"Axis Sally" was a female radio personality during World War II. Born Mildred Elizabeth Sisk in Portland, Maine on November 29, 1900 she took the name Mildred Gillars as a small child after her mother remarried.

Gillars studied drama at Ohio Wesleyan University, but dropped out before graduating.

Gillars found employment in Europe, working as an English instructor at the Berlitz School of Languages in Berlin, Germany, in 1935. She later accepted a job as an announcer and actress with Radio Berlin, where she remained until Nazi Germany fell in 1945.

With her sultry voice, Gillars was a well-known propagandist to Allied troops, who gave her the nickname "Axis Sally." Her most infamous broadcast was made on May 11, 1944, prior to the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France. Gillars portrayed an American mother who dreamed that her son had been killed in the English Channel. An announcer's voice made the message clear: "The D of D-Day stands for doom... disaster... death... defeat... Dunkerque or Dieppe."

After the war, Gillars was captured and eventually flown back to America in 1948. She was charged with 10 counts of treason, although she was actually only tried for eight.

Prosecutors alleged that Gillars had signed an oath of allegiance to Nazi Germany and that she had posed as a worker for the International Red Cross in order to record messages from American soldiers that could be converted into propaganda.

Gillars' defense attorneys argued that her broadcasts stated an unpopular opinion but did not rise to the level of treason, and that she was under the sway of her former romantic interest, Max Otto Koischwitz.

The sensational, six-week trial ended on March 8, 1949. After long deliberations, the jury convicted Gillars on only one count of treason.

Gillars was sentenced to 10 to 30 years. She became eligible for parole in 1959, but did not pursue it, perhaps fearing persecution as a traitor. Two years later, she applied for parole and received it.

Gillars taught at a Catholic school in Columbus, Ohio, and returned to Ohio Wesleyan to earn a degree in 1973.

Gillars died on June 25, 1988.

External links

• World War II magazine article
• http://thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/axissallymug1.html - Mug shots