men's prison and the jailer said:" "Those bugs will give you something to eat." "I will also never forget." "The number of women suddenly increased ... there was no place for them." "They were on the 5th floor, I was on the 4th   it was furnished for women." "But it was actually a men's prison." "Those women did not have their needs met.." "... but they carried on their lives." "Rainer Kilchenmeister and Cato (Bontjes van Beek) were in cells above the other." "They exchanged letters on a string   that went up and down." "Cato was my companion." "She was a part of my life." "And I was with her." "She had someone." "It was important that you had someone to take care of ... also in the camp.Looking after someone gave me some dignity..." "So it went there it is." "You remained human by helping others." "My mother sat with her and she whistled out the window and said .." ""Thoughts are free." Hearing that made them happy." "Every Saturday Heilwig and I went to the prison." "We made small packets with some goodies in them." "We went through lots of corridors and they locked the door behind you" "But we could not approach him inside." " I did not see, but they did pass them on." "They poked it with their knives to check  . if there something wrong in it." "So mean.Then it was sealed   and delivered to Spandau." "If I lay there in bed at night and tried to sleep  of course I thought about what I had done." "But I never thought that I had done the wrong thing." "Well the idea came to me   that they wanted to murder me in any case." "Harro Schulze-Boysen, Erwin Gehrts and others were soldiers." "The Nazi regime decided to court martial them." "This also applied to citizens and women." "Then I thought I really ought to get in contact with Himpel  to know what he said." "So I wrote him a letter, in which I pretended to blame him .." "Dear Herr Himpel, how can you say  that we talked about politics together?" ".. when we only played music together?" "He knew what i was doing because it was not right about the music" "Once a day the prisoners were allowed to walk in the courtyard." "We walked in the order of our cell doors." "Therefore Himpel and I walked a long way away from each other." "I stepped out of line  and pretended that something was wrong with my shoe." "I fumbled a bit and waited until Himpel caught up" "Then I go walking with him" "I waited until Himpel was even closer to me  and pressed my letter in his hand." "I remember, when I gave him that letter  I felt my heart skip." "He destroyed everything." "The letters were never found, not even the one he sent me." "He wrote me:" "Exactly as I have explained to you." "Those words he had clipped from a newspaper." ""And MT." That was Marie Terwiel." "That was a relief for me." "Maybe I would not be executed immediately." "Added to that, in the court martial sat a young senior officer   who was very ambitious:" "Manfred Roeder." "He was not satisfied with the research of the Gestapo." "He interrogated the group yet again, and also their family members." "Himpel then wrote to him about me:" "He appeared to be sympathetic towards me" "Later, of course, it was the opposite." "I was also pleasantly surprised by him, but I did not trust those people" "I have just said about Himpel:" "It amazes me what you said about him." "He ​​was an excellent student." "He would not hear." "If I said something, he thought I was stupid." "I really wanted him to believe me" "My mother went to the Ministry  to talk to him about Cato." "Later she said:" "When I saw that man, his face, and that smile of his it was clear to me that I could expect nothing from him   that man will never sign a pardon." "The ruling was on December 19, the execution took place on 22 December." "It couldn't have been done faster" "It had nothing to do with due process." "Mildred Harnack (An American married to Arvid Harnack) was not allowed any witnesses ... there were people who testified after torture   they could not speak to their lawyer" "They were then assigned a lawyer  but that often was not until the day before or on the day of trial itself  who could talk for five minutes with his clients" "One sentence has particularly touched me:" "'Schulze-Boysen has never honestly served the National Socialist state. "" "Thats why I'm very proud of my brother." "The first death sentences were pronounced in December" "Of course that was terrible to hear." "You were locked in your cell and then you heard something." "Dear Rainer." "Yes, that was a blow this demand of the prosecuting officer." "But I believe that in life there have been people so infinitely sweet ... that ..." "I think it is not true" "When she wrote to me:" "Now that the judgment has been pronounced" "The Chief Prosecutor is demanding   that children be executed also   that's just madness   because they had stuck up posters and opposed the war." "Liane Berkowitz was 18 when she was arrested  and three months pregnant" "She was just pregnant while Hilde Coppi was in her 8th month, I believe." "Even the court advised Hitler to grant these people a pardon   as had happened in a few other cases." "He rejected those requests at once, in one stroke." "Probably out of anger for some military defeat  he had just had." "He rejected a pardon instantly." "On August 5, 1943 these women  including my mother, were executed." "Hilde Coppi and Liane Berkowitz had their children in their cells." "They had six weeks respite and then were killed ... by the guillotine of Pletzensee." "Liane Berkowitz's child went to a hospital and died there." "We do not know whether .." "... it was because Liane was malnourished or becasue of prison beatings." "She was a victim   of the murderess actions by the sick Nazis." "Himpel had a meeting in January, if I remember correctly." "When he came back, he was immediately handcuffed." "For those who had received the death penalty, they were handcuffed." "Dear Cato, it is impossible for me to write everything I feel for you" "Yesterday was a terrible day for me." "After the verdict." "I almost had a tantrum, but when I heard your voice   I was quiet again." "As tranquil as a little boy hearing the voice of his mother." "Dear Rainer, you're such a very fine, dear boy." "Your letter makes me so happy." "I want to always carry it with me  like the farewell letter from Heinz." "Should I really die, do not be too sad." "Remember me." "A request yet:" "Be wise and do not get involved with bad things" "I do mean that you have to be a martyr." "That is meaningless." "You are badly needed here." "You have so many good qualities." "There is such a wealth of in love in you." "Which is the highest and most beautiful thing man possesses." "I love you like you're my brother." "Maybe you will see my brother Tim again also ." "Go to my mother." "That you must promise me, Dear Rainer." "I love life and people infinitely" "I leave this life therefore without any resentment, let alone hate." "Maybe Heinz and I will die at the same time." "That would be nice." "For the two of us go together, therefore, these three days were so good" "I still hope for a miracle, that will see us live." "Think of your father, dear Rainer, and avoid unnecessarily risk." "I do not know why I must die, but everything makes sense if we can find it." "You know I do not like men crying." "That's all." "Heinz also cried." "At the end we still laugh, because we are so happy together." "Rainier, Live by the beauty in art and in every person  and learn to think with your heart." "May the God of old protect you." "Much love from your Cato." "When I went to Berlin and saw Cato in prison." "She was brought to us." "She had a bracelet with TK it." "Then I said Cato, are you coming back with us very soon." "No, no, she said." "Here." "A band around her arm with TK Todeskandidat (Death candidate)" "Cato, of course, cried, and I had a lump in my throat." "I could not say anything." "What could you say... to someone who was near death" "Especially for members of the Red Orchestra in December 1942  in Pletzensee they suspended a beam with eight meat hooks it" "So they were not guillotined, but hung" "The noblest execution was the bullet, then came the axe  and the most degrading form was the noose" "In her farewell letter Libertas writes:." "Tell everyone about us" "In reality, the family had been under strict orders... . . to say nothing about it, otherwise they would go to the concentration camp." "With regard to the Red Orchestra ... it was important to Hitler, that no one came to know anything he could not accept and he probably could not even understand   that there were decent people who were ready to thwart him" "A day after Himpel was given the death penalty  my husband was released." "Himpel gave him his will on a smuggled note and he took it." "This was ignored in the outside world" "The door flew open and there stood Helmut." "He looked like a ghost, he was so skinny." "Terrible." "I took Himpel's will to Seesenerstrasse." "I rang the bell, but no one answered." "I walked down the stairs where I saw Herr Terwiel, doctor Terwiel." "He asked in a shocked voice Had his mother opened the door?" "I said:" "No, no one came." "I told him everything and he was very nice." "He said:" "How could I tell my mother that my sister was executed?" "Therefore we said that she went to Switzerland." "And Herr Himpel too." "After the war I found it interesting to see that prison again." "What struck me was the ordinary sounds that you could hear" "I heard someone shouting at prisoners" "I recognised the man, as he came nearer   and there I saw that it was one of the worst guards there." "My father sent me from Berlin a v-mail ... a letter that was put on film  he told that me of his sadness at learning ... that Arvid and Mildred were killed." "Sorry, what year was that?" " In 1945." "When the Allies were allowed in Berlin, he immediately went looking for everybody." "It stunned him, I could tell by the way he was writing it was such a shame to lose people" "I used to put the pictures of my parents on the table." "I found it so hard to imagine   how they were when they were alive." "The images did not move, there was no film." "A few years ago I received a document ... that my father had completed just before his execution." "That said how tall he was." "He was 1.86 metres tall." "My grandparents had told that he was 1.96 metres tall" "I had always felt that I had that to look forward to." "When I saw that document and found... that we're practically the same height." "I was shocked when I heard that the families of the resistance  ... even those of the 20 July resistance, did not get pensions for many years." "Their husbands were treated as traitors  and although they had fought against Hitler they got nothing." "But SS widows and people like that did get a pension... when they came due" "I remember my sister Annemarie told me  that the German government paid reperations, and as I recall" "It was about $ 25 per month for what they had been through... as a non-Aryan living underground in Berlin." ".. the $25 dollars were also intended to compensate  for the death of my parents" "It was called Wiedergutmachung (reperation), but this was not good.." "I got 5 marks for each day that I had been detained" "I say thats appallingl:" "If I had been there ten years, I did what I had to." "Then I would have had more beer" "The officer was obviously de nazified, but that did not help." "I filled in a form form him and to a question about my father I said   he was executed." "He replied, full of hatred:" "Your father's death is nothing." "That touched me greatly." "That's why I left." "I could not have" "In West Berlin, it was such that we were all afraid to say .  we had been part of the Red Orchestra because we felt  that the Nazis were everywhere and still firmly in the saddle." "I have not lost the fear of Nazis" "They were still supporters of Hitler, only you did not see it anymore." "On the day of the capitulation they did not suddenly become democrats." "In the late 40s, my parents and their friends were in the West   again seen as traitors and spies   ... because she had tried to fight Hitler with the wrong party" "The war ended in 1945, the Cold War began in 1947  and from that moment former Nazis and Gestapo agents were  contesting the work of the Red Orchestra" "Horst Kopkow had been a leading investigator of the Red Orchestra." "He gave a statement to the Allies  in return, the British secret service gave him a new identity." "Kopkow became Horst Horst Kordes." "He soon made a new career and no one stopped him." "Mr. Roeder, judge advocate at the trial of the Orchestra  wanted to save his own skin and he tried to convince the Americans that ... the Red Orchestra was still a dangerous and active espionage group." "espionage-phobia was repeatedly fueled by the Cold War." "The Gestapo described the Red Orchestra as a   symbol of Soviet espionage." "This was after 1945 when there was hostility on both sides  both the West and the East" "Heinz Hiihne, a journalist for Der Spiegel..." "Described an espionage group ..." "which had signaled to Moscow." "How did you find out that 500 radio messages were sent?" "The 500 radio messages spoken of  I would add:" "unfortunately for me  was only an assertion by some people  who were aware of certain things  but who obviously did not have radio communications." "If the Red Army had received that type of information from the Red Orchestra ... which the more sensational reports spoke of   they could have responded much more efficiently to the Nazis." "In the West, they saw it as a espionage group for the Soviet Union  and in the East as a group of scouts" "Not spies, but scouts, which had a positive tone." "Minister Mielke and the Stasi posthumously awarded medals to members of the Red Orchestra... .. as a kind of predecessor of the Stasi" "I was shocked at events in East Germany  portraits of members of the Red Orchestra  sat beside portraits of DDR policemen who were killed in firefights between East and West." "The members of the Red Orchestra were, therefore, used for propaganda." "Communism is not a political party, but a way of life." ".. an evil way of life  related to a disease, that spreads like an epidemic." "therefore, a quarantine was necessary, in order to avoid it infecting this country." "The CIA, or rather its predecessor, the CIC  started in 1945 and 1946  to store all the files of those involved in the Red Orchestra." "The Americans took not only their Gestapo files   but also the moral judgments of the Gestapo, about the group." "When proceedings started  against Manfred Roeder, because of all the death sentences he had demanded... a US officer in luneburg  began an investigation between, '49 and '51." "Ultimately no charges were filed  because no serious injustice was suspected." "Manfred Roeder had behaved, they said, as they would have expected in 1942 .." "... considering the law at the time." "His crimes   had been legitimized by 1951." "Nobody in nazi judicial system has ever paid for their crimes." "The judges and lawyers did not go to jail." "This was in part because they were tried by their peers, other judges and lawyers" "I only know that they argue that what they did was legal ... according to the existing law." "That can be used as an excuse for everything." "In 1950, my grandparents decided  to move to the eastern part of Berlin" "A major reason for this decision  was the fact that Manfred Roeder had   openly joined a neo-Nazi party." "When Manfred Roeder was brought to trial   the U.S. prosecutors against him said:" "Sorry, but the Nuremberg court   delivered justice for many Jews." "Sorry, but we can not do anything for you." "People in our department of State were seeking revenge   they said:" "There is no good in any German." "Dont tell me any Germans did any good." "If they have fought against Hitler they were probably bad guys who were communists." "They were not good Germans." "They were just traitors or something" "Who had betrayed the cause." "But the real traitors to Germany were Hitler and his associates." "You always said your father .." ".. the people of the Red Orchestra, with their different opinions  had a common belief:" "Fascism was the absolute evil  that had to be overcome and destroyed" "They did, at least, make their contribution" "After the war they were considered to be communist spies." "They cooperated with Moscow, but it could have been London." "Auschwitz had to be stopped." "Then of course came the gulag." "But that's a different period." "In the period in question, World War II  fascism was the enemy." "I think it's really time that people stoped calling what little resistance there was   good or bad." "Its very subjective   to divide resistance into 'good' or bad ."