Ann
Harrell was
born in Eastland, Texas, on 9th December,
1918. After graduating from the University of Texas with a degree
in journalism she found work with Columbus
Citizen.
In 1941
she married a fellow journalist, Bill Stringer. They both moved to
South America where they wrote about foreign affairs. In 1944 Bill
went to cover the Second World War in Europe
but was killed by a German tank while in France
on 6th June, 1944.
After a
long struggle Anne was allowed to become a front-line reporter in
Europe. With Iris Carpenter she reported
the war in Holland, Italy
and Germany. This included being at Torgau
when the Red Army and the US
Army joined
up for the first time. She was also with the troops when they liberated
Buchenwald and Dachau.
In 1946
Ann covered the Nuremberg
War Trials.
She also interviewed the former wives of Benito
Mussolini and
Heinrich Himmler. In 1949 Ann Stringer
married Harry Ries and gave up her career in journalism.
(1)
Ann Stringer, United Press (26th April, 1945)
The Elbe River is swarming with Russian soldiers, stripped to their
shorts. They are swimming over to greet us. The Germans blew all the
bridges across the Elbe, but there is a small fleet of shaky boats
and canoes. I decided to cross the river in one of them and visit
the Russians.
As the Russians on the eastern bank saw us coming in our canoe they
rushed down to the river bank through the tall, wet grass and began
yelling greetings. They helped us drag the canoe up on the bank, and
then they all stood rigidly at attention for a moment. One by one
they stepped forward, saluted, shook hands and stepped back into line.
Then Lt. Grigori Otenchuku,
a veteran of Stalingrad, stepped forward to make a formal speech in
behalf of the Russians.
"A few months ago German soldiers were nearly in Stalingrad,"
he said. "Now Russian soldiers are in Berlin and Russian soldiers
are here - all the way across Germany - with their American Allies."
Our party consisted of
Lt. Myril Mayer of Wood River and Lt. Raymond Worth of Galveston.
The Russian soldiers insisted that we meet the commander of their
regiment, so we started off. I noticed that almost all of our escort
wore at least one brilliantly colored medal on their greenish tunics.
We were introduced to the
commander, a quiet, stocky man with jet black hair. We gave the Russians
our autographs. They gave us theirs. The commander invited us to lunch.
He said I was the first American woman he and his troops had ever
seen, and he seated me in the place of honor on his right at the luncheon.
(2)
Ann
Stringer, United Press (12th
June, 1945)
"I was never close
to him when he was high: I was always near him when he was down."
With that weeping epitaph, Benito Mussolini's gray-haired widow summed
up her life with the flamboyant Duce who left her for a younger, prettier
mistress at the height of his Fascist power.
Pouring out her words between
choking sobs, Donna Rachele revealed in an exclusive interview that
she spoke to the doomed Duce by telephone only six hours before he
was slain by a band of Italian partisans near Milan last April.
We spoke informally in
the six-room apartment in an abandoned synthetic rubber factory where
she and her two youngest children are being held in British protective
custody. Throughout the interview, Donna Rachele defended her dead
husband against every accusation - except his final infidelity with
Clara Petacci, who shared his death and humiliation in the bloody
public square in Milan.
For the red-haired Clara,
Mrs. Mussolini had nothing but hatred and a fierce satisfaction that
Benito's mistress was dead. Her eyes literally flashed when Clara's
name was mentioned. She pushed herself far back in her chair, sat
up straight and spat out: "They've done well to hang her. She
was the only one around Mussolini who had anything really to do with
the Germans."
Then speaking even more
furiously and pounding the table before her she almost shouted: "Mussolini
(she always referred to him that way) never had anything to do with
women. He never let them have any influence over him. That was propaganda
just to ruin him."
She trembled with anger
and emotion as she spoke, but the frail widow, still attractive in
spite of her 50 years, maintained her dignity, presenting a far different
picture from the hulking, peasant-type woman I have been led to expect.
(3)
Ann
Stringer,
United Press (13th June, 1945)
Frau Margarete Himmler
maintained today that she was still proud of her infamous husband
and shrugged away the world's hatred of the dead Gestapo chief with
the calm observation that no one loves a policeman. When I told her
that husband Heinrich had been captured and had died from his own
dose of poison, Frau Himmler showed absolutely
no emotion. She sat, hands folded in her lap, and merely shrugged
her shoulders.
Until then she had not
known what had happened to Himmler since he last telephoned her from
Berlin around Easter while she was at their home near Munich.
When first captured by
the Fifth Army she had claimed a weak heart and internment camp officials,
fearful of a heart attack, never told her of her husband's death.
But even when I told her that Himmler was buried in an unmarked
grave Frau Himmler showed no surprise, no interest. It was the coldest
exhibition of complete control of human feeling that I have ever witnessed.
I talked to Frau Himmler
in a luxurious villa home owned by a former movie magnate where she
and her 15-year-old daughter, Gudrun, are being held with one other
female internee. I asked her if she was aware of her husband's activities
as Gestapo chief and she replied, "Of course."
Then I asked her if she
knew what the world had thought of him and she replied, "I know
that before the war many people thought highly of him."
Asked if she realized that
Himmler was probably the most despised and hated man in the world
after the European war got well under way, Frau Margarete shrugged
and said, "Maybe so. He was a policeman and policemen are not
liked by anyone."
Frau Margarete denied the
possibility that her dead husband might have been considered the No.
1 war criminal. She said, "My husband? How could he be when Hitler
was Fuehrer?"
Asked if she was proud
of her husband, Frau Margarete replied, "Of course, I was proud
of him." Then she added, "In Germany wives would not even
be asked such a question."
Then pressed as to whether
or not she was still proud of Himmler when he had sentenced millions
of innocent people to death by torture, gassing, or starvation, Frau
Margarete answered non-committally, "Perhaps. Perhaps not. It
all depends."
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
