33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid.
36 Chronicle-Telegram Elyria, OH, July 25, 1919, p. 30.
37 Letter and outline from John Bartlow Martin to Editor, McCall’s. September 18, 1948. John Bartlow Martin Papers. Washington DC: Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
38 John Bartlow Martin, “The Trials of Axis Sally,” McCall’s, p. 25.
39 Admissions Summary for Mildred E. Gillars, op. cit., p. 5.
40 Ibid.
2. In Front of the Footlights
41 Letter from Mrs. Allen C. Long (Ohio Wesleyan Magazine) to John Nelson, March 30, 1966. Delaware, Ohio: Ohio Wesleyan Historical Collection.
42 Ibid.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Admissions Summary of Mildred E. Gillars, op. cit. p. 5.
47 FBI File 61-180. FBI Interview with Richard R. Shipley, January 4, 1949. College Park MD: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), p. 2.
48 Ibid.
49 Mansfield News-Journal, Mansfield, Ohio.
50 Ibid.
51 Program of Mrs. Dane’s Defense, December 10, 1920, Delaware OH: Ohio Wesleyan University Historical Collection
52 Abridged Transcript of U.S. v. Gillars (Sisk). John Bartlow Martin Papers. Washington DC: Library of Congress Manuscript Division, p. 18.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid., p. 19.
55 Admissions Summary for Mildred E. Gillars, op. cit., p. 6.
56 Ibid., p. 3.
57 Ibid., p. 4.
58 Letter of Mrs. Allan C. Long to John Nelson, March 30, 1966, op. cit.
59 Abridged transcript of U.S. v. Gillars (Sisk), op. cit., p. 19.
60 Ibid. p. 20.
61 Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon (2004) Broadway: The American Musical. New York: Bulfinch Press, pp. 69.
62 Research notes for The Trials of Axis Sally, condensation of US v. Gillars (Sisk) trial transcript. John Bartlow Martin Papers, Washington DC: Library of Congress Manuscript Division, p. 21.
63 The New York Times November 17, 1917
64 IBDB (www.ibdb.com).
65 IBDB (www.ibdb.com).
66 Letter from Mrs. Allan C. Long to John Nelson dated March 30, 1966. Delaware, Ohio: Ohio Wesleyan University Archives. No legal record of such a marriage has been located, so Mildred may have considered herself a common-law wife. Later in life, she claimed to have never married.
67 The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, TX, January 17, 1926, p. 10.
68 Research notes for The Trials of Axis Sally, op. cit., p. 23.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid., p. 24.
71 The Port Arthur News Port Arthur, TX, January 17, 1926, op. cit.
72 Ibid., p. 25.
73 Inez Robb (1950) “Remember when Millie Dived under the Bed?” The Lima News Lima, OH, April 18, p. 6.
74 Ibid.
* Interestingly, Mildred took the surname of her real-life former fiancé (Calvin Elliott) for her fictional bride.
3. Expatriate
75 FBI Report on interview of Mario Korbel, November 25, 1943, FBI HQ Files, College Park MD: NARA p 1.
During her 1949 trial, the prosecution would intimate that Korbel gave her the money in exchange for a liaison. Mildred angrily insisted that the money was a loan.
76 Ronald Weber (2006) News of Paris. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, p. 5.
77 Passenger List of United States Citizens for the SS Majestic voyage from Cherbourg to New York, 16 October 1929, p. 22.
78 Robert VanGiezen and Albert E Schwenk (2001) “Compensation from before World War I through the Great Depression,” Washington DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics (originally printed in Compensation and Working Conditions, US Department of Labor—Bureau of Labor Statistics, Fall 2001).
79 Author’s transcript of “Midge at the Mike” recording, dated July 1943. Washington DC: Library of Congress.
80 Paul Beekman Taylor (2004) Gurdjieff’s America. Lighthouse Editions Ltd, p. 215.
81 Paul Beekman Taylor (1998) Shadows of Heaven: Gurdjieff and Toomer. San
Francisco: Samuel Weiser, p. 70.
82 James Carruthers Young (1998) “An Experiment at Fontainebleau: A Personal Reminiscence,” Gurdjieff International Review, Summer, p. 42.
83 Taylor, op. cit., p. 23.
84 Syracuse Herald, February 17, 1924, p. 1.
85 Abridged transcript of U.S. v. Gillars (Sisk), op. cit., p. 26.
86 Charles K. McClatchy (1929) “Algiers: the Beautiful also the Most Filthy,” Fresno Bee, March 8, p. 1.
87 Abridged transcript of U.S. v. Gillars (Sisk), op. cit., p. 27.
88 Diplomatic List of the British Foreign Office (1944), courtesy British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Bernard Metz later advised in the planning of the US and British invasion of North Africa and joined the American Military Civil Affairs Administration after the Allies regained North Africa in 1942. Paul Beekman Taylor recalls his mother Edith telling him in 1945–46 that Metz had to leave Algiers “in a hurry” because he was engaged in “some sort of espionage.” (Taylor, Gurdjieff’s America, p. 215.) He later changed his name to Bernard Mayne and immigrated to the United States. He died in Florida in 1981.
89 Star-Beacon, Ashtabula, Ohio, November 20, 1995, p. B1
90 William R. Shirer (1941) Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-41. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal (2005 edition), p. 13.
91 Abridged transcript of U.S. v. Gillars (Sisk), op. cit., p. 28.
92 Ibid.
93 New York Times, June 7, 1933.
94 Abridged transcript of U.S. v. Gillars (Sisk), op. cit. p. 29.
95 Ibid., p. 30.
96 Ibid.
97 Abridged transcript of U.S. v. Gillars (Sisk), op. cit., p. 30.
98 Claire Trask (1934) “And Turbulently Flows the Rhine,” New York Times, December 30.
99 Claire Trask (1934) “A Jewish Playhouse in Berlin,” New York Times, April 8. Hans Hinkel was later transferred to the Propaganda Ministry where Goebbels eventually appointed him responsible for film.
100 Claire Trask (1935) “Berlin Ends the Drama Season,” New York Times, July 28.
101 Author’s transcript of “Midge at the Mike” recording, dated July 1943. Washington DC: Library of Congress.
102 Ibid.
103 Claire Trask (1936) “Broadway Melody Echoes in Berlin,” New York Times, April 26.
104 Klaus Kreimeier (1996) The UFA Story: A History of Germany’s Greatest Film Company 1918–1945. NewYork: Hill & Wang, p. 246.
105 Ibid., pp. 256–7.
106 “Unhalting Nazis,” Time, December 7, 1936.
107 Claire Trask, “The Screen in Germany,” New York Times, March 13, 1937
108 Variety, January 19, 1938, p. 19.
109 Abridged transcript of U.S v. Gillars (Sisk), op. cit. p. 30.
Ironically, many of these favored “Aryans” in Nazi-sponsored cinema were not German. Zarah Leander and Kristina Söderbaum were Swedish; Lilian Harvey was born in England.
110 Variety, January 12, 1938, p. 27.
111 Variety, January 26, 1938, p. 23.
112 Variety, June 1, 1938, p. 37.
113 Martin Gilbert (2006) Kristallnacht, New York: HarperCollins, p. 124.
114 Star-Beacon, Ashtabula, Ohio, November 20, 1995, p. B1
115 Ibid.
4. Wolves at the Door
116 Research notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” condensation of US v. Gillars (Sisk) Trial Transcript, p. 48.
117 Ibid., p. 33.
118 Peter Martland, Lord Haw Haw: The English Voice of Nazi Germany, Latham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2003, p. 38.
119 Tom Hickman, What Did You Do in the War, Auntie? The BBC at War, 1939–1945, London: BBC Publishing, 1996, p. 16.
120 Ibid., p. 16.
121 Radio Station PCJ (Hilversum) and Radio Luxembourg were two of the most powerful and popular shortwave stations of the
1930s.
122 Transcription of “The Broadcasts of Lord Haw Haw” audio, May 1940, Courtesy: Earthstation One.
123 Ibid.
124 The USA Zone was the department responsible for programming to the United States and Canada.
125 Ralf Georg Reuth, trans.: Krishna Winston. Goebbels, Orlando: Harcourt Inc. 1993, p. 257.
126 Ibid.
127 Ibid. p. 283.
128 Memorandum from Dr Markus Timmler, Radio and Culture Department of the German Foreign Office, dated 20 March 1940. Archive of the German Foreign Office—Political Radio Department. Bundesarchiv, Berlin, Germany.
129 Research notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” op. cit., p. 34.
130 Statement of Erwin Christiani to the FBI at US Department of Justice Interrogation Center at Holminden, Germany, 1 October 1948. National Archives and Records Administration.
131 Statement of Mario Balto at US Department of Justice Interrogation Center at Holminden, Germany, National Archives and Records Administration.
132 Statement of Werner Berger taken at the Department of Justice Interrogation Center at Holminden, Germany. 22 April 1948, National Archives and Records Administration, p. 2.
133 Ibid.
134 John Bartlow Martin, “The Trials of Axis Sally,” McCall’s, June 1949, p. 112.
135 US Department of Justice Press Release on the Indictment of Max Otto Koischwitz, Edward Delaney, Constance Drexel, Ezra Pound, Robert H. Best, Frederick W. Kaltenbach, Jane Anderson and Douglas Chandler, 26 July 1943. Francis Biddle Papers, Georgetown University, p. 13.
136 Ibid., pp. 111–12.
137 John Carver Edwards. Berlin Calling, New York: Praeger Publishing 1991, p. 68.
138 Ibid., p. 72.
139 Horst J.P. Bergmeier and Rainer E. Lots Hitler’s Airwaves New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997, pp. 56
140 “Koischwitz Broadcasts Nazi Propaganda to America,” The Hour, 20 July 1940, no. 54, p. 4.
141 Ibid., p. 73.
142 Ibid., p. 75.
143 Research notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally.” op. cit., p. 43.
144 New York Times, 24 February 1949, p. 5.
145 John Bartlow Martin, op. cit., p. 111.
146 New York Times. 24 February 1949, p. 5.
147 William Russell, Berlin Embassy, London: Elliott & Thompson, 2003, pp. 27–8. Reprinted from the 1941 edition published by E.P. Dutton.
148 Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990, p. 292.
149 Ibid.
150 Although the story would be later discounted as concocted to assist her defense, the timing of this interview coincides with the beginning of the German effort to infiltrate the United States with saboteurs known as “Operation Pastorius.” Hitler had been pressuring Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr (German military foreign information and counterintelligence) as early as the autumn of 1941 to initiate sabotage efforts aimed at crippling the industrial might of America. Walter Kappe, head of the German-American Bund until 1937 and Abwehr agent, was responsible for recruiting English-speaking agents who had previously resided in the United States. The Germans eventually ferried agents via U-boat to the coast of the United States and deposited them on the beaches of Long Island and Florida. The agents’ mission was to find work in critical war-related industries and plan sabotage attacks that would cripple the production effort for weeks or months. The eight were arrested in June 1942 and tried by a secret tribunal at the Justice Department in Washington DC. Six went to the electric chair in August of that year. It is not unreasonable to assume that the German government would have an interest in recruiting a woman who could blend into American society so easily.
151 Statement of Erwin Christiani, op. cit. c
152 Ibid.
153 Ibid.
154 In fact, Mildred’s half-sister Edna Mae Herrick resided in Ohio at that time.
155 New York Times, 24 February 1949, p. 5 and Washington Post, 24 February 1949, p. 4.
156 Ibid.
157 US v. Mildred Sisk (Gillars). US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Case 10, 187. October Term, 1949. Washington DC: National Archives and Records Administration, p. 35.
158 Research notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” op. cit., p. 39.
159 US v. Mildred Sisk (Gillars). US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, op. cit., p. 36.
5. Smiling Through
160 William L. Shirer. “The American Radio Traitors,” Harper’s, vol. 187, October 1943, p. 400.
161 Research notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” John Bartlow Martin Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Collection, Washington DC, p. 43.
162 Gerhard Keiper and Martin Kroger (eds), Biographisches Handbuch des deutschen äuswartigan Dienstes 1871-1945, Band 2, 2005, p. 596.
163 John Bartlow Martin, “The Trials of Axis Sally,” McCall’s,June 1949, p. 112.
164 Washington Post, January 28, 1948, p. 11.
165 Research notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” John Bartlow Martin Papers; con densation of U.S. v. Gillars (Sisk) Trial Transcript, Library of Congress Manuscripts Collection, Washington DC.
166 United States Court of Appeals. Gillars v US. October term, 1949. No. 10, 187. pp. 9–10.
167 Ibid., p. 47.
168 Ibid.
169 Shirer, op. cit., p. 398.
170 Gillars v US, United States Court of Appeals decision, pp. 9–11.
171 Washington Post, January 28, 1949, p. 11.
172 Ibid.
173 Ibid.
174 Research notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” John Bartlow Martin Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Collection, Washington DC, p. 42.
175 Ibid.
176 Ibid.
177 Research Notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” op. cit., p. 53.
178 Joseph Goebbels, “Nation, Rise Up, and Let the Storm Break Loose,” translated from “Nun, Volk steh auf, und Sturm brich los! Rede im Berliner Sportpalast,” Der steile Aufstieg (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1944), pp. 167–204. Courtesy: German Propaganda Archive, Calvin College.
179 David Clay Large, Berlin. New York: Basic Books, p. 344.
180 Research notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” condensation of US v Gillars (Sisk) trial transcript, op. cit., p. 48.
181 Ibid.
182 Ibid.
183 Department of Corrections, District of Columbia Jail, Memorandum from Supt. Curtis Reid to the Director, June 17, 1950, p. 1.
184 John Bartlow-Martin, “The Trials of Axis Sally,” op. cit., p. 111.
185 Research notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” op. cit., p. 42.
186 Ibid., p. 56.
187 Ibid., p. 55.
188 Ibid.
189 Horst J.P. Bergmeier and Rainer E. Lotz, Hitler’s Airwaves, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997, p 44
190 Department of Justice Press Release, Francis Biddle Papers, Georgetown University Library, Washington DC, August 26, 1943, p. 3.
191 Statement of Erwin Christiani, Memorandum from US Army European Command Intelligence Division to the Director of Intelligence, General Staff, US Army, October 6, 1948, p. 2.
* Christiani does not specify the exact month of the 1943 suicide attempt but the pressures on Mildred reached critical mass with her discovery of Erna Koischwitz’s pregnancy on the day before the child’s birth, followed by the horrible death of both mother and infant. On the afternoon of the fatal air raid, Mildred, the Professor and Stella sat in a Berlin movie house watching a film.
6. Did You Raise Your Sons To Be Murderers?
192 John Carver Edwards, Berlin Calling, New York: Praeger Publishing, 1991, p. 205.
193 Transcription by author of “Medical Reports” broadcast, February 24, 1944, College Park MD: Archives II, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
194 Ibid. p. 57.
195 Bergmeier and Lotz (1997), pp. 82–3.
196
Research Notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” Abridged transcript of US v. Gillars (Sisk), John Bartlow Martin Papers, Washington DC: Library of Congress Manuscript Division, p. 44.
197 Research Notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” John Bartlow Martin Papers, op. cit., p 59.
198 Ibid. p.63.
199 Ibid.
200 “American Prisoners of War in Germany,” Washington DC: Military Intelligence Service, US War Department, November 1, 1945.
201 Ibid.
202 FBI File #61-811, Statement of James Capparell, April 26, 1948, College Park MD: NARA, p. 5.
203 FBI File #61-811. Statement of Robert Ehalt, April 26, 1948, College Park MD: NARA p. 3.
204 Ibid.
205 Transcription by Author of “Medical Reports” audiotape, February 24, 1944, College Park MD: NARA.
206 Transcript of “Medical Reports” broadcast, Federal Communications Commission, Silver Hill, MD, October 6, 1944. John Bartlow Martin Papers. Washington DC: Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
207 US Court of Appeals Decision, Gillars v. U.S., October Term, 1949, No. 10, 187, p. 14.
208 Ibid.
209 Transcript of William Scofield audio interview from “Berlin Calling” radio program, National Public Radio, produced by WUGA-FM, Athens, GA.
210 “Axis Sally Remembered” by Paul F. Mosher, 100th Infantry Division Association magazine, November 2000, p. 53.
211 Ibid.
212 John Bartlow Martin. “The Trials of Axis Sally,” McCall’s, June 1949 p. 112.
213 Ibid.
214 Cpl. Edward Van Dyne. “There’s No Other Gal Like Axis Sal.” Saturday Evening Post, January 15, 1944.
215 Bergmeier and Lotz (1997), p 128.
216 Ibid.
7. Survivors of the Invasion Front
217 Research Notes for “The Trials of Axis Sally,” John Bartlow Martin Papers, op. cit., p. 71.
218 FBI Bureau File No. 100-232559. Statement of Michael Evanick to FBI, April 24, 1948, p. 9.
219 Ibid., p. 11.
220 United States Court of Appeals. Gillars v. United States. October Term, 1949. No. 10, 187, p. 12.
221 Ibid., p. 13.
222 FBI Bureau File No. 61-44. FBI interview with Clarence Marion Gale, April 21, 1948, p. 8.
223 Ibid., p. 9.
224 FBI interview with Donald Rutter, May 4, 1948, p. 4.
225 FBI File No. 61-44. FBI interview with Clarence Marion Gale, April 21, 1948, p. 8.
Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany Page 32