Constance Drexel
Encyclopedia
Constance Drexel a naturalized United States citizen, and groundbreaking feature writer for U.S. newspapers, was indicted (but not tried or convicted) for treason
in World War II
for radio broadcasts from Berlin
that extolled Nazi virtues. She had made a name for herself by claiming, falsely, that she was an heiress of the famous Drexel family of Philadelphia. Arrested in Vienna
and jailed at war’s end by American troops, she was released and allowed to return to the United States to live. The U.S. Department of Justice eventually dismissed the treason charges against her because her broadcasts were not deemed “political in nature.”
, an apparent reference to the descendants of Francis Martin Drexel
(who founded the Drexel & Company banking empire), including his son Anthony Joseph Drexel (who founded Drexel University
in Philadelphia) and his granddaughter Saint Katharine Drexel. Yet by all accounts, including the one provided by Constance Drexel to the Bureau of Investigation in 1918, she was born in Germany
late in the Nineteenth Century (many decades after Francis Drexel emigrated from Europe to Philadelphia in 1817). After she began broadcasting from Nazi Germany during wartime, at least one American syndicated columnist speculated that “Drexel” was a pseudonym
.
Published information regarding her age and date of birth is also wildly inconsistent. Historian John Carver Edwards has concluded that Constance Drexel was born in Darmstadt, Germany, on November 28, 1894, to Theodore Drexel, scion of a wealthy family in Frankfurt, Germany, and Zelda Audemar Drexel, daughter of a prominent Swiss watch manufacturer, and was brought to the United States by her father the following year. However, all five of the ship manifests in Ellis Island records documenting her re-entry into the Port of New York between 1905 and 1923 state her age as if she were born in the 1880s. A U.S. Department of Justice internal memorandum prepared in 1946 described her birth date as November 24, 1884.
Drexel became a United States citizen upon her father’s naturalization in 1899. She reported to the FBI in 1918 that she had a sister named Norma Georgia Drexel, then living in Switzerland. Constance grew up not in Philadelphia, but in Roslindale, Massachusetts, where she attended public schools. “As an adolescent she divided her time between the United States and Europe, attending school in four different countries and honing her skills as a writer,” completing her education at the Sorbonne
in Paris, France.
in neutral Holland, in April 1915. When she agreed to write dispatches regarding the Congress for American newspapers to publish, her career as a professional journalist began. She soon joined the staff of the Philadelphia Public Ledger
.
When her stories expanded to include not just her experiences but also her opinions, reactions were mixed. In one such article, she wrote “one must realize that an increase in horrors hastens the end of the war; so in the long run it’s the most humane thing to have no relief funds or nurses. That’s why I left the Red Cross.” A Chicago Herald editorial entitled “Horrible Logic” observed that her statement went far to confirm “that, when once moved to cruelty, women are infinitely more cruel than men.” In another column, she opined that “perhaps the greatest curse of war” was “the effect of the loss of men on women and on the race.” She explained that the most “harrowing sight in all of war-ridden Europe today” was “the spectacle of the young girls who must always live unmated, robbed of their birthright.” According to Edwards, “Her writings suggested an enthusiasm for Germany’s preparedness campaign, and especially women’s role in that effort.”
She also became involved in the women’s suffrage
movement, and, in 1916, as a campaigner for the re-election of Woodrow Wilson
.
After the United States declared war on the German Empire
, she attempted to return to Europe with the announced purpose of visiting her ailing sister in Switzerland
, but a complaint from a colleague at the Public Ledger who alleged she had made pro-German comments led to an FBI investigation. Her editors attested to her loyalty, but in part because of her German birth and her pacifism, the investigating agent concluded that she should not be permitted to use her passport.
and then to cover and participate in the conference of the International Conference of Women and International Woman Suffrage Alliance (which succeeded in obtaining a woman’s equality clause in the Covenant of the League of Nations
).
Returning to the United States, she covered the suffrage campaign, and when women won the right to vote, she became one of Capitol Hill’s few women political correspondents.
Her readership peaked in the 1920’s, when her columns on the status of women around the world, and interviews with world leaders, were published in many newspapers, including not only the Public Ledger but also the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and members of the McClure Syndicate.
and world peace. Ironically, her interest in those issues did not prevent her from becoming enamored with the rise of Adolf Hitler
and the Nazi movement in Germany. Edwards concluded that she liked Hitler because she was impressed by his support for other aspects of her “reform agenda,″ including a greater role for women, the eradication of a parasitic social elite, welfare legislation for minors, and social hygiene regulatory laws. “Drexel eagerly anticipated visits to the new Reich, and on several of these working holidays the Propaganda Ministry awarded her writing assignments.”
In 1938 she became employed in Philadelphia in the Works Progress Administration
(WPA) Federal Writers' Project
and, later, as an instructor of French on the WPA Education Project, when her writing made at least one journalist question whether she had already become a Nazi propagandist.
in September 1939, Drexel wrote feature stories for American newspapers that were ostensibly about the home life of ordinary Germans, but that consistently reflected positively on the Nazi regime and negatively on its future adversaries. For example, six weeks before the outbreak of war, she wrote in the Oakland Tribune that the annexation of Austria
had prevented the Viennese population from starving; even though this was “rendered more difficult by the United States
sudden boycott of manufactured goods from the annexed territories . . . now that the peculiar genius of the North Germans for organization and efficient administration is in full play under the new regime, this and other problems with which they are harassed are being overcome.”
For a few months after World War II began, she wrote more feature articles about life in Germany that appeared in the New York Times.
But by that stage of her career, her colleagues in the American press corps had little respect for the quality or integrity of her work. One American network hired her at the beginning of the war, but dropped her almost at once. She had constantly pestered Berlin-based CBS radio
correspondent William L. Shirer
for a job, but as he later explained, he had considered her “the worst broadcaster I ever heard.”
In 1940 she began broadcasting on Nazi-controlled shortwave radio channels. She was introduced to listeners as a “world-renowned journalist and a member of the famous Drexel family of Philadelphia.” According to M. Williams Fuller, “sounding like a grand dame with a stuffy nose, she described Germany as a cornucopia – a land of plenty destined for a glorious future. Her broadcasts concluded with titillating accounts of Germany’s art exhibits, concerts, food surplus, haute couture and world-class entertainment.” Shirer’s September 26, 1940 entry in his "Berlin Diary
" notes that “the Nazis hire her, as far as I can find out, principally because she’s the only woman in town who will sell her American accent to them.”
When applying (through Swiss authorities) for an extension of her U.S. passport in November 1942, she stated that "in speaking for the German radio, I am following my own ideas; I am not [a] speaker about political or military matters but reporting cultural activities such as activities in the theatre, music and the film."
Drexel soon fell from grace among her new colleagues, and top Nazis began avoiding her. Long after the war, it was reported that she had committed a faux pas
while attending a reception for Nazi Party leaders. “On being introduced to a beautiful young German woman, Drexel blurted: ‘oh, you are the girlfriend of Adolf Hitler!’” As Propaganda Ministry official Inge Doman later testified in the treason trial of Mildred Gillars, known as “Axis Sally”, Doman warned Gillars that “you’d do well to keep your distance from that Drexel woman. She’s a pest and a crackpot.”
sent a memo to U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle
that stated in part, "There are a number of Americans in Europe who are aiding Hitler et al on the radio. Why should we not proceed to indict them for treason even though we might not be able to try them until after the war?" A Federal Bureau of Investigation review of excerpts of such broadcasts stated that Drexel was attempting to show that the war had not lowered the morale of the German people in an effort to discourage the American people from continuing with the war effort. In July 1943, the United States Department of Justice
filed treason charges against Drexel and seven other United States citizens who had been broadcasting from Axis-controlled radio stations. On August 17, 1945, over three months after the war in Europe had ended, she was arrested in Vienna by American forces after she revealed her identity to a Stars and Stripes
reporter on a walk behind the Vienna City Hall. Wearing an American flag lapel pin, she claimed she had always been a loyal citizen, and had only broadcast on cultural questions. At the time of her arrest, her age was listed as 60 (in one newspaper) and almost 70 (in another).
Drexel was detained for over a year before she was transferred to Ellis Island
in New York Harbor
, pending an October 1946 hearing by a board of inquiry of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, on her eligibility to re-enter the United States. On October 3, 1946, the board decided that she had not forfeited her citizenship, and allowed her to re-enter the country.
At the time of her release and re-entry, the United States Department of Justice said that her prosecution on the treason charges was no longer contemplated because lawyers who went to Germany to seek further evidence against her failed to uncover any. An internal Department of Justice memorandum dated June 14, 1946 repeats information from the Office of Strategic Services
that she "was stranded in Germany and since she needed money she found a job with the American Propaganda Section of the Reichrundfunk," but that her twice-weekly broadcasts dealt "mainly with women, children, and the beauties of the German landscape." The memo recommended taking no further action against her. But Walter Winchell
and others were still urging prosecution and stiff sentences for the Berlin broadcasters. When the charges were formally dropped on April 14, 1948, the investigators explained that none of Drexel’s broadcasts was “political in nature.”
, on August 28, 1956. She collapsed at the home of a cousin before leaving on the first leg of a trip to Geneva, Switzerland, where she intended to move. The obituaries listed her age as 68 (which, if correct, would mean that she was born in 1888 or 1889).
, for a 1944 movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock
, has much in common with Drexel. One of the nine occupants of namesake of the movie Lifeboat
is Constance Porter, a worldwide news correspondent who is fluent in German, unclear in her loyalties, and who uses a blue-blooded style to mask her blue-collar origins.
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
for radio broadcasts from Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
that extolled Nazi virtues. She had made a name for herself by claiming, falsely, that she was an heiress of the famous Drexel family of Philadelphia. Arrested in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and jailed at war’s end by American troops, she was released and allowed to return to the United States to live. The U.S. Department of Justice eventually dismissed the treason charges against her because her broadcasts were not deemed “political in nature.”
Family and childhood
Public references to Drexel’s nation of origin and pedigree were contrary to privately recorded facts. As early as 1915 (in American press reports) and as late as the 1940s (in Nazi broadcasts) she was described as a member of the “famous Drexel family” of Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, an apparent reference to the descendants of Francis Martin Drexel
Francis Martin Drexel
Francis Martin Drexel was a Philadelphia banker and artist. He was the father of Anthony Joseph Drexel, the founder of Drexel University and the grandfather of Saint Katherine Drexel....
(who founded the Drexel & Company banking empire), including his son Anthony Joseph Drexel (who founded Drexel University
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...
in Philadelphia) and his granddaughter Saint Katharine Drexel. Yet by all accounts, including the one provided by Constance Drexel to the Bureau of Investigation in 1918, she was born in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
late in the Nineteenth Century (many decades after Francis Drexel emigrated from Europe to Philadelphia in 1817). After she began broadcasting from Nazi Germany during wartime, at least one American syndicated columnist speculated that “Drexel” was a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
.
Published information regarding her age and date of birth is also wildly inconsistent. Historian John Carver Edwards has concluded that Constance Drexel was born in Darmstadt, Germany, on November 28, 1894, to Theodore Drexel, scion of a wealthy family in Frankfurt, Germany, and Zelda Audemar Drexel, daughter of a prominent Swiss watch manufacturer, and was brought to the United States by her father the following year. However, all five of the ship manifests in Ellis Island records documenting her re-entry into the Port of New York between 1905 and 1923 state her age as if she were born in the 1880s. A U.S. Department of Justice internal memorandum prepared in 1946 described her birth date as November 24, 1884.
Drexel became a United States citizen upon her father’s naturalization in 1899. She reported to the FBI in 1918 that she had a sister named Norma Georgia Drexel, then living in Switzerland. Constance grew up not in Philadelphia, but in Roslindale, Massachusetts, where she attended public schools. “As an adolescent she divided her time between the United States and Europe, attending school in four different countries and honing her skills as a writer,” completing her education at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
in Paris, France.
World War I
Miss Drexel first received national publicity in early 1915, when American newspapers began to report that “Philadelphia Heiress” Constance Drexel had volunteered briefly as a Red Cross nurse near the front lines in France in the early months of World War I, and reported on her experiences. She became active nationally and internationally in the International Woman’s Congress, which met at The HagueThe Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
in neutral Holland, in April 1915. When she agreed to write dispatches regarding the Congress for American newspapers to publish, her career as a professional journalist began. She soon joined the staff of the Philadelphia Public Ledger
Public Ledger (Philadelphia)
The Public Ledger was a daily newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania published from March 25, 1836 to January 1942. Its motto was "Virtue Liberty and Independence". For a time, it was Philadelphia's most popular newspaper, but circulation declined in the mid-1930s.-Early history:Founded by William...
.
When her stories expanded to include not just her experiences but also her opinions, reactions were mixed. In one such article, she wrote “one must realize that an increase in horrors hastens the end of the war; so in the long run it’s the most humane thing to have no relief funds or nurses. That’s why I left the Red Cross.” A Chicago Herald editorial entitled “Horrible Logic” observed that her statement went far to confirm “that, when once moved to cruelty, women are infinitely more cruel than men.” In another column, she opined that “perhaps the greatest curse of war” was “the effect of the loss of men on women and on the race.” She explained that the most “harrowing sight in all of war-ridden Europe today” was “the spectacle of the young girls who must always live unmated, robbed of their birthright.” According to Edwards, “Her writings suggested an enthusiasm for Germany’s preparedness campaign, and especially women’s role in that effort.”
She also became involved in the women’s suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
movement, and, in 1916, as a campaigner for the re-election of Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
.
After the United States declared war on the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, she attempted to return to Europe with the announced purpose of visiting her ailing sister in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, but a complaint from a colleague at the Public Ledger who alleged she had made pro-German comments led to an FBI investigation. Her editors attested to her loyalty, but in part because of her German birth and her pacifism, the investigating agent concluded that she should not be permitted to use her passport.
Covering the Paris Conference, Congress and the League of Nations
She returned to Europe soon after the end of the war, first to cover the Paris Peace ConferenceParis Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
and then to cover and participate in the conference of the International Conference of Women and International Woman Suffrage Alliance (which succeeded in obtaining a woman’s equality clause in the Covenant of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
).
Returning to the United States, she covered the suffrage campaign, and when women won the right to vote, she became one of Capitol Hill’s few women political correspondents.
Her readership peaked in the 1920’s, when her columns on the status of women around the world, and interviews with world leaders, were published in many newspapers, including not only the Public Ledger but also the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and members of the McClure Syndicate.
Interest in Nazi Germany
By the early 1930’s she achieved a “growing stature among the press corps and certain political circles,” on issues such as international arms controlArms control
Arms control is an umbrella term for restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation, and usage of weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction...
and world peace. Ironically, her interest in those issues did not prevent her from becoming enamored with the rise of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the Nazi movement in Germany. Edwards concluded that she liked Hitler because she was impressed by his support for other aspects of her “reform agenda,″ including a greater role for women, the eradication of a parasitic social elite, welfare legislation for minors, and social hygiene regulatory laws. “Drexel eagerly anticipated visits to the new Reich, and on several of these working holidays the Propaganda Ministry awarded her writing assignments.”
In 1938 she became employed in Philadelphia in the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
(WPA) Federal Writers' Project
Federal Writers' Project
The Federal Writers' Project was a United States federal government project to fund written work and support writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program...
and, later, as an instructor of French on the WPA Education Project, when her writing made at least one journalist question whether she had already become a Nazi propagandist.
Berlin-based correspondent
Drexel returned to Germany in 1939, officially to care for her ailing mother in Wiesbaden, Germany, but travelling at the expense of the German government. In the months leading to Hitler’s invasion of PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in September 1939, Drexel wrote feature stories for American newspapers that were ostensibly about the home life of ordinary Germans, but that consistently reflected positively on the Nazi regime and negatively on its future adversaries. For example, six weeks before the outbreak of war, she wrote in the Oakland Tribune that the annexation of Austria
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
had prevented the Viennese population from starving; even though this was “rendered more difficult by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sudden boycott of manufactured goods from the annexed territories . . . now that the peculiar genius of the North Germans for organization and efficient administration is in full play under the new regime, this and other problems with which they are harassed are being overcome.”
For a few months after World War II began, she wrote more feature articles about life in Germany that appeared in the New York Times.
But by that stage of her career, her colleagues in the American press corps had little respect for the quality or integrity of her work. One American network hired her at the beginning of the war, but dropped her almost at once. She had constantly pestered Berlin-based CBS radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
correspondent William L. Shirer
William L. Shirer
William Lawrence Shirer was an American journalist, war correspondent, and historian, who wrote The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a history of Nazi Germany read and cited in scholarly works for more than 50 years...
for a job, but as he later explained, he had considered her “the worst broadcaster I ever heard.”
In 1940 she began broadcasting on Nazi-controlled shortwave radio channels. She was introduced to listeners as a “world-renowned journalist and a member of the famous Drexel family of Philadelphia.” According to M. Williams Fuller, “sounding like a grand dame with a stuffy nose, she described Germany as a cornucopia – a land of plenty destined for a glorious future. Her broadcasts concluded with titillating accounts of Germany’s art exhibits, concerts, food surplus, haute couture and world-class entertainment.” Shirer’s September 26, 1940 entry in his "Berlin Diary
Berlin Diary
Berlin Diary is a first-hand account of the rise of the Third Reich and its road to war, as witnessed by the American journalist William L. Shirer...
" notes that “the Nazis hire her, as far as I can find out, principally because she’s the only woman in town who will sell her American accent to them.”
When applying (through Swiss authorities) for an extension of her U.S. passport in November 1942, she stated that "in speaking for the German radio, I am following my own ideas; I am not [a] speaker about political or military matters but reporting cultural activities such as activities in the theatre, music and the film."
Drexel soon fell from grace among her new colleagues, and top Nazis began avoiding her. Long after the war, it was reported that she had committed a faux pas
Faux pas
A faux pas is a violation of accepted social norms . Faux pas vary widely from culture to culture, and what is considered good manners in one culture can be considered a faux pas in another...
while attending a reception for Nazi Party leaders. “On being introduced to a beautiful young German woman, Drexel blurted: ‘oh, you are the girlfriend of Adolf Hitler!’” As Propaganda Ministry official Inge Doman later testified in the treason trial of Mildred Gillars, known as “Axis Sally”, Doman warned Gillars that “you’d do well to keep your distance from that Drexel woman. She’s a pest and a crackpot.”
Indictment, arrest, and release
On October 1, 1942, President Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
sent a memo to U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle
Francis Biddle
Francis Beverley Biddle was an American lawyer and judge who was Attorney General of the United States during World War II and who served as the primary American judge during the postwar Nuremberg trials....
that stated in part, "There are a number of Americans in Europe who are aiding Hitler et al on the radio. Why should we not proceed to indict them for treason even though we might not be able to try them until after the war?" A Federal Bureau of Investigation review of excerpts of such broadcasts stated that Drexel was attempting to show that the war had not lowered the morale of the German people in an effort to discourage the American people from continuing with the war effort. In July 1943, the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
filed treason charges against Drexel and seven other United States citizens who had been broadcasting from Axis-controlled radio stations. On August 17, 1945, over three months after the war in Europe had ended, she was arrested in Vienna by American forces after she revealed her identity to a Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes (newspaper)
Stars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests,...
reporter on a walk behind the Vienna City Hall. Wearing an American flag lapel pin, she claimed she had always been a loyal citizen, and had only broadcast on cultural questions. At the time of her arrest, her age was listed as 60 (in one newspaper) and almost 70 (in another).
Drexel was detained for over a year before she was transferred to Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
in New York Harbor
New York Harbor
New York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...
, pending an October 1946 hearing by a board of inquiry of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, on her eligibility to re-enter the United States. On October 3, 1946, the board decided that she had not forfeited her citizenship, and allowed her to re-enter the country.
At the time of her release and re-entry, the United States Department of Justice said that her prosecution on the treason charges was no longer contemplated because lawyers who went to Germany to seek further evidence against her failed to uncover any. An internal Department of Justice memorandum dated June 14, 1946 repeats information from the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
that she "was stranded in Germany and since she needed money she found a job with the American Propaganda Section of the Reichrundfunk," but that her twice-weekly broadcasts dealt "mainly with women, children, and the beauties of the German landscape." The memo recommended taking no further action against her. But Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...
and others were still urging prosecution and stiff sentences for the Berlin broadcasters. When the charges were formally dropped on April 14, 1948, the investigators explained that none of Drexel’s broadcasts was “political in nature.”
Death
Drexel died in Waterbury, ConnecticutWaterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, on the Naugatuck River, 33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City...
, on August 28, 1956. She collapsed at the home of a cousin before leaving on the first leg of a trip to Geneva, Switzerland, where she intended to move. The obituaries listed her age as 68 (which, if correct, would mean that she was born in 1888 or 1889).
Culture
A character in the screenplay written in part by John SteinbeckJohn Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, for a 1944 movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, has much in common with Drexel. One of the nine occupants of namesake of the movie Lifeboat
Lifeboat (film)
Lifeboat is an American war film directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a story written by John Steinbeck. The film stars Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn and Canada Lee, and is set entirely on a lifeboat.The film is...
is Constance Porter, a worldwide news correspondent who is fluent in German, unclear in her loyalties, and who uses a blue-blooded style to mask her blue-collar origins.