It’s a bit as if, today, Beyoncé was joining the CIA. Josephine Baker, whose ashes will be transferred to the Pantheon on Monday, November 29, led a double life during World War II, as a music hall artist and intelligence officer. This is what reveals his file kept by the Historical Service of Defense, the SHD, and that Franceinfo was able to consult.
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In 1939, Joséphine Baker was a megastar in France. The country loves her and she loves this country. While in the United States, where she was born in misery, she is a victim of the policy of segregation. As soon as France declared war on Germany, the artist came into contact with the head of the French counter-espionage. She is committed, explains Géraud Létang, historian at SHD, and she is truly committed: “Josephine Baker does not want to be a singer in the service of the armed forces. She wants to be a fighter who sings.”
“Her first wish is to engage in the fight against Nazi Germany, which she equates to a fight against racism.”
Géraud Létang, historianto franceinfo
“Joséphine Baker is a cover, that is to say that she will pass off some of the intelligence agents for impresarios, for technicians, for make-up artists, says Géraud Létang. She will continue her tours and bring them with her to allow them to travel in the safest way possible. ”
Joséphine Baker will do a little more too, carrying – she, the artist who caused a scandal in 1925 by dancing topless – messages in her bra or by gleaning gossip from embassies where she is received. But its main role is to allow real spies to evolve in its wake. Gaullist spies who take advantage of his musical scores to write, in sympathetic ink [encre invisible], briefing notes.
What her military record shows is that Josephine Baker had many roles during the war. Singer who acts as a spy, singer who raises funds, singer who comforts soldiers in operation … All of Joséphine Baker’s combat activities are documented and archived. Marion Soutet, curator at SHD, presents the file to us: “It is this file listed in AI1P which is the non-commissioned officer file of Joséphine Baker. For example, Miss Joséphine Baker had from 1939 to 1944 the following activity: ‘from 39 to 40, entered voluntarily in connection with services to participate in the fight against enemy espionage and propaganda. ‘”
Marion Soutet also shows us a letter from General Billotte: “Miss Baker is in my eyes an ardent patriot. She has also, with exceptional intelligence, used a large number of international relations to send to qualified organizations very valuable information for national defense.”
At the end of the war, Joséphine Baker was decorated with the Medal of the Resistance. It is proposed for the Legion of Honor, in a civil capacity. She is reluctant and wants her in a military capacity. Finally, in 1957, she accepted a compromise: a Legion of Honor, in a civilian capacity, but with the Croix de Guerre in addition.
The American singer’s commitment to the French Resistance also had its setbacks. With risk taking comes exhaustion and health concerns. In June 1944, his plane crashed at sea, fortunately near the Corsican coast. Joséphine Baker was, says Géraud Létang, really in danger: “That is to say crossing minefields once the battle has just taken place. It is also the willingness to go where the battle has just ended, where the pain is greatest, it is is to say in the face of deportees who have just been released in the face of prisoners who have just been released ”
Nathalie Genet-Rouffiac, Head of the Historical Department of Defense adds: “We can see that Josephine Baker, after the war, like many people engaged in intelligence activities, had overall physical fatigue which was marked with infertility, etc., linked to the attention of what she experienced during the war.” This infertility, diagnosed during the war in 1941 in Casablanca, led the resistant to adopt and raise 12 children, of all origins. But that’s another Josephine Baker story.