Stephanie Czech Rader was the daughter of Polish immigrants, uneducated laborers who settled in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in the early 1920s and barely spoke English. Her immersion in Polish language and culture proved critical to her success, against daunting odds, as a U.S. spy in Europe after World War II.
Recruited to the Office of Strategic Services and the Strategic Services Unit of the War Department, precursors to the CIA, she was officially employed as a clerk at the U.S. Embassy. In reality, she was undercover, an agent whose flawless Polish accent and mannerisms allowed her to move around the Soviet-dominated country with relative ease.
She faced near-constant hazard anyway. Conditions in Warsaw were bleak and dangerous. Pro-Soviet factions surveilled the movements of embassy personnel. Ultimately, she had her cover blown in what was tantalizingly if only passingly alluded to in official paperwork as an act of “gross negligence” by a superior based in Paris.
Despite these impediments, she was able to document vital information on Soviet troop movements and other invaluable details at the pre-dawn of the Cold War.
At the time of Mrs. Rader’s death on Jan. 21 at 100, a campaign was underway by members of the OSS Society, a group preserving the spy agency’s legacy, to obtain the Legion of Merit on her behalf. The award — honoring “exceptionally meritorious” service — had been denied her for unknown reasons in 1946.
Read more: Washington Post
Video: Youtube
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Recruited to the Office of Strategic Services and the Strategic Services Unit of the War Department, precursors to the CIA, she was officially employed as a clerk at the U.S. Embassy. In reality, she was undercover, an agent whose flawless Polish accent and mannerisms allowed her to move around the Soviet-dominated country with relative ease.
She faced near-constant hazard anyway. Conditions in Warsaw were bleak and dangerous. Pro-Soviet factions surveilled the movements of embassy personnel. Ultimately, she had her cover blown in what was tantalizingly if only passingly alluded to in official paperwork as an act of “gross negligence” by a superior based in Paris.
Despite these impediments, she was able to document vital information on Soviet troop movements and other invaluable details at the pre-dawn of the Cold War.
At the time of Mrs. Rader’s death on Jan. 21 at 100, a campaign was underway by members of the OSS Society, a group preserving the spy agency’s legacy, to obtain the Legion of Merit on her behalf. The award — honoring “exceptionally meritorious” service — had been denied her for unknown reasons in 1946.
Read more: Washington Post
Video: Youtube
________________________________________
Stephanie Czech Rader was the daughter of Polish immigrants, uneducated laborers who settled in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in the early 1920s and barely spoke English. Her immersion in Polish language and culture proved critical to her success, against daunting odds, as a U.S. spy in Europe after World War II.
Recruited to the Office of Strategic Services and the Strategic Services Unit of the War Department, precursors to the CIA, she was officially employed as a clerk at the U.S. Embassy. In reality, she was undercover, an agent whose flawless Polish accent and mannerisms allowed her to move around the Soviet-dominated country with relative ease.
She faced near-constant hazard anyway. Conditions in Warsaw were bleak and dangerous. Pro-Soviet factions surveilled the movements of embassy personnel. Ultimately, she had her cover blown in what was tantalizingly if only passingly alluded to in official paperwork as an act of “gross negligence” by a superior based in Paris.
Despite these impediments, she was able to document vital information on Soviet troop movements and other invaluable details at the pre-dawn of the Cold War.
At the time of Mrs. Rader’s death on Jan. 21 at 100, a campaign was underway by members of the OSS Society, a group preserving the spy agency’s legacy, to obtain the Legion of Merit on her behalf. The award — honoring “exceptionally meritorious” service — had been denied her for unknown reasons in 1946.
Read more: Washington Post
Video: Youtube
________________________________________
Recruited to the Office of Strategic Services and the Strategic Services Unit of the War Department, precursors to the CIA, she was officially employed as a clerk at the U.S. Embassy. In reality, she was undercover, an agent whose flawless Polish accent and mannerisms allowed her to move around the Soviet-dominated country with relative ease.
She faced near-constant hazard anyway. Conditions in Warsaw were bleak and dangerous. Pro-Soviet factions surveilled the movements of embassy personnel. Ultimately, she had her cover blown in what was tantalizingly if only passingly alluded to in official paperwork as an act of “gross negligence” by a superior based in Paris.
Despite these impediments, she was able to document vital information on Soviet troop movements and other invaluable details at the pre-dawn of the Cold War.
At the time of Mrs. Rader’s death on Jan. 21 at 100, a campaign was underway by members of the OSS Society, a group preserving the spy agency’s legacy, to obtain the Legion of Merit on her behalf. The award — honoring “exceptionally meritorious” service — had been denied her for unknown reasons in 1946.
Read more: Washington Post
Video: Youtube
________________________________________
Gravesite Details
Interred June 1, 2016
