Evening star., 1949-01-24
Stage Dreams Started Axis Sally to Trial
therefor Treason in Wartime Broodcosts

8 pm. called Morocco Sending, using
records except for the Thursday
Home Sweet Home program. This
continued to the end of the war
All the programs were recorded
at the Federal Communication Com
mission monitoring station at Silver
Hill, Md. They vary as to quality
due to atmospheric conditions, but
none of them were missed.
AS a disk jockey, her theme song
was Bing Crosby's when the Blue
of the Night Meets the Gold Of the
Day" and GIs in the desert heard
so much of Bing from Berlin that
they nicknamed him Der Bingel."
Another favorite was Crosbys
Home Town"-"what do I care, it's
home" She cried when that record
broke. 1t was irreplaceable. One
of her favorites, which she said was
written by an American soldier in
a prisoner of war camp, was entitled
Il Want a Blue-eyed Buddy, I
Want a CT Pal" 1t has few risque
lines and was quite popular for a
time
Miss Gillars contribution to psy-
Geological warfare with the help OF
Koischwitzj was using American
radio technique to sell homesickness
and war WEAKNESS. For time the
Army was disturbed about the effect
on the GIs who had a radio in every
bivouac. When it was realized how
little effect it was having, the gen.
erals decided to do nothing about
it except to ask for equipment to
broadcast new records from home
One of these, Don't Sit Under the
Apple Tree" proved much more
disturbing than anything in Miss
Gillars' library.
Her greatest success was in giving
the American troops good march
ing song, "Lili Marlene.' This was
due to an excellent recording she
had of the sad German war song
by Lale Anderson. Swedish torch
singer.
Was Highest-Paid Performer.
BY 1943 Miss Gillars was the
highest paid performer in the for
eign broadcasting. She was making
more than 5000 marks a month.
She worked with Mrs. Margaret
Joyce, Lord Ha Has" wife, in a
program called Seven at the Mike. :"
Three of the seven were Koischwitz's S
daughters. They were called the
Sunnyside Sisters. One of them is
here and may testify.
She also did a 15-minute show
entitled "Midge at the Mike"
beamed at mothers, wives and sweet
hearts of American soldiers. 1t was
woman to woman with talk about
the hardships of rationing and
President Roosevelt's again and
again" disclaimer of intention to
send Americans overseas. She also
put on a program called Written
Messages which were interviews
with POWs on a microphone and
recording machine she and Koisch-
witz took to the POW camps.
She would play Caravan and
break in with Boys, you didn't see
anything like that in the desert, did
you?" Another was Brother, Can
You Spare a Dime" She would tell
them they were all going to be broke
and selling apples after the war. She
emphasized the carnage Of meeting
German military might and the
secret weapons on the way.
Koischwitz's wife and baby were
killed in a bombing raid Miss Gill
lars tried to mother the other chill
dren without much success. Koisch-
witz himself died before the wars
end. After the surrender she fill
tered back into Berlin wearing an
Eisenhower jacket and going un-
der the name of Barbara None
She had not been indicted during
the war with Ezra Pound, Chandler
Best and the others. But the iden-
tity of Axis Sally was known and
the Department of Justice was de-
termined to get her Three men
from the department, Clyde E.
Gooch, Samuel c. Ely and Victor c.
Woerheide, went to Germany in
March, 1946 They gave the infor-
nation on Sally to the CIC. In II
days she was picked up.
She was released in December
with instructions to report BIZ
monthly. In the meantime evidence
against her was being assembled.
The GIG reported she was shooting
off her mouth to GIs. 1t was the
same old line, Hitler was right"
She was arrested again, flown back
and indicted. One thing the de-
partment resents from Attorney
General Clark down is Walter
Winchell's charge that her prosecu-
ton was held up by influence. The
Constitution calls for two witnesses
to the overt act of treason and the
department decided to play safe by
getting two witnesses to each act
charged. It will be a long trial.