Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS
Propaganda Girls highlights the lives of four remarkable women during World War II and emphasizes the importance of a workplace culture that champions employee autonomy.
Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS by Lisa Rogak, St. Martin’s Press
Workplace culture experts have increasingly touted autonomy as a key component of preventing employee burnout. How it is implemented will vary across workplaces, but can perhaps be neatly summed up by the advice given during World War II by General “Wild Bill” Donovan of the Office of Strategic Services:
“If you think it will work, go ahead.”
Lisa Rogak’s new book, Propaganda Girls, highlights the stories of four women who worked for the Morale Operations branch of the OSS, tasked with creating propaganda aimed at undermining the morale of Axis soldiers. These women included Betty MacDonald, a journalist from Oahu who witnessed and documented the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor yet was relegated to writing soft-news stories for her women’s column; Zuzka Lauwers, a Czech Jewish polyglot who narrowly escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia; Jane Smith-Hutton, the wife of a naval attaché stationed in Tokyo who, after being held hostage for months by Japanese military police, felt deeply betrayed by the country she’d come to love; and Marlene Dietrich, a German immigrant turned Hollywood movie star who vowed never to return to her homeland until the Nazi party was gone.
Leading up to the war, each of these women sought lives beyond the narrow path of marriage and motherhood, and this drive for greater meaning and purpose persisted during the war, especially as husbands and male relatives left home for combat duty. Prior to their recruitment by the OSS, each had already begun carving out a new path for herself: Betty found an outlet through the San Francisco Chronicle to publish harder-hitting war stories from Hawaii; Zuzka took a job as the lead ghostwriter for the press attaché at the Czech embassy in DC; Jane dabbled in espionage, navigating black markets during supply shortages and smuggling sensitive American embassy documents out of Japan in her luggage; and Marlene leveraged her celebrity to raise funds for refugees and sell U.S. war bonds. Each woman was highly intelligent and resourceful, finding creative ways to put their unique talents to use towards the war effort, and because each spoke at least one Axis language such as Japanese or German, they soon proved to be excellent candidates for the OSS.
As Rogak notes, the OSS was something of an anomaly because of the higher number of college-educated women in its ranks compared to any other government agency or military branch: “[General] Donovan wanted the most experienced people he could find, regardless of gender.” Once brought aboard, each of these women succeeded in their roles because they were putting their individual strengths and talents to use.
Betty, the journalist, created newspapers and leaflets made to look like they came from pacifist and resistance organizations within Japan, meant to demoralize Japanese soldiers and encourage them to surrender. Zuzka, with her mastery of several languages, became a translator and soon a negotiator, coaxing intel from prisoners of war and using their insights to create creative pieces of propaganda, such as toilet paper with Hitler’s face printed on it. Jane, who had learned to speak and write Japanese in Tokyo, trained fellow OSS operatives and vetted their propaganda to make sure their Japanese sounded authentic. Marlene toured the frontlines to put on shows for American soldiers and recorded a series of American songs translated to German to be broadcast in Germany, meant to “twist the heartstrings of German civilians and soldiers alike” who were starting to question the ongoing war.
Propaganda Girls offers a fascinating view into historic events and into the lives of each of these four women whose achievements deserve to be uplifted. It also serves, unexpectedly, as a solid manual for creating a workplace culture where employees can thrive. Although each woman still faced significant sexism and limitations to her career advancement, the innovative environment of the OSS offered all of them a rare opportunity to push the boundaries of their talents and contribute meaningfully to society. All four were deeply impacted by their time in the OSS and recalled this time fondly for the rest of their lives, a testament to the effect an organization can have when it values the autonomy of its employees.
