Review: Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS

Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS by Lisa Rogak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a fantastic book that showed a side of WWII that most of us have never seen. This book chronicles the lives of four very different women with a few things in common. However, one thing they did have in common was an aptitude for languages.

The of the women you most likely have never heard of unless you were in the OSS (now the CIA) and the very famous Marlene Dietrich (who gave up her German citizenship and became an Amercan because of the war).

As explained in the synopsis of the book, these four women (Betty, Zuzka, Jane, and Marlene) became famous for working with the OSS in a covert and successful military campaign that created propaganda of the dark kind.

This book is written with chapters based on each woman. We glimpse through their eyes the atrocities of this war, and we see them do their part to fight it. We also get a good look at the gender inequality of the times.

This was a difficult book for me to put down - so I didn't! I loved every minute of it and came out of this thinking that I could have been friends with any or all of them. The author made them into flesh and blood instead of just characters on a page.

I highly recommend this book and think it would be a perfect read for book clubs that are looking for a history book that isn't dry and is a bit unusual.

*ARC supplied by the publisher St. Martin's Press/ Macmillan, the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS: "The incredible untold story of four women who helped win WWII by generating a wave of black propaganda.

Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane Smith-Hutton was the wife of a naval attaché living in Tokyo. Marlene Dietrich, the German-American actress and singer, was of course one of the biggest stars of the 20th century. These four women, each fascinating in her own right, together contributed to one of the most covert and successful military campaigns in WWII.

As members of the OSS, their task was to create a secret brand of propaganda produced with the sole aim to break the morale of Axis soldiers. Working in the European theater, across enemy lines in occupied China, and in Washington, D.C., Betty, Zuzka, Jane, and Marlene forged letters and “official” military orders, wrote and produced entire newspapers, scripted radio broadcasts and songs, and even developed rumors for undercover spies and double agents to spread to the enemy. And outside of a small group of spies, no one knew they existed. Until now.

In Propaganda Girls, bestselling author Lisa Rogak brings to vivid life the incredible true story of four unsung heroes, whose spellbinding achievements would change the course of history."