The book follows the pre-war, wartime and post-war lives of Betty MacDonald, Zuzka Lauwers, Jane Smith-Hutton and Marlene Dietrich. Although they all came from different backgrounds they shared a striving to be more than what society dictated women should be. What amazed me was that each woman spent an entire lifetime fighting. Fighting to have a career. To serve their country. To be taken seriously. For equality. Recognition. Equity. And finally for a life after the war that could be as fulfilling as the short time they were allowed to use their talents and brilliance to serve a greater cause. These women were remarkable and yet they are just a handful of women who represent the thousands throughout history who have done the hard work without recognition, glory or remembrance. I'm glad their stories are being told.

It is very frustrating how much of women’s history is not common knowledge. Lisa Rogak’s book brings to light the roles Betty MacDonald, Zuzka Lauwers, Jane Smith-Hutton and Marlene Dietrich played in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. They may not have been the front lines directly fighting the battles, but they were contributing to the war effort through their propaganda. Throughout the book, you learn about the creative efforts these women took to serve their country and the personal sacrifices they made. Also, as with most things, it highlights the lack of equal treatment for women in terms of pay, recognition and other areas in comparison to their male colleagues.

If you are interested in learning more about the important roles women have played in our history, this is a must read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

#PropogandaGirls, #LisaRogak, #NetGalley

Four brilliant, creative, adventurous, resourceful women, finding a way to make unique contributions to the effort to win World War II. Finding a way to thrive in the macho culture of the Office of Strategic Services (the WW II precursor to the CIA) and the Army’s chain of command. It is a great story.

I doubt you have ever heard of three of these women. The fourth, though, is Marlene Dietrich.

I confess that Dietrich’s involvement in the story is what got me to start reading the book. That is what it took for me to invest my time in learning about the heroic contributions of the other three—Elizabeth “Betty” MacDonald, Jane Smith-Hutton, and Barbara “Zuzka” Lauwers-- who are given equal attention by the author and whose stories are relatable in ways that Dietrich’s is not.

Dietrich’s story probably will attract readers like me, who might not otherwise seek out this book. Certainly, the book benefits from the glamour Dietrich’s story brings to it. And I grant that Dietrich’s unrelenting efforts to defeat the Nazis (making her a special target of Hitler’s rage) m needs to be better known. So, if the presence of Dietrich in the book boosts the book’s readership, then I thank the author for her decision to include Dietrich. Though I think the stories of the other three are enough to make the book worthwhile on their own.

There are a few things that bother me about the book. The author sometimes is unable to avoid relying on clunky metaphors and cliches (for example, “a boatload of challenges”; “out from under her husband’s thumb and able to call her own shots”; “always up for an adventure”; “up-and-coming architect”; “wasn’t crazy about”; “deep literary roots”; “threw herself into”). And I think she is overly chummy with her protagonists. She writes as if she is their best friend.

Also, I am not a fan of the book’s structure. Each of the protagonists is given a chapter, not necessarily in the same order, in each of the four sections of the book. That is, chapters on “Betty”; “Zuzka”; “Jane”; “Marlene” in “Act One,” and then same titles but different order in “Act Two,” “Act Three,” and “Act Four.” Maybe there is no better way to tell four separate stories that run in parallel but do not overlap very much. Still, I wonder if your reading experience might be more rewarding if you read all the chapters on Betty, and then all the chapters on Zuzka, and so forth.

Those concerns aside, the narrative does charge along and consistently provides clear descriptions of how “black propaganda”—believable lies designed to weaken an enemy’s morale--was created by these women and how they and it helped win the war.

As I said at the outset, this book tells a great story. I can envision it as the basis for a bingeworthy dramatic series. I think it will have the same effect on you.

Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for providing an advance copy in galley form for review consideration via Net Galley. Please note: Quotes taken from a galley may change in the final version.
All opinions are my own.

Propaganda Girls
Lisa Rogak, author
St. Martins Press
Release: 3/4/2025

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read this fascinating review copy of Propaganda Girls.

I gave it 5 stars due to the depth of information that is included in this book. It is a mini history of the world during World War II, reflected through the lives of the four protagonists who were: Elizabeth (Betty) MacDonald, Marlene Dietrich, Jane Smith-Hutton and Barbara (Zuzka) Lauwers.

William Donovan, director of the Morale Operations of the OSS during WWII got the idea to use “black propaganda" targeting both the civilian and military populations of enemy countries. The four women were employed with this task because as Betty said, “Women can hurt people better.” She proved this literally on December 7, 1941, when scouring Honolulu with her newspaper's photographer in tow, she found a 5-year-old boy lying in some rubble, sound asleep. So, she pinched him, made him cry and the photo was published a week later in Life magazine! For Betty, job #1 was getting a reaction from the readers.

All four of these women are remarkable in so many ways, it is fascinating to read their stories. I appreciated that the author gave pre-OSS bios of each woman and gave us the stories of their after-WW II lives.

I knew that Hitler had declared Marlene public enemy #1 in Germany for her betrayal in becoming a US citizen and in siding against Germany in the pre-war era but I did not know that her mother and sister were still in Berlin and that Marlene had no contact from them for years. I was most surprised at her story because she was completely devoted to the American GI and called them “my boys.” She admired them for leaving their own homeland and to go and fight so hard for the people in other countries.

For anyone who has an interest in WW II or in general history this will be an interesting read and you will learn about daily life in various countries around the globe. These women served, often behind enemy lines, in India, China, Germany, America, Italy.

Good book however I wish as the reader we got to see what the girls actually worked on more and understand the impact rather than their life story.

This is an extremely well-written non-fiction book about 4 women working toward American victory in WW II. They became part of the MO unit designed to spread propaganda while demoralizing the enemy.

The author starts by describing the lives of these 4 different women. They are 2 very different Americans, a Czech and the German movie star, Marlena Dietrich (who was an avid anti-Nazi and an American patriot). The reader is given the background of each woman, even Dietrich. The central portion of the book is devoted to their efforts during the war. These ranged from creating propaganda to interviewing detainees to performing and entertaining the soldiers.
Finally, we learn about the post-war years and their roles and relationships as they returned to civilian life.

I might be the only reader of this book who saw Dietrich in one of her post-war performances. She traveled around the world giving concerts with her handsome, young accompanist Burt Bacharach. She was at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, unforgettably stopping the show and having an audience member removed when she saw a flash go off! So, reading about her exploits gave me a special thrill.

I learned so much from reading this, something makes a lifelong learner very happy! It combined the social history, the struggle for women’s rights with the actual strategy to defeat the enemies.

I highly recommend this book. It’s such a compelling read that it almost feels like fiction. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read, review and learn!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.

With drama and humor, the author brings to life four women whose quiet work during WWII took place impacted foreign adversaries.
Betty MacDonald (later, McIntosh), Jane Smith-Hutton, Zurska Lauwers, and Marlene Dietrich, were all ambitious, restless, creative women who were more than willing to break rules to help win the war. They worked for the Office of Secret Services, the precursor to the CIA, which seemed to be the only government office willing to include women in crucial roles. In fact, their department specifically wanted women, thinking they would excel at creating subversive materials.

As part of “Morale Operations” (MO), their remit was to make up “black” propaganda, that would appear to come from within the enemy country and falsely inform and affect enemy soldiers and civilians, helping to turn them against the war in Germany and Japan.

Each woman had both the language skills and the imagination to construct schemes that sometimes brought them into danger, but sometimes had the intended results. For example, their “League of Lonely War Women” fliers, supposedly from groups of German and Japanese women, were clandestinely distributed to enemy troops and played on the fears of soldiers separated from their wives and sweethearts. In Italy this caused over 600 German soldiers to surrender; in occupied China it caused 300 Japanese soldiers to do the same. Unfortunately, since these were efforts to change minds and thus behavior, it was very hard to measure how successful their hard work turned out to be, and this was difficult for several of them. They all suffered from some degree of “the MO Blues,” not being clear they were making a difference.

But work hard they did, in Italy, India, and China, Washington DC and New York City. Some of their designs were outrageous and even funny, but they also were sobered by the realization that their efforts could end with foreign soldiers dead.

Ultimately, they were stymied by gender, given lower ranks and paid less than the men they often supervised. Still, for all four of these imaginative and brave women, their contribution to the war effort was the highpoint in their long lives.

Propaganda Girls is a well-researched and fascinating history of the women who served their country during WWII by creating propaganda aimed at demoralizing the enemy. The four women profiled in the book couldn't have been more different. Betty MacDonald was a reporter who was living in Hawaii with her husband when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Zuzka Lauwers came from a well-to=do family in the Czech Republic. She and her husband migrated to New York, but she was broken hearted at the fact that her family and friends were fighting the Nazis back home. Jane Smith-Hutton's husband was a diplomat serving in Tokyo. Soon she and her husband were under house arrest in the US Embassy in Tokyo. The fourth Propaganda Girl was Marlene Dietrich. THE Marlene Dietrich. She hated what Hitler had done to her home country of Germany.

One thing the women did have in common was a love of America and a desire to do more for the war effort than plant victory gardens and knit socks. When the government asked them to take part in in the OSS's Morale Operations branch, they all jumped at the chance.

This is an amazing history that reads like a novel. Lisa Rogak does an excellent job of making sure these women get the respect and recognition they deserve.

I received an advance copy of this book from Net Galley and am happy to leave this 5-star review.

I just read a book about WWII and LOVED it. Am I becoming my father?

Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS by Lisa Rogak tells the story of four women who worked in the Morale Operations division of the OSS during WWII. The book is broken up into 16 chapters, one for each woman during four phases of their lives: Going to War, Glorious Amateurs, Believable Lies and Back to Reality.

I’m always fascinated that new information and stories from wars fought 80+ years ago are still coming out. Did I catch the history bug with this one? I think I did!

Betty, Marlene, Zuzka and Jane came from different countries, educations and backgrounds, but shared one thing in common: the insatiable desire to be doing more than they were told they could do. These women are a master class in strategy, creativity and determination. Their black propaganda—aimed at diminishing the morale of Axis Powers soldiers—succeeded in convincing thousands of men to surrender to the Allies. Some POWs even volunteered to carry out these propaganda missions against their former servicemen.

I’m most inspired by how these ladies crafted careers and lives for themselves using their talents and experiences. I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about them for a long time.

Propaganda Girls releases on March 4th.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

#propaganda #wwii #propagandagirls #lisarogak #bookreview #stmartinspress #bookish #historybook #nonfiction #booksta #ad #sponsored

"Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of Women in the OSS" by Lisa Rogak is a nonfiction book set in World War 2. We learn about four women - Betty MacDonald, Jane Smith Hutton, Zurka Lauwers, and Marlene Dietrich, who all were recruited to work for the MO (Morale Operations) branch of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services).
These women, in all different ways, wanted to support the cause of supporting the troops, as well as jobs, challenges, and fair pay during the 1940's.
After recruited, they were expected to create many types of propaganda to demoralize and undermine the enemy troops. They did not necessarily work together.
This book has a section for each woman in each of three parts - Before, During, and After the war. It is a very well documented, detail oriented book. However, the details are sometimes difficult to follow for the reader, and it can be a dry, fact filled read. 4 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

Propaganda Girls is a great true-story look at four women who were part of the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategics Services. I was somewhat familiar with the OSS so I really enjoyed seeing how this intersected with the knowledge I already had and what I could learn new. The stories are very compelling and I learned a lot through Rogak's research.

I found Propaganda Girls to be a very fascinating story. I really like how it was written in "Acts" with each act telling about the lives of Zuzka Lauwers, Marlene Dietrich, Jane Smith-Hutton, and Betty MacDonald during a certain time period. The women were from different countries. They spoke different languages. They had had different careers. During the war they used their past to benefit the allies.

Reader learns so much about these fascinating and brave women. They were living in separate locations for the most part during World War Two. Yet they were all working for the the U.S. government decieving those that fought for the Nazis and japanese. They interacted with many in the military allowing the reader to see just how important their job was.

Together with their male counterparts they would create falsehoods. They used propoganda to influence the enemy. They printed influential pamphlets. They wrote false letters. They spread rumors. I couldn't believe some of the things these women came up with. And yet to most of the world they did not exist.

What makes this book even more impressive is that the author didn't end the story when the war ended. The ladies lives carried on. They no longer had their purpose. They had to find a place to fit in. I was in awe of what these amazing women were able to do in order to assist the war effort.

I cannot think of a better way to learn about World War Two than with stories like this. Forget the boring, dry textbook and fall into the pages of Propoganda Girls.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The four women profiled in Propaganda Girls had little in common, did not work with each other (with one exception), and may not have been aware that the others even existed. Two were American, one Czech, one German. They all ended up working for the newly formed American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II, specifically in the Morale Operations Department (MO), which specialized in propaganda directed at the enemy.

This involved using their individual talents, as a reporter, a multi-lingual Czech refugee, the wife of a Naval attache stationed in Asia, and Marlene Dietrich, internationally famous actor and singer. Author Lisa Rogak tells their stories and it's fascinating. She details how each came to be picked for the assignments and how they dealt with danger and doubt. None of their marriages survived the war, and they all felt something was missing from their lives when the war was over.

Gripping and thoughtful account of a little known sliver of war espionage. (Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital review copy.)

Lisa Rogak has created a marvelous look at not just one but four women who changed the outcome of World War Two.

Wow! What a fabulous book! It entranced, mesmerized and amazed me at each page turn. This will undoubtedly be a favourite of the year for me. I was impressed by the sheer tenacity, courage and ingenuity of the four women who were entrusted and given free reign to pull out all the stops in espionage, forging letters, rigging radio broadcasts, creating black propaganda, changing postcards and inventing publishers. During World War II, these women called Donovan's Dreamers were sought out because they were women, a highly unusual move but a stroke of genius.

Elizabeth "Betty" MacDonald, Jane Smith-Hutton, Barbara "Zuzka" Lauwers and Marlene Dietrich were all very different yet fiercely loyal to their cause and to Morale Operations Branch. They were trained in languages, translating, intercepting messages, disseminating materials, starting rumors, trailing people, firearm mastery, and eavesdropping. Marlene buoyed spirits with her seductive voice and live broadcast messages. All four worked tirelessly and after the war, some felt bereft without purpose. I like that the author described their lives before and after the war and gave a great sense of their personalities.

I learned more about Operation Sauerkraut and propaganda in general. The Pearl Harbour boy story particularly tugged at my heart. These women could think on their feet and were risk takers and adventurers.

This book is an important one, powerful and interesting, and the author manages to include a lot of information without any stuffiness or drudgery. It was a pleasure to read.

I received a free copy of, Propaganda Girls, by Lisa Rogak, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Zuzka Lauwers, Marlene Dietrich, Jane Smith-Hutton, and Betty MacDonald, conspired together to break the morale of Axis soldiers. These amazing ladies did so much for the war effort, unrecognized until now. This was a very interesting read.

I love reading accounts of women and their impact on society, and in this case war efforts, but hate that we often have to wait generations and decades to do so. While I was already aware of Marlena Dietrich's war time efforts, I don't recall learning about Betty MacDonald, Zuzka Lauwers, or Jane Smith-Hutton. These four incredible women were instrumental in one of WWII most covert missions; the creation and spreading of propaganda amongst Axis soldiers with the sole purpose to break their will and ensure the forces were demoralized. From forging "official letters", writing and producing entire fake newspapers, and developing rumors to root out spies and double agents, these women were critical to our success in the European front.

If you enjoyed Radium Girls, Hidden Figures, or Code Girls this is one to add to your TBR.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advance copy.

Wow I had no idea about any of this. Propaganda Girls the Secret War of the Women in the OSS tells the story of four brave women Marlene Dietrich, Betty McDonald, Jane Smith Hutton and Zuzka Lauwers who participated in the secret propaganda campaigns that contributed to the Allies winning the war.
This was a fascinating read! Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my ARC.

During WWII these four "girls" (why not "women"?) generated black propaganda, which is disinformation, lies, and rumors calculated to sap morale and encourage surrendering:

...defined as any leaflet, poster, radio broadcast, or other public or private media that appeared to come from within the enemy country, either from a resistance movement or from disgruntled soldiers and civilians. In essence, black propaganda was a series of believable lies...


* Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. "One day she interviewed Lieutenant Howell M. Forgy, a Catholic priest who told her of one time when he was traveling with a group of soldiers and their boat came under attack. He mentioned that the men ferried ammunition from one end of the boat toward the other side where the guns were stored. When the priest jumped into the line to help, one of the men shouted at him to stop. “He yelled back, ‘Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!’ and19 I wrote that up,” said Betty. In 1942, songwriter Frank Loesser would use her story with that quote to write “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,” which bandleader Kay Kyser recorded and which hit number two on the music charts in late 1942."
* Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21, but that didn't help her fit in. "They called me DF, for Damn Foreigner...I ate like a European, knife in right hand and fork in left, and the other girls would just stare at me in the mess hall."
* Jane Smith-Hutton was the wife of a naval attaché living in Tokyo and suffered interment. "On New Year’s Eve, with no release in sight, they grimly accepted that they had to settle in for the long haul. Since they had diplomatic immunity, the Japanese knew that they couldn’t beat them or hurt them in any way. The only option was to starve them. ...the resulting article, “Americans Return from Jap Prison Camps: American Diplomats Held in Tokyo Lived in a Virtual State of Siege,” appeared in a two-page spread in the September 7, 1942, issue of Life, featuring ten of her photographs."
* Marlene Dietrich, the famous German-American actress and singer, was one of the biggest stars of the 20th century. "Marlene wanted to hit back at the Nazis. 'What people don’t know is that I couldn’t resist twisting the knife in the arrogant hearts of those gentlemen,' she admitted. On June 6, 1939, Marlene declared the ultimate revenge when she renounced her German citizenship and officially became a US citizen— she had applied two years earlier— which created a huge ruckus in the media back home."

Dietrich rather outshines the others for her courage, zeal, and unique displaced perspective.

...Everything changed in 1929 when she was cast as Lola Lola, a cabaret singer in a Weimar nightclub who has an affair with a local high school teacher, in the movie The Blue Angel. In the film, she sang the song “Falling in Love Again”— the song she would become most famous for— and her on-screen presence absolutely smoldered. Two versions of the movie were filmed, one in German and one in English; Marlene’s language lessons had paid off. When the movie was released in 1930, it was an instant hit, first in Germany and then internationally, primarily due to her screen presence and a couple of things that were shocking for the time: First, in an era where most women never wore pants, on-screen or off, Marlene wore a tuxedo and a top hat.
...
Just as quickly as her popularity had plummeted just a couple of years earlier, it was resurrected in 1939, starting with the Western Destry Rides Again with James Stewart.


Both European theatres, where Dietrich initially worked, and the Pacific are covered in the scope of the work of "MO" (Morale Operations, I think). Betty had harrowing flights and memorable parties:

The Hump was known for violent storms, wind shears, and unpredictable squalls caused by crosswinds that could cause a plane to drop six thousand feet in altitude in less than ten seconds. It’s estimated that between 1942 and 1945 more than three thousand American, British, and Chinese planes crashed while traveling over the Hump.
...
Sitting across from her on the flight was an annoyingly calm woman named Julia McWilliams, who serenely read a book for the entire flight while most people closed their eyes, prayed, and/ or got sick. McWilliams worked in the Research & Analysis branch of MO and would later be known as Julia Child, who introduced French cooking to Americans.
...
Charles Fenn, an OSS colleague who would later write At The Dragon's Gate: With The OSS In The Far East ... remembered these parties, where each night approximately eighty men and thirteen women easily finished off three cases of rum and whiskey. “Betty205 was queen of the ball, and wore a dress so tight you could read her pulse,” he wrote.


All four lives are followed out of the OSS and to the grave. Betty carried on productively and in thorough reflection:

“Did I hate the Germans? The Japanese? Not really. I helped make up the slogans to make the other people hate,” she said. “Packaged hate, like packaged breakfast foods, produced by the ad man in uniform. And249 a prize of a promise in every package— the corner drugstore, ice cubes, America.”
...
After she quit, Betty started writing a book about her years in the OSS for the Macmillan Company, a New York publisher; Undercover girl

It was neat learning that one of the most covert and successful military campaigns in WWII. Betty MacDonald a reporter, Zuka Lauweres who knew five langagues, naval attache Jane Smith-Hutton and Marlene Dietrich. Out of these four women that I knew anything about was Marlene. So I did learn about WWII history that I did not know that anyone knew.