Today in history, the US witnessed one of the most notorious trials of World War II. This is a story of Axis Sally.
The defendant was a failed American actress accused of promoting Nazi propaganda during World War II.
Born Mildred Gillars in 1900. The performer appeared in minor roles on Broadway. She then moved to Germany to study music. In the 1930s, Mildred got a job working at a voiceover place in Berlin. As the war broke out, she was hired by the Third Reich as an English language broadcaster, known as Axis Sally, noted spewed Nazi propaganda to scare American soldiers at the front.
Her final broadcast occurred just two days before the end of the war. The propagandist went into hiding, was arrested by the army in 1946 and taken back to the USA. Her trial began two years later. Sally claims she only agreed to the broadcast after members of the SS threatened to kill her husband, a German officer.
In March 1949, Axis Sally was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Because of strict rules regarding nonviolent female inmates, she was paroled 12 years later.
After her release, Mildred lived at a Catholic convent near Columbus, Ohio, teaching French and German to high schoolers. She died in 1988 at the age of 87.
Sally wasn’t the only English-speaking propagandist during the war. The Japanese also brought in to that style of propaganda. They took turns intimidating U.S. soldiers in the Pacific. At least 25 different women operated as Tokyo Rose in a day.