Mildred sings “Clementine” and “John Brown” many times during the winter of 1932. Each time, she stands at the lectern and looks out at a roomful of Germans weary from work or demoralized by unemployment. She is entirely unselfconscious, singing so “freely” and “naturally,” a student would recall years later, that their embarrassment gives way to relief and, eventually, “to tender respect.”
