Lisa Fittko's Escape through the Pyrenees (Northwestern, 1991) told the extraordinary true tale of her life as an "enemy alien" in France before and after the Nazi invasion of 1940, when she and her husband smuggled small groups of refugees to safety along a tortuous route through the mountains. Solidarity and Treason: Resistance and Exile, 1933-1940 is Fittko's equally gripping memoir of the preceding years in the underground and exile. The volume opens with Hitler's. Ascension to power in January 1933. Soon leftist, then democratic dailies no longer exist, meetings and rallies are banned, but Fittko and her anti-fascist colleagues vow to continue their efforts to publish and distribute their literature. Fittko herself, too well known to the authorities, is urged to "disappear"; she loses her job, becomes "illegal," and is finally forced to flee Berlin and follow her parents to Czechoslovakia, where she begins her life in exile. She. Meets Hans Fittko, and together they organize an escape route for opponents of the Nazi government over the Czech border and continue the publication and distribution of political fliers and brochures. When Hans is expelled from Czechoslovakia, she follows him to Switzerland; later they are forced to continue their flight through Europe. Undesirable aliens, at the mercy of unsympathetic authorities for food, shelter, and work, they continue their selfless efforts against. Fascism. In 1986, almost fifty years after the National Socialist government had denied Lisa Fittko her German citizenship, she was awarded the Distinguished Medal of Merit, First Class, by the government of the Federal Republic. In her acceptance, she pointed out that we know too little about the Resistance. Solidarity and Treason is an illuminating historical document and a remarkable testament of personal strength and courage.