Mildred Fish-Harnack’s alma mater, UW-Madison, talked of a memorial in 1947. Wisconsin Sen. Alexander Wiley initiated an investigation but reported that the U.S. government had “no official” record of Mildred Fish-Harnack’s resistance efforts.
“And then suddenly it stops and there is something, a note to the effect of ‘pro-Communist sympathies can not be ruled out’ or something like that, and you’ve got Joe McCarthy riding very high,” Heitzer said.
UW-Madison declined to honor her and quietly shelved the project.