Americans old enough to remember World War II sometimes imagine that all adult Germans of that era supported Hitler and accepted his terrible crimes against humanity. We can thus remain ignorant of the struggles of more than a few heroic citizens of Germany who opposed the Nazi regime at the risk of their lives.

One person who did so is Freya von Moltke, a 94-year-old woman who has lived for many years in Vermont. She ranks as one of my spiritual heroes for the part she played in the resistance against the rulers of her country during the 1930s and the first half of the following decade.

This courageous woman is the widow of Helmuth James von Moltke who was a leader of the Kreisau Circle that planned the overthrow of Hitler and the building of a new postwar Germany. He was arrested in January, 1944, imprisoned for almost a year and, for his part in the Kreisau group, finally executed in January 1945.

I recently talked with Freya von Moltke about her memoir of those days, a volume of some 90 pages that recently appeared in English. Translated from the German original by Julie Winter and published by the University of Nebraska Press, the book is entitled “Memories of Kreisau and the German Resistance”

Unfortunately, the book is priced at $49.95, a prohibitive cost for most readers. However, a paperback edition may be in the planning stages and meanwhile the hardcover can perhaps be found in libraries. The author told me: “I’m very happy the book exists in English.”

Kreisau, the town that has given its name to the group that opposed the Nazis, is in Silesia, a region that used to be part of eastern Germany. The estate there, along with outlying farms, had been bought by Field Marshall Helmuth Von Moltke, the hero of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. This military leader was buried on the grounds of the estate and the place became a place of pilgrimage visited by tourists.

Freya first visited Kreisau in 1930 where she met her future husband for the second time and fell in love with him and his home. The following year they married and thus began her long association with the Von Molke family along with the farm and the village with which they all became identified.

 After the war, Silesia reverted to Poland and the village became known as Krzyżowa.  Now the estate serves as a center for promoting European understanding, supported by the governments of both Germany and Poland.

In her memoir the author recounts her husband’s death in only a few words, without apparent emotion. Though she provides some important information about the workings of the Kreisau Circle, her focus throughout much of this book rests upon efforts that she made to take care of her children and to keep the farm at Kreisau running.  Eventually, however, with the advance of Russian armies and the end of the war, she would be forced to leave her home.

Despite the sobriety of the narrative, the author’s heroism does emerge in the way she supported her husband to the tragic end. From the beginning she had given him practical and emotional support as he embarked on a course that he knew might end in his death. She could easily have been arrested herself and have been charged with treason as Helmuth was.

During his imprisonment she corresponded daily with Helmuth and continued spending much of the time in Berlin with people close to Kreisau Circle members. She remained one with her husband in his time of suffering, a union manifest in the letters they exchanged.

The book does not seem at all grim but instead is filled with sweet memories of the family farm and the beautiful countryside of which it formed a part. Freya looks back on a time full of danger but she maintained confidence that one day a new Germany would emerge from the ruins of a devastated society.

Next July, Freya von Moltke will deliver a speech at a church in Berlin marking the 60th anniversary of the abortive coup against Hitler. This commemoration will serve to remind younger Germans and all who love freedom of the sacrifices made by her husband, herself, and many others to deliver their country from the tyranny that held them so tightly bound.

Richard Griffin