24 Facts About Mildred Gillars

Mildred Elizabeth Gillars was an American broadcaster employed by Nazi Germany to disseminate Axis propaganda during World War II.

Mildred Gillars was born Mildred Elizabeth Sisk in Portland, Maine, to parents Vincent Sisk and Mae Hewitson.

Mildred Gillars's family resided in Bellevue, Ohio, where Robert Gillars was a dentist.

Mildred Gillars then moved to Greenwich Village, New York City, where she worked in various low-skilled jobs to finance drama lessons.

Mildred Gillars toured with stock companies and appeared in vaudeville but was unable to establish a theatrical career.

Mildred Gillars worked as an artist's model for sculptor Mario Korbel but was unable to find regular employment.

In 1933, Mildred Gillars left the United States again, residing first in Algiers where she found work as a dressmaker's assistant.

On 6 May 1940, Mildred Gillars obtained work as an announcer with the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft, German State Radio.

Mildred Gillars became their highest paid employee, and sometimes went by the name of "Midge at the mike".

However, Mildred Gillars chose to remain because her fiance Paul Karlson, a naturalized German citizen, said he would never marry her if she returned to the United States.

Mildred Gillars made her most famous broadcast on May 11,1944, a few weeks prior to the D-Day invasion of Normandy, in a radio play written by Koischwitz called Vision of Invasion.

Mildred Gillars played Evelyn, an Ohio mother, who dreams that her son had died a horrific death on a ship in the English Channel during an attempted invasion of Occupied Europe.

Mildred Gillars came to her after his death in the dream and told her of the horror he saw, whilst in the background there were shrieks and moans of men suffering in battle.

Koischwitz died in August 1944 and Mildred Gillars's broadcasts became lackluster and repetitive without his creative energy.

Mildred Gillars remained in Berlin until the end of the war.

When she was arrested on March 15,1946, Mildred Gillars only asked to take with her a picture of Koischwitz.

Mildred Gillars was then held by the Counterintelligence Corps at Camp King, Oberursel, along with collaborators Herbert John Burgman and Donald S Day, until she was conditionally released from custody on December 24,1946; however, she declined to leave military detention.

Mildred Gillars was abruptly re-arrested on January 22,1947, after being offered conditional release by the United States at the request of the Justice Department and was eventually flown to the United States on August 21,1948, to await trial on charges of aiding the German war effort.

Mildred Gillars was indicted on September 10,1948, and charged with ten counts of treason, but only eight were used at her trial, which began on January 25,1949.

Mildred Gillars was stripped of her US citizenship, was sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Mildred Gillars served her sentence at the Federal Reformatory for Women in Alderson, West Virginia.

Mildred Gillars became eligible for parole in 1959, but did not apply until 1961.

Mildred Gillars said that it had been given to her by Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS.

Mildred Gillars died of colon cancer at Grant Medical Center in Columbus on June 25,1988.