Marlene Dietrich: Hollywood Star Who Defied Hitler and Became a WWII Heroine

Marlene Dietrich, born in Berlin in 1901, rose from Weimar Republic cabarets to Hollywood stardom after the success of 'The Blue Angel' (1930). When the Nazi regime, including Adolf Hitler and Joachim von Ribbentrop, tried to lure her back to Germany as the face of Nazi cinema, she publicly condemned the Third Reich, calling Hitler an idiot on British radio. In 1937, she renounced her German citizenship and, with filmmaker Billy Wilder, created a fund to help Jewish and persecuted artists escape, donating her salary from 'Knight Without Armor' (1937) for their evacuations. After Pearl Harbor (1941), she was among the first celebrities to volunteer for the Allied war effort, selling more war bonds by 1943 than any other star. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor to the CIA, recruited her for the Muzak Project, producing propaganda music in German, including re-recordings of 'Lili Marleen', to demoralize Axis troops. From 1944 to 1945, she performed on USO tours near the front lines in North Africa and France, alongside Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, braving shelling and frostbite, and earning an honorary colonel title. In 1947, President Harry Truman awarded her the Medal of Freedom, which she called her proudest achievement.