19. Josephine Baker Smuggled Intelligence Reports Gathered on the Nazi Regime by Pinning Them to Her Underwear
In 1941, under cover of health reasons and doctor’s orders after a bout of pneumonia, Josephine Baker left a Europe groaning under Nazi occupation. She headed to French North Africa, then under the control of the collaborationist French Vichy regime. In reality, she was there to help the Resistance. Working from Morocco, she traveled back and forth to Francisco Franco’s fascist Spain, gathering information and transmitting it to Allied intelligence. Counting on her celebrity to avoid a strip search, she pinned intelligence reports to her underwear.
While conducting her clandestine work in North Africa and Spain, Baker had a miscarriage that almost killed her. She developed an infection so severe, that she needed a complete hysterectomy. Things got worse when the infection spread, and she ended up with sepsis and peritonitis. After recovering, she began touring to entertain Allied soldiers – who by then had landed in North Africa. Later in the war, Baker joined the French Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, in which she was commissioned as a lieutenant, and kept putting on shows for Allied troops.
