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Article: Barbara Lauwers Podoski, 95, World War II operative
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- August 24, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON - Barbara Lauwers Podoski, who launched one of the
most successful psychological operations campaigns of World War II,
which resulted in the surrender of more than 600 Czechoslovakian
soldiers fighting for the Germans, died of cardiovascular disease
Aug. 16 at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington. She was 95.
One of the few female operatives in the Office of Strategic
Services, the wartime predecessor to the CIA, she found creative
ways to undermine German morale. Much of her work was secret until
last year, when her OSS personnel records were declassified.
A native of Czechoslovakia, Barbara Lauwers, as she was then
known, primarily interrogated prisoners of war from her ...