The only mercy the Führer granted her was to postpone her decapitation for a few months, until August 5, 1943, so that the baby she.....

The only mercy the Führer granted her was to postpone her decapitation for a few months, until August 5, 1943, so that the baby she had just given birth to while imprisoned in Barminstrasse prison in Berlin could be breastfed.

Her husband, Hans Coppi, had already been hanged on December 22, 1942, after being sentenced to death by a military tribunal of the Third Reich for high treason.

Hilde Rake and Hans got married in the late spring of 1941. They were young (she was 32, he was 25) and in love.

They discussed politics and communism with their comrades from the "Red Orchestra" ("die Rote Kapelle"), the name given by Nazi counter-espionage to a network of resistance fighters that also included the Schulze-Boysen group from Berlin, of which the couple was a part.

The youthful enthusiasm that drove them, coupled with their intolerance of military marches and rallies of crowds cheering before a short, mustachioed man shouting and gesticulating on a distant stage, transformed this small group of twenty-year-olds into opponents of the regime.

His rebellion never materialized in dramatic acts, but in small, everyday gestures of dissent, such as spreading censored news, distributing pamphlets, or sending letters to the families of soldiers serving on the front lines, so that they would understand the reality.

A certain degree of recklessness typical of their age, coupled with the belief that they could get away with it, convinced them, after the start of "Operation Barbarossa," to try to transmit military information to the Soviets, but without success due to malfunctioning radios.

In July 1942, when the Nazi Oberkommando's decryption department decoded their messages, it was the end for Hilde (who was pregnant), Hans, and dozens of other courageous resistance fighters and dreamers.

The epilogue of the film "Berlin, Summer of '42", by director Andreas Dresen (currently showing in major cinemas), depicts a harrowing scene in which Hilde, accompanied by a line of twenty-year-olds, walks towards the guillotine after handing a guard her farewell letter and the bundle of clothes in which her young son is wrapped.

This text is accompanied by some images from the film "Berlin, Summer of '42".

(Text by Anselmo Pagani. Reproduction permitted, provided the author's name is mentioned.)