Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany

One of the most notorious Americans of the twentieth century was a failed Broadway actress turned radio announcer named Mildred Gillars (1900–1988), better known to American GIs as “Axis Sally.” Despite the richness of her life story, there has never been a full-length biography of the ambitious, star-struck Ohio girl who evolved into a reviled disseminator of Nazi propaganda.
 
At the outbreak of war in September 1939, Gillars had been living in Germany for five years. Hoping to marry, she chose to remain in the Nazi-run state even as the last Americans departed for home. In 1940, she was hired by the German overseas radio, where she evolved from a simple disc jockey and announcer to a master propagandist. Under the tutelage of her married lover, Max Otto Koischwitz, Gillars became the personification of Nazi propaganda to the American GI.
 
Spicing her broadcasts with music, Gillars’s used her soothing voice to taunt Allied troops about the supposed infidelities of their wives and girlfriends back home, as well as the horrible deaths they were likely to meet on the battlefield. Supported by German military intelligence, she was able to convey personal greetings to individual US units, creating an eerie foreboding among troops who realized the Germans knew who and where they were.
 
After broadcasting for Berlin up to the very end of the war, Gillars tried but failed to pose as a refugee, and was captured by US authorities. Her 1949 trial for treason captured the attention and raw emotion of a nation fresh from the horrors of the Second World War. Gillars’s twelve-year imprisonment and life on parole, including a stay in a convent, is a remarkable story of a woman who attempts to rebuild her life in the country she betrayed.

ISBN-13 : 9781480406605
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Publication date : 07/05/2013
Sold by : Barnes & Noble
Author : Richard Lucas

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Shortwave radio enthusiast Lucas carefully chronicles the life of Mildred Gillars, known to American GIs during WWII as "Axis Sally," in this first full-length biography of the infamous radio propagandist for Nazi Germany. With the aid of declassified federal documents and a glut of newspaper coverage after the war, Lucas follows Gillars from her Ohio upbringing to a failed New York acting career to her transformation into the Axis Sally under the tutelage of her married German lover. Known for a voice that oozed "like honey out of a big wooden spoon," Gillars was mythologized by GIs as the personification of Nazi propaganda. In her prolific broadcasts she interviewed POWs, taunted American soldiers, and revealed secret locations of American troops. She was ultimately tried for treason, served a 12-year prison sentence, and spent the rest of her long life on parole. In this fascinating, well-researched account, Lucas attempts to isolate the people and events that may have led Gillars to assume her moniker, telling a story "of poverty and hunger." Gillars was "a woman who, like the Führer she served, wished to accomplish great artistic feats but instead wandered into history and infamy." Photos.

Payson Roundup

...reveals the mostly untold story of the unfulfilled Broadway showgirl who found international fame as the notorious mouthpiece of the Third Reich in broadcasts aimed at millions of GIs.

WWII History

With the advent of film and radio, propagandists discovered a whole new world in which to disseminate information, accurate or not, preying on the psyches of enemy soldiers. . . . Whether she was naïve or just an attention-starved actress, Mildred Gillars will always be remembered as the infamous 'Axis Sally.' She began to believe the Nazi propaganda she was spewing over the radio and, as the author states, "paid a heavy price for that delusion.'

King Features Syndicate

"…the first full-length biography of Mildred Gillars, and it reveals the mostly untold story of the unfilled Broadway showgirl who found international fame as the notorious mouthpiece of the Third Reich in broadcasts aimed at millions of GIs."

AMERICA IN WWII magazine

Lucas shows [Mildred] Gillars to be a complex and deeply flawed but also sympathetic woman. She was impulsive, insecure, politically naïve…also talented [and] in her later years a patient and effective mentor to young students. Lucas’ blend of excellent research, period detail, and well-crafted narrative answers the question of how an American girl put herself on the wrong side of history.--(Drew Ames)

Windy City Times

"…a fascinating story of a woman who was so focused on herself and her show business dreams that she was easily convinced to broadcast and work at odds with her own country."

Strategy Page

"While it's long been known that some of the garrison attempted to escape as the Mexican infantry overran the improvised fortress, using long-overlooked Mexican and American evidence, including military reports, letters, and oral testimony, Tucker concludes that perhaps as many as half the dead may have been cut down by Mexican cavalry as they attempted to escape on foot. "A work likely to stir much controversy in some circles, and a necessary read for anyone interested in the Texas war for independence."

The Advocate(LA) Online

“…well-researched…”

Senior Beacon

“…the first fully documented biography of the notorious World War II broadcaster…”

Jerusalem Post

"…provides the first full length biography of Gillars…raise(s) some important questions…"

The Commercial Dispatch

"...definitive...a sorry story, and an essential one for those interested in the history of the war."

Iron Mountain Daily News

“…examines one of the most infamous characters of the Second World War… The human drama which is history is filled with tragic contingencies or "what ifs."”

The Washington Times

“Arguably one of the more odious civilian figures to emerge from World War II was an American woman who broadcast radio propaganda aimed at U.S. troops. . . . What created the monster named Axis Sally? Mr. Lucas makes much of the deprivations suffered by a failed actress, and her frantic quest for fame.”

Ottawa Citizen

...an excellent biography of a woman who, driven by anti-Semitism and ambition, sold out her country.

Esprit de Corps Canadian Military

...an excellent biography of a woman who, driven by anti-Semitism, sold out her country."

MILITARY REVIEW

...thoroughly researched...unearths some long forgotten aspects of the now mythic Sally...

Meet the Author

Richard Lucas is a freelance writer and lifelong shortwave radio enthusiast. Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany is the first thoroughly documented look at this mythologized figure of World War II.