Josephine Baker rose from St. Louis to become a star, and spy
ST. LOUIS – One of the key pieces to divulging the secrets behind Nazi Germany during World War II was a woman who came from St. Louis.
Josephine Baker was born in the Gateway City in 1906. Her childhood molded her into a fiercely independent person, as her father was absent and her mother struggled to make financial ends meet.
She began working when she was just 8 years old and married for the first time five years later, according to HISTORY and the CIA. As her marriage lasted a year, she found herself afterwards taking a leap to performing in vaudeville shows, such as Dixie Stepper and Jones Family Band, becoming a star dancer.
It wasn’t long before Baker fell into the world of show business. She packed her bags and left the States behind for France to perform in a more risqué environment with new dances, new costumes, and a new life. The CIA says Baker was looked upon as the epitome of the “roaring 20s” with her mindset and personality.
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Baker went on to be the highest-paid entertainer in Europe. It has also been said that she received over 1,000 marriage proposals while in Paris. Dazzling French audiences with her charm and routines wasn’t the only thing that she was exceptional at, though.
At the time, Jacques Abtey was the secret agent responsible for recruiting spies to carry out the heavy work of gaining information on the Nazis strategies, according to the Library of Congress. HISTORY states that, typically, men were the ones left to take up this task. That was until Josephine showed up.
In Abtey’s eyes, Baker was the perfect individual to make a spy. With her looks, fame, and persona, everyone would be unsuspecting of her affiliation and she would already have enhanced protection. There was no hesitation from Baker, as she felt loyal to her new home country.
“France made me what I am,” she said, according to Vanity Fair. “The Parisians gave me their hearts, and I am ready to give them my life.”
Driven by the discrimination she still faced and her dedication to Paris, she immediately began fulfilling her duties as a spy, beginning with Italian and Japanese embassy parties. Vanity Fair says she would take notes on her arm or on the palm of her hands with no concern for an enemy catching her. As she said, “Nobody would think I’m a spy.”
Other methods she used to complete her tasks of spying on foreign countries included writing hidden messages within her sheet music or hiding documents in her undergarments. She’d take notes of German troop movements, what harbors were in use, and airfields that were active, according to the National WWII Museum.
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But there was once a close call of her espionage alter ego being revealed when Nazis took a visit at Baker’s chateau. Although she managed to deceive the Nazis as she kept other resistance fighters hidden in the house, she believed she flew too close to the sun and decided to end her mission there. Overall, she managed to obtain 50 classified documents.
Baker faced a challenging upbringing with many uncertainties on where her life would take her, but she defied the odds and went on to carry a legacy within not only World War II, but for the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. as well, for years beyond her death in 1975.
In honor of her work and dedication during the war, Baker was awarded with the Croix de Guerre (War Cross) and the Legion of Honour with the rosette of the Resistance, which are considered to be the two highest military honors in France.
NAAP now recognizes May 20 as “Josephine Baker Day.”
Note: This video is from November 2021.
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