It was at the Château des Milandes, at Castelnaud-la-Chapelle in the Dordogne department, that Joséphine Baker took refuge when Paris was occupied in June 1940. It was there that the singer, actress and magazine leader heard the call from General de Gaulle. Washmusic hall debt and Roaring Twenties icon who enters the Pantheon on November 30, 2021, for his action in the Resistance, will soon meet Jacques Abtey, a Gaullist resistance officer, head of the military counter-espionage in Paris.
“She explains to him that she can allow him, thanks to her notoriety, to help her in many areas, reminds the current owner of Angélique de Labarre in the magazine ‘8:30 p.m. on Saturday’ (replay). He had doubts about his ability to be able to be a spy. He says to himself that she is quite light, that she danced with the banana belt, that they call her the Bird of the Islands… In fact, she is going to reveal herself immediately by saying to him: ‘Sir, I want to give myself to France. Do whatever you want with me. “
Her fame as a cover
And that’s how Josephine Baker became an intelligence officer: “We invite her because she is the great Parisian star that you have to see at least once in her life. She is immensely known because she has sung everywhere I have two loves: in 1929 in Munich, in 1931 in Berlin… specifies this passionate artist. Whether Italian or German, the military, the generals are curious to see this character… and she gleans the information with her charm. “ Her fame as a cover protects her and she even dines in Italy with Mussolini…: “We ask him who is present at this dinner, what ranks the soldiers have, their involvement in the war, where are they located …”
She is invited all over Europe and soon responsible for passing sensitive documents to other relays of the Resistance: “She will hide confidential documents on the occupation of German armored vehicles in the south-east of France.” The spy passes her coded messages written in sympathetic ink on her musical scores: “If we take her, she is obviously tortured and killed.” His commitment earned him the French Resistance medal with rosette and the Croix de Guerre 1939-1945.
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