Uncle Spy

 Thank you for listening to THE AGENCY podcast. We are so glad you join our community and we would love to hear what you are up to. What are you reading or watching? Are you learning anything new? Email us at 

theagency.podcast@gmail.com

Check out this weeks' episode. Eugene tells us a little more about his family...which all seemed to be very accomplished curious-seeking people.

This weeks episode we have called Uncle Spy as Eugene's uncle worked for the CIA. You can read a little about chef and spy Harold Knapik in this New Yorker article. 

'Burns paused for dramatic effect and said, “The Knapiks are dead now, so it’s all right for me to say this: they were C.I.A. agents. Harold’s cover—he was a musician—was that he was working on a book on counterpoint; Virginia worked at the American Embassy.” My idea of Knapik remained intact. Of course he was a C.I.A. agent.

Burns went on, “The Knapiks told me that they knew of Alice’s involvement in the escape but said that a certain Mme. Azam was the person I should talk to, because she knew most about it. Mme. Azam, née Cohen, was a rich, cultivated elderly Frenchwoman who lived in Paris. She was a Jewish convert to Catholicism and a good friend of Faÿ’s and, eventually, of Alice’s. She said that Faÿ walked with her on the street in Paris when she had to wear a yellow star. When I interviewed Mme. Azam, she said, ‘Alice and I were influential in arranging for Bernard’s escape. We helped with the money.’ She told me that the people who got him out were dressed as nuns. Then she gave me an introduction to Faÿ and I went to see him.”'

#eugeneknapik #theagencypodcast #haroldknapik #ciaspy @spies @gertrudestein #alicebtoklas #ciaspyingonartists #bohemians #thenewyorker #gertrudesteinswar