Propaganda Girls
The Secret War of the Women in the OSS
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3.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The incredible untold story of four women who spun the web of deception that helped win World War II.
Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane Smith-Hutton was the wife of a naval attaché living in Tokyo. Marlene Dietrich, the German-American actress and singer, was of course one of the biggest stars of the 20th century. These four women, each fascinating in her own right, together contributed to one of the most covert and successful military campaigns in WWII.
As members of the OSS, their task was to create a secret brand of propaganda produced with the sole aim to break the morale of Axis soldiers. Working in the European theater, across enemy lines in occupied China, and in Washington, D.C., Betty, Zuzka, Jane, and Marlene forged letters and “official” military orders, wrote and produced entire newspapers, scripted radio broadcasts and songs, and even developed rumors for undercover spies and double agents to spread to the enemy. And outside of a small group of spies, no one knew they existed. Until now.
In Propaganda Girls, bestselling author Lisa Rogak brings to vivid life the incredible true story of four unsung heroes, whose spellbinding achievements would change the course of history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Rogak (Angry Optimist) offers a riveting portrait of four women who worked as Allied propagandists during WWII. Recruited by the OSS department of Morale Operations, the women produced reams of "black propaganda" meant to pass as authentically German or Japanese. Rogak's subjects include Hawaiian reporter Betty MacDonald, who—tired of writing puff pieces and fluent in Japanese—found purpose drafting "official" orders to be airdropped into the Pacific theater letting Japanese soldiers know they were no longer required to fight to the death, and Bozena "Zuzka" Lauwers, a linguist and refugee from Czechoslovakia who crafted demoralizing propaganda targeted at German troops (including pamphlets from the fake "League of Lonely War Women" advertising that Germany's women would patriotically sleep with any German soldier while their own men were away). Also profiled is famed German actor and war refugee Marlene Dietrich, who, in a clever reversal, delivered OSS-penned radio broadcasts supposedly intended for American troops in Europe, in which she would occasionally slip into her native language as if desperately trying to deliver a message to Germans about their dire situation (the producer would actually yank her microphone away). Filled with thrilling accounts of counterfeit code journals, fraudulent newspapers, and even phony astrology entries, Rogak's narrative also spotlights how such espionage games became addictive ("Never again would I feel so alive," MacDonald later wrote). WWII buffs will be hooked.
