How ‘Axis Sally’ became the first woman convicted of treason against the US

In 1941, the United States Embassy gave Mildred Gillars a way out. She didn’t take it.

Gillars worked for Third Reich Radio in Germany, and as her broadcasts became more anti-American and anti-Semitic, the Americans took notice. Embassy officials wanted Gillars, a native of Portland, Maine, to quit her job and go home to the U.S.

After she refused, they took her passport.

“She’s sort of caught in this murky twilight zone,” history professor Michael Flamm told the “History This Week” podcast in 2023. “She’s not a German citizen. She’s still a U.S. citizen. She does not have a passport. She’s really quite trapped.”

Two days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Gillars signed a loyalty oath to the Nazi regime. She began to fully embrace the infamous persona of the woman known as “Axis Sally.”

A Job with Third Reich Radio

Born in 1900, Gillars grew up at times with an abusive, alcoholic father and a controlling stepfather, according to the podcast. She went on to attend Ohio Wesleyan University but didn’t graduate.

From there, Gillars bounced around as an aspiring actress. She struggled to obtain the level of celebrity that she craved. In 1934, she joined her mother on a trip through Europe. After they arrived in Berlin, Gillars—who studied German in college—decided to stay while her mother left. She found a job translating German films into English.

After Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, to begin World War II, the Nazis strived to keep the U.S. from becoming directly involved in the conflict. Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels saw Third Reich Radio as a major pillar of that strategy as it broadcast overseas to North America on shortwave radio.

As the podcast detailed, the Nazis faced a big issue in delivering its messages. Its announcers had thick German accents, making them difficult for a U.S. audience to understand. Third Reich Radio brought in Gillars for an interview in 1940.

They quickly offered her a job. In the beginning, Gillars stuck primarily to playing music. It was only later—with her married lover, Max Otto Koischwitz, as her producer—that Gillars’ message became much more offensive and potentially treasonous.

“A Defeat for America”

As Axis Sally, Gillars spread Nazi disinformation across the Atlantic Ocean. The “History This Week” podcast noted how she caused American soldiers to question whether their partners were faithful while they risked their lives. She taunted service members’ families, explicitly describing supposed injuries.

“A defeat for Germany would mean a defeat for America,” Axis Sally once intoned, according to a 2023 History article. “I say damn Roosevelt and Churchill, and all of their Jews who have made this war possible. I, as an American girl, will stay over here on this side of the fence because it’s the right side. Girls, watch out! Don’t forget the beautiful things we have at home, which are now in danger.”

While the Nazis banned access to American media during the war, Gillars was under no such restriction. She received the OK to look at any publications for details she could include in her propaganda. The Germans also clued Gillars in on military intelligence, which she used to full effect.

The conspiracy theories were one thing. In the latter stages of the war, Gillars’ message grew even more contemptible. Shortly before D-Day on June 6, 1944, Gillars starred in a radio production, “Vision of Invasion,” in which she played a grieving mother who dreams her son died crossing the English Channel.

Gillars and Koischwitz even visited POW camps and hospitals, with the aim of having service members discredit their country. Her ruse failed, so much so that one captured soldier offered her a pack of cigarettes. When she accepted it, she found horse manure inside, according to the podcast.

Guilty of Treason

The Americans captured Gillars in 1946 and charged her with 10 counts of treason. By the time her trial began on January 25, 1949, in Washington, D.C., prosecutors reduced that number to eight.

Facing the possibility of the death penalty, Gillars testified in her defense, often in tears. She claimed she was playing a role and wasn’t actually a traitor. She explained to the jury that she only signed a loyalty oath to the Nazis, because she faced severe consequences if she didn’t. Gillars insisted she remained proud of her home country.

More than six weeks after the trial started, a jury found Gillars guilty of one count of treason (for her role in “Vision for Invasion”). When the verdict came, “Axis Sally” became the first convicted female traitor against the U.S. In addition to a $10,000 fine, she received a sentence of 10 years to 30 years. Gillars served 12 years at the Federal Reformatory for Women in West Virginia before she was paroled.

“The condition of her parole is that she maintain a low profile,” Flamm said in the podcast. “She gives a few interviews, but she’s very careful to comply with the terms. I will say that in her few public statements, she expresses no remorse, no regret for her actions, [and] says she would do again precisely what she had done.”

Gillars died on June 25, 1988. She was 87 years old.

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