I have known of Josephine Baker as an entertainer, and have now discovered she was a spy!

Baker was recruited by French military intelligence in 1939 and used her celebrity status as a cover for gathering information

Her first mission was to determine whether Italian dictator Benito Mussolini planned to form an alliance with Hitler. Later, she was tasked with using her friendship with the wife of Japan's ambassador to France to confirm Japan's intentions to ally with Germany

After the Nazi occupation of Paris, Baker moved to her country chateau, where she hid Resistance fighters, cached weapons, and sheltered Jewish refugees

In October 1940, Baker left France under the guise of going on tour. She and her handler, Jacques Abtey, smuggled valuable documents and photographs out of the country to neutral Portugal, from where the information was sent to British intelligence in London

Baker used her fame and extensive travel as a performer to conceal her espionage activities. Her voluminous luggage, ostensibly filled with costumes and musical scores, was perfect for hiding secret intelligence

She smuggled secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music
This sheet music is now on display at the International Spy Museum

Baker also participated in gathering intelligence in French North Africa, providing information on tides, beaches, and enemy defenses in preparation for the Allied landing in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch) in November 1942

For her wartime efforts, Josephine Baker was awarded several honors by the French government, including the Croix de Guerre, the Rosette de la Résistance, and was named a Chevalier de Légion d'honneur. In 2021, she became the first American and first Black woman to be inducted into France's Panthéon, the country's highest honor.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-starlet-spy?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

The House of the Rising Intelligence

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