On an afternoon in September, 1943, certain members of the
Solfkreis were assembled, more or less by chance, at a tea party given by Fraulein von Thadden. There was a young man present, of the name of Dr. Reczeh, who informed them that he possessed means by which letters could be smuggled into Switzerland ; Frau Solf gave him three letters addressed to the Danish Minister at Berne ; these letters dealt only with family matters, and made no mention of politics. Dr. Reczeh, who was a Gestapo agent, im- mediately denounced the Solfkreis to his employers. Frau Solf, her daughter, her sister and her housekeeper were all arrested, taken to the Gestapo headquarters, and eventually interned at Ravens- bruck. Months of interrogation followed. Frau Solf, although fifty-seven years of age, was subjected to the third degree. Night after night, deprived of food, she would be questioned for twelve, and on occasions for sixteen, hours ; the most disturbing threats were made against her own person and the persons of her family and friends. She denied nothing, but she incriminated nobody. On July 1st, 1944, she and her friends were brought before a " People's Court," on the charge of " high treason and undermining the war effort." More specifically, Frau Solf was accused of handing to Dr. Reczeh letters addressed to Switzerland with the intention of opening secret peace negotiations with the British. The trial was conducted by the notorious judge Dr. Freisler. Fraulein von Thadden was sentenced to death, and her head was cut off with an axe ; Dr. Kiep, another member of the circle, was hanged ; the sentence on Frau Solf herself was suspended, and she was taken back to Ravensbruck. On July loth came the abortive attempt on Hitler's life. Frau Solf and her friends were immediately brought to the Gestapo remand prison in the Moabit quarter of Berlin. They were placed in solitary confinement and subjected to much indignity and ill-treatment. The date for their second trial by a People's Court was fixed for February 8th. It was then that the R.A.F. inter- vened ; a raid on the night pf February 3rd eliminated, not only all the documents in the case, but Dr. Freisler himself. The trial was thus postponed till April 27th ; on April 20th, in view of the incessant bombing and the Russian advance, all the Nazi judges bolted from Berlin. Frau Solf obtained her freedom on April 23rd ; she is now living in the British zone ; but seventy-Six of her com- panions, including Albrecht Bernstorff, were executed by a Roll- commando at the last moment.
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