Constance Drexel

"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 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.

[18] 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.

[5] 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 a federal investigation.

[1] By the early 1930s, Drexel achieved a "growing stature among the press corps and certain political circles," on issues such as international arms control and world peace.

[1] In the months leading to Hitler's invasion of Poland 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.

"[23] For a few months after World War II began, Drexel wrote more feature articles about life in Germany that appeared in The New York Times.

[26] Drexel 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".

"[28] According to M. Williams Fuller, "[s]ounding like a grand dame with a stuffy nose, she described Germany as a cornucopia – a land of plenty destined for a glorious future.

"[2] 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.

"[2] On October 1, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt 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.

[31] 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.

[9] 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.

[9] 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.