Its most famous action was Operation Sauerkraut, with more than 600 soldiers surrendering
Stáhnout obrázek
Barbara Lee Podoski, née Božena Hauserová, was born on April 22, 1914 in Brno, Czech Republic, and came from a family of businessmen. Her father was the owner of a woodworking factory in Uherské Hradiště, and later became the director of administration at Lidové noviny. Her mother was a housewife and her parents had two more daughters and a son. After graduating from the State Czechoslovak Gymnasium in Brno in 1933, she began studying law at Masaryk University, where she received her doctorate in law in 1937. She worked briefly as a paralegal in the Brno law office of Alois Pražák before leaving to work for the Bata company in Zlín. There she met Charles Lauwers, an American citizen of Belgian origin, whom she married the day after the German occupation on March 16, 1939. Together they went to the Belgian Congo, where they represented the interests of the Bata company. When the Second World War broke out, she headed to the USA and, thanks to her acquaintance with Jan Masaryk, got a clerical position at the Czechoslovak embassy in Washington. She became an American citizen in June 1943 and immediately joined the American army. For administrative reasons she changed her name from Božena to Barbara Lee. Because of her language skills (she spoke German, French, Italian and English in addition to her native language), she was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the CIA. She worked as an interpreter in North Africa and later in Rome, where she was also involved in psychological operations against the Nazis. Her most famous action was the so-called Operation Sauerkraut, during which she produced leaflets in Czech and Slovak calling on Czechoslovak soldiers fighting on the German side to defect to the Allies. As a result, more than 600 soldiers surrendered with her leaflets in their pockets. For this operation, she received the American Bronze Star. After the end of the war, she helped organize the first music festival in Salzburg in the American occupation zone in Austria. After returning to the United States, she worked at the Voice of America radio station and as a research analyst at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where she met her second husband, a Polish-born man named Podoski. Since 1968, she has been actively involved in helping Czechoslovak emigrants, especially through the American Fund for Czechoslovak Refugees (AFCR) and the Tolstoy Foundation. After November 1989, her experience and connections made her an invaluable asset to the Czech Embassy in Washington. She has received numerous awards for her services: the Gratias Agit (1999), the title of Distinguished Czech Woman in the World (2003), the medal of the President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus (2009) and other honours. Barbara Lee Podoski died on August 17, 2009 at the age of 95 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
