The Nazi's Called Me Traitor

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Chris left
just two days before the outbreak of World War II to take a job as radar
operator at the small airport at . Life was
comparatively uneventful until the Nazi hordes overran their tiny northern
neighbor. Suddenly Chris was summoned to the office of a German captain. Why,
he wanted to know, was she, a German citizen, working in a foreign land during
wartime? Under the circumstances it appeared dubious that she was loyal to the
Fatherland. The captain, however, could straighten out everything, could get
her beautiful clothes, set her up in luxury, if she would extend certain
personal favors to him. He waited for her reply. It came quickly.

"Fat
pig!"

For this Chris was promptly
arrested, taken to and
tried as a traitor. The verdict:
Guilty! The penalty: Death!

Chris tells of her hairbreadth
escape, her perilous crossing into northern
with the Gestapo hot on her heels, and her long trek on foot, traveling only at
night, down the Italian peninsula to ,
where she made contact with friends. One wrong move would mean death before a
firing squad.

She next escaped to ,
, where she became a messenger in the
Underground. On one of her missions two friends were instantly killed and she
was severely wounded. She woke up in a German field hospital and was told that
one of her feet must be amputated. General Rommel,
the Desert Fox, arrived at the hospital, questioned her, and had her
transferred to a private hospital in ,
where the foot was saved. Rommel, who was plotting
the death of Hitler, showed her important documents and told her that she and
her deceased friends had actually been working on secret missions for him. He
arranged for her return to ,
where supposedly she would be safe with friends in Reggio.
As the Allied forces pushed into ,
however, she once more had to flee, the quarry of Nazis and Allies alike.
Hunted like a wild animal in the mountains and caves, she was captured by two
German soldiers of the Hermann Goering Division who
tied her up and beat her so badly that they left her for dead. Rescued by a
sergeant of the German 3d Regiment, 1st Paratroop Division, she was taken to
the commanding officer, Colonel Ludwig Heilmann, a
strong anti-Nazi. She was adopted by the regiment and became the colonel's
confidante; later, miraculously survived Monte Cassino;
and finally joined the American forces.

Often in the thick of battle, she
risked her own life to save the lives of Germans, Italians and Americans alike.
Her concern was with humanity, not national origin. She recalls the violent
deaths of most of her friends, particularly the day when she and others stood
before an SS firing line. Just as she was to be shot, a soldier and d