Penetrating the Third Reich: Polish Secret Agents in the OSS

Please join the East Central European Center at the Harriman Institute for a talk with John Micgiel, author of Project Eagle: Polscy wywiadowcy w raportach i dokumentach wojennych amerykanskiego Biura Sluzb Bezpieczenstwa (Krakow: Universitas, 2019).

John Micgiel’s book tells the story of cooperation between the Polish Government in Exile and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. That effort started with providing strategic and valuable intelligence information early in the war to the French, British, and the Americans, and concluded with the Polish Intelligence Service proposing a joint Polish-American mission which became known as Project Eagle. It was a bold plan to penetrate Hitler’s Reich by a group of Polish agents who were to act as OSS pathfinders and reception committees for further personnel, report on military rail and road movements, and to report on “such information as will be needed when the area is overrun.” The men embarked on their missions even though they knew that the February 1945 Yalta accords would make it nearly impossible for them to return to their homeland after the war.

John S. Micgiel is a historian specializing in the modern history of East Central Europe. He is currently the Director of the Warsaw East European Conference. Having received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, he spent nearly three decades teaching at the School of International and Public Affairs where, among other positions, he served as Director of the East Central European Center and as Associate Director of the Harriman Institute. Professor Micgiel has authored or edited eleven books on the region and is a frequent visitor to its academic institutions. For many years he has been a recurring Visiting Professor at Warsaw University’s East European Centre.