In this episode of our podcast, DLS co-host Florian Duijsens tells us about journalist, writer, and witness to history Dorothy Thompson.  As a foreign correspondent in Germany, she was among the first to caution against the growing tides of fascism, warning urgently against the Nazis and Hitler. Unfortunately, the world didn’t listen. Dorothy continued to speak out throughout her life, and during her career peak, was read and heard on the radio by millions.    

Her personal life at times also made the news — she was married to Pulitzer Prize-winning author and alcoholic Sinclair ‘Hal’ Lewis but was also less openly involved with German-Hungarian novelist, playwright and sculptor Christa Winsloe, the author of the notorious girl’s boarding school lesbian story which became Mädchen in Uniform, an even more notorious film starring Dead Lady Romy Schneider.

Katy Derbyshire, our other DLS co-founder joins host/producer Susan Stone to introduce the story. 

<figure class="wp-block-audio"></figure>

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts.

Join our newsletter to stay updated on our events, including our May 13th Anniversary Show in Berlin: https://deadladiesshowberlin.beehiiv.com/

Tickets can be found here: https://literatur-berlin.tickettoaster.de/produkte/3707-tickets-dead-ladies-show-39-the-10th-anniversary-edition-lettretage-berlin-am-13-05-2025

Join the newsletter for Dead Ladies NYC here. Their next show is May 8: https://deadladiesshow.substack.com/

Show notes:

Read the New York Times article on the work of Cincinnati’s pioneering Social Unit during the influenza epidemic here.

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Sinclair Lewis (aka Red or Hal) was a love-bomber – and Dorothy’s second husband.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">In Moscow, finally</figcaption></figure>





<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Dorothy and Hal’s home in Vermont is now a fancy resort.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"></figure>





<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Christa Winsloe holding a dog at the fateful winter holiday in Semmering</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Traveling with young Michael in 1935</figcaption></figure>

You can watch an interview with Dorothy about her expulsion from Germany on the Facebook page of the Holocaust museum.

<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio"></figure>

In 1941, Dorothy wrote her eerily resonant Harper’s article “Who Goes Nazi?” You can watch a documentary Dorothy wrote about her war-time farming initiative here (it was partly shot at her home in Vermont).

<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy parodied Dorothy’s marriage to Sinclair Lewis.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A restored version of the first documentary of Palestinian refugees, introduced by Dorothy</figcaption></figure>

If you want to know more about her, look no further than Peter Kurth’s massive biography, American Cassandra, not in print, but available as an eBook, her friend Vincent Sheean remarkable collection of her letters and diaries, Dorothy & Red, very out of print, and Deborah Cohen’s Last Call at the Hotel Imperial, on the American foreign correspondents of WWII (with Emily Hahn cameos!).

You can find NPR’s recent feature on Dorothy Thompson here. And Florian is excited about the new German biography by Karina von Tippelskirch coming in October!

Thanks for listening! We will be back next month with another fabulous Dead Lady.