Die rote Kapelle

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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 fiance 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.

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