COVERT WAR SONGS REVEALED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100090024-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: June 21, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-012
?x~T~~,E APPEARED
.;By Thomas:0'Toole
Iri - apparent."violation of U.S.
copyright laws, the wartime Office of
Strategic'Services translated popular
American songs into German with.'--
out-the songwriters' knowledge, then'
played the :recordings over clandes
tine radio..broadcasts:.beamed from
Great Britain _into Germany de-
signed Ao :boost?.;the -American way
and undermine the ' German way. of
The OSS'translated'the'most pop-
ular songs'of?the 1940s, even rewrit-.
ing the lyric's to suit theii propagan-
da goals. In total secrecy, they' used
European-born opera singers' and
Hollywood stars of German origin to
record the songs, most notably cab-
aret singers: Lotte. Lenya. and Mar-
lene. Dietrich.
The person the OSS,used to or
chestrate. and,arrange .the,, songs. to
suit. the ,German.,personality_ was .
Kurt Weill,,.the' husba,nd..of Lenya
and .-German-born. coposer, (with
playwright 'Bertolt,Bi?echt)..of 'The
Threepenny Opera." Weill also com-
p osedthe$roadwaymusicals "Street
Scene;"A"Lost:?in.i he,Stars,". "Lady in
t.he(Dark"s anc~;;{njokerbocker :Hol-
ide`y n,~st?.i;:d n s~tu.?r;'
-The':OSS