Josephine Baker
While predominately remembered for her provocative dances, vaudeville routines and appearances in films, Josephine Baker’s efforts to fight the tyranny of Fascism have received little attention. Throughout her life, the American expatriate-turned-French citizen fearlessly called out the racism she endured while in the United States. Her bravery again went on display after her adopted country of France fell to Nazi forces. Baker turned to espionage, using her celebrity status to capture information for the French Resistance.
Born Freda Josephine McDonald in East St. Louis, on June 3, 1906, Baker took to an early life of entertaining and offering performances to neighborhood children when still a small child. In her teen years, she turned to dancing with vaudeville troupes.
At age 15, she met William Howard Baker, and after a few weeks the couple eloped. Baker was her second husband — her first, brief marriage occurred while she was 13 — but he gave Josephine the surname that she kept for the rest of her life.
At 19, Baker accepted an offer to join an all-black revue set to run in Paris. Unlike the United States, France did not racially segregate public places on a large scale. When Baker and her castmates boarded a train in France, they were surprised to learn they could sit anywhere they liked. She was also shocked to see the costumes created for her to perform in; one consisted only of a bikini bottom covered in flamingo feathers. After one performance, Baker quickly took to this kind of erotic dancing and became a rising star. Over time, she became the most successful entertainer in France, transforming from an exotic dancer into a film star and opera singer. Throughout these years, it is believed she became the wealthiest black woman alive.
In 1928, Baker departed for a European tour, with the first stop in Vienna. She had not been aware of the political unrest building in the region. By that point, Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, “Mein Kampf,” had popularized racist ideologies that spread throughout the region. Before Baker even arrived in Vienna, posters around the city denigrated her performance, calling her a “black devil.” As she rode in a carriage to her hotel, protesters lined the streets. Baker said the scene reminded her of the race riots that shook her community when she was a child.
The start of World War II put Baker’s performances on hold. By that time, she had married her third husband, a French-Jewish sugar broker named Jean Lion. The couple divorced in 1941, but in that time, Baker came to represent much of what Hitler and the Nazis despised. She was a successful, black woman in an interracial marriage with a Jewish man, who was also openly bisexual and had multiple long-term, semi-public relationships with other women. When the Germans began to advance on Paris in 1940, Baker, like millions of other Parisians, fled the city.
She moved to a chateau she rented in the south of France, where she took in other refugees. After the fall of Paris, Baker came into contact with Jacques Abtey, head of French countermilitary intelligence. Abtey sought to recruit people who could engage in espionage to help resistance efforts against the Nazi occupation. Baker was an ideal candidate for this work, as her celebrity allowed her to move easily between countries and offered her enhanced protection. When Abtey approached Baker to see if she would take the risk and join the resistance, she said yes.
Baker housed resistance fighters at her chateau and supplied them with visas. She attended parties and diplomatic functions, including parties at the Italian embassy that brought her in the orbit of high-ranking Axis bureaucrats. She collected information on German troop movements, and what harbors or airfields were in action. Baker was confident that her celebrity and connections would protect her, and that no one would suspect her of espionage. She wrote down intelligence on her hands and arms, pinning notes inside her underwear. She did so knowing she would never face a strip search — and she was right.
The Nazis had gotten wind of the resistance activity happening at Baker’s chateau and visited the estate. Baker had been hiding several fighters at the time of the visit. She successfully charmed the Nazis when they questioned her, but she took the close encounter as a sign that it was time to leave France. Abtey contacted Gen. Charles de Gaulle, who instructed Abtey and Baker to travel to London via Lisbon, which was neutral. The pair carried over 50 classified documents and secret intelligence. Baker carried hers by writing the information in invisible ink on her sheet music.
After D-Day and the liberation of Paris, Baker returned to her adopted city wearing a military uniform. She quickly took note of the terrible conditions many French people endured after the Nazi occupation. She sold pieces of jewelry and other valuables to raise money to buy food and coal for the poor citizens of Paris.
After Germany’s surrender in 1945, de Gaulle awarded Baker the Croix de Guerre and the Rosette de la Résistance. He also named her a Chevalier de Légion d’honneur, the highest order of merit for military and civil action.