The Double Life of Josephine Baker
We remember Josephine Baker as a singer and dancer, who had to leave her native country to find freedom and fame. What fewer know is that when Nazism threatened that freedom she so treasured, Baker also turned her talents toward defending it — as a spy.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906, Baker began her career as a teenage vaudeville performer, but rose to fame after she joined an all-Black troupe traveling to Paris in 1925. Baker marveled at the freedoms she experienced in France — for example, sitting wherever she wished on a train car. She gained wealth and fame, first as an erotic dancer, then in film and opera.
Soon, Baker’s fame presented a new opportunity. After World War II began in September 1939, a French intelligence agent named Jacques Abtey came to her home and asked her to become part of his network. She immediately agreed. “The Parisians gave me their hearts,” she said, “and I am ready to give them my life.”
Baker attended events and parties, socializing with the Axis elite, eavesdropping all the while. She would report her findings back to Abtey. Sometimes she would even take notes on her arm or the palm of her hand, secure in the conviction that no one would ever suspect her of being a spy.
Even so, Baker epitomized the Nazis’ definition of a threat. She was a successful, Black, bisexual performer, who, in 1937, married a Jewish man (she and Jean Lion divorced after several years of marriage).
With the Nazi invasion of France in May 1940, Baker fled Paris and entered into a new relationship with her adopted country. Knowing she could be in danger, Baker sought refuge in the south — which was administered by the collaborationist Vichy regime — rented a chateau, and offered refuge to others fleeing the Nazis.
From southern France, Baker continued her intelligence work. To make contact with British agents, Abtey disguised himself as her ballet instructor, and the two embarked on a tour of Portugal. They smuggled information written in invisible ink on the back of Baker’s sheet music and photographs pinned to the inside of her dress. With her natural charm and immense fame, they made it across the border without being searched, and the documents successfully made their way into the hands of British intelligence officers.
Baker also put her artistic talents to use helping the Allied cause. Starting in 1943, she toured North Africa performing for Allied soldiers, raising more than three million francs for the Free French Army. For her courageous service, the women’s auxiliary of the French air force made her an officer. She wore her air force uniform at appearances for the rest of her life — including the 1963 March on Washington, where she was one of the only women speakers.
After the liberation of Paris in 1944, Baker returned to the city. She discovered the dire conditions people there had been living in and sold her own valuables to help supply food and coal to those in need. In 1945, General Charles de Gaulle awarded her two prestigious honors, 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.
After years in her adopted country, Baker never forgot her original home and the struggles of Black Americans. At the 1963 march, she said, “I want you to know … how proud I am to be here today, and after so many long years of struggle fighting here and elsewhere for your rights, our rights, the rights of humanity, the rights of man, I’m glad that you have accepted me to come. … The world is behind you.”
Sources:
Jean-Claude Baker and Chris Chase, Josephine: The Hungry Heart (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001).
“Josephine Baker Is Dead in Paris at 68,” New York Times, April 13, 1975.
“March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; Part 5 of 17,” 08/28/1963, GBH Archives, accessed February 2, 2021.
Meredith Hindley, Destination Casablanca: Exile, Espionage, and the Battle for North Africa in World War II (New York: Public Affairs, 2017).
Tina L. Ligon and Christina Violeta Jones, “Let Freedom Ring!!! Honoring the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” Rediscovering Black History (blog) (National Archives, August 20, 2013).
The National World War II Museum, “Siren of the Resistance: The Artistry and Espionage of Josephine Baker,” February 1, 2020.
Phyllis Rose, Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time (New York: Doubleday, 1989).
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated Baker’s birthplace, which is St. Louis, Missouri.
