Mildred Gillars

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mildred Gillars

Mildred Elizabeth Sisk Gillars (born November 29, 1900 in Portland , Maine , † June 25, 1988 in Columbus , Ohio ), also called "Axis Sally" by the Allies , was an American radio presenter during World War II who commissioned participated in German propaganda broadcasts from the Reichssender Berlin .

Life

She was born as Mildred Elizabeth Sisk, but took the name Mildred Gillars as a child due to her mother remarrying. At the Ohio Wesleyan Methodist University , she studied theater studies , but dropped out in 1922 in hopes of an acting career. Together with her mother, she moved to Europe in 1929 , studied in France for six months and later returned to the United States.

After working for stockbrokers , musicals and comedy groups , she moved back to France in 1933, where she worked for some time as a saleswoman and nanny. 1935 Mildred Gillars traveled to Germany and worked as an English teacher at the Berlitz - Language School in Berlin . The position was not particularly well paid, which is why she soon took a position as announcer and actress at Großdeutscher Rundfunk , Radio Berlin. Here she worked until the fall of the National Socialist regime .

Propaganda activity

Her hot-blooded voice was well received by the Allied troops. She became a propagandist and worked under the pseudonym of her eponymous radio show Midge at the mike (Eng .: Midge (a nickname for Margaret) on the microphone ). Against resistance in the Propaganda Ministry , Otto Koischwitz put her through as an employee. She spoke to his female counterpart in the series "The Home Sweet Home Hour", which was broadcast via Tunis for the Allies during the African campaign and could be heard over shortwave throughout Europe, North Africa and the United States .

On May 11, 1944, shortly before the planned Allied invasion of Normandy , she played an American mother who had lost her son in the English Channel in her most famous radio feature entitled Vision of Invasion . An announcer added the words: The D of D-Day stands for doom… disaster… death… defeat… Dunkerque or Dieppe .

Mildred Gillars visited captured and injured GIs in German hospitals in France. For this she disguised herself as a nurse of the Red Cross and sent the recorded greetings in the American home. A later trial witness remembered seeing her accompanied by two German officers. She added cynical comments to the interviews and then used them in the propaganda program Home Sweet Home . Most of the program was broadcast from Berlin, but stations in Chartres , Paris and Hilversum also broadcast the program.

post war period

After the end of the war, Mildred Gillars was not interned immediately. She was one of the non-Germans who were provided with food and medicine by the Allies, among other things . After a three-week stay in hospital, she was sent to an internment camp and was released at Christmas 1946 with an ID card for the French zone in Berlin. When she went to Frankfurt to have her ID extended, she was arrested and flown to the United States in 1948 .

Detained without bail , she was charged on ten counts of high treason , although she was ultimately charged on only eight counts. The trial began in Washington DC on January 25, 1949 . The prosecutors accused her of having sworn an oath of allegiance to a foreign power as an American woman and of using a false identity as a member of the Red Cross to question soldiers and to use the information for propaganda purposes. Her lawyers argued that while her radio broadcasts expressed an unpopular opinion, it did not reach the level of treason. She also acted under the influence of Max Otto Koischwitz , with whom she had a relationship.

The six-week sensational trial ended on March 26, 1949. According to the testimony , it took the jury many hours to come to a decision at the end of the trial. Mildred Gillars was found in one of eight counts guilty and for the feature "Vision of Invasion" 10 to 30 years in prison and a fine of $  sentenced 10,000. The first suspension hearing was due to take place 10 years later.

Discharge

Mildred Gillars was serving her sentence in Alderson Women's Prison in West Virginia . Another famous inmate for treason was Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino , who became known under the GI pseudonym " Tokyo Rose " and was released in 1956. In 1959, Mildred Gillars waived her right to parole and preferred prison life because she saw herself as an outsider and feared the mockery of her compatriots over the traitor. Two years later she was pardoned at her own request and left prison at the age of 60.

Mildred Gillars then taught girls at a Roman Catholic school in Columbus , Ohio . She returned to Ohio Wesleyan University Methodist in 1973 and earned her bachelor's degree in languages. She then lived in Columbus again and taught languages ​​at St. Joseph Academy.

She died on June 25, 1988 in Columbus , Franklin County , Ohio and was buried in Saint Joseph Cemetery. Her grave is not marked.

See also

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gillars, Mildred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Axis Sally; Sisk Gillars, Mildred Elizabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American radio presenter
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Portland , Maine
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1988
Place of death Columbus , Ohio