to sit at home dazed from shock that the Allies had been so swiftly and thoroughly overwhelmed.
Their resistance circle had to expand in size and scope, and Greta knew where to begin.
Earlier that spring, she and Adam had attended a dinner party at the home of Herbert Engelsing, an executive producer at the Tobias Film Company and a prominent figure in the German film industry. His work gave him entree into the highest levels of the Nazi hierarchy, where he mingled with men like Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring, drawn to him because they recognized the power of the movies and celebrity to influence public opinion. Engelsing and his half-Jewish wife, Ingeborg, owed their marriage to Göring, who had personally given Hitler their request for a dispensation to marry. “I’ll decide who’s a Jew and who’s not,” Göring had said after he emerged triumphant with the Führer’s permission for them to wed. Göring probably would not have been so helpful had he known that Engelsing used his position and influence to help Jews and other enemies of the Reich.
At the dinner party at the Engelsings’ luxurious home in the Grunewald, Greta and Adam were introduced to another couple, Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen. A Luftwaffe officer serving in the intelligence division of Göring’s Air Ministry, Harro was tall, vigorous, and handsome, fluent in five languages, the scion of a celebrated military family. His wife was a vivacious, sensual, stunningly attractive aristocrat, educated at the finest Swiss finishing schools, the granddaughter of a Prussian prince. When they first met, Greta had liked Harro immediately but had found Libertas’s youthful exuberance and flirtatiousness annoying. She had felt a sharp sting of envy when Libertas passed around photos of Schloss Liebenberg, the imposing ancestral estate where she had grown up, to recommend it as a shooting location for one of Engelsing’s films. That feeling had given way to surprise when she learned that despite Libertas’s privilege and wealth, she held down a job as a press agent with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Berlin office.
Greta listened intently as Libertas described blistering phone calls her office had received from various Reich officials outraged by a recent MGM film, The Mortal Storm. Set in 1933 Germany, the picture starred Margaret Sullavan as a beautiful German Jew who breaks off her engagement to a Nazi officer when she realizes how abhorrent his political views truly are. She falls in love with an antifascist childhood friend played by James Stewart, and the two eventually attempt to flee Germany. “Goebbels is furious and he’s making threats,” Libertas said airily, but with an underlying note of worry. “I’m bracing myself for another deluge after Escape comes out later this fall. Robert Taylor plays an American trying to rescue his actress mother from a Nazi concentration camp. It will send Hitler and Göring into apoplexies. Many of the cast and crew refuse to have their names in the credits to protect their relatives in Europe from retribution.”
“That’s show business,” said Harro sardonically.
As the evening passed, Greta observed the couple closely, certain that they were strongly opposed to the Reich. Given Harro’s position in the Air Ministry, she would not have expected this, but it was intriguing.
She took Adam aside for a quick private chat. “What do you think of the Schulze-Boysens?” she murmured. “Do you think we could be friends?”
“Arvid mentioned Harro to me once, long ago,” he replied in an undertone. “About five years ago, one of your friends from Wisconsin urged Arvid to work with him, but although Arvid was impressed, he decided Harro was too reckless.”
“Of course Arvid would think so,” said Greta, exasperated. “Anyone not as excessively cautious as himself is reckless. Anyway, times have changed. What might have seemed too reckless five years ago may be exactly what we need today.”
At home later that night, while Ule slept soundly in the other room, Greta and Adam mulled over whether they should bring Harro Schulze-Boysen into their confidence. He had been fighting fascism for years, so they had every reason to believe he was still on their side, leading a resistance cell of his own. Harro undoubtedly would be a valuable ally. The intelligence he could obtain from the Air Ministry would complement and verify what Arvid learned in the Ministry of Economics. As for Arvid’s original objections, perhaps he could teach Harro caution, focus, and discipline, and in return, Harro could invigorate their circle with his confidence and daring.
The next day, Adam approached Harro to gauge his interest