This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!
Hidden Pond scheme and the Budapest escape story
The Pond years after World War II shaped U S espionage through covert operations and a Budapest escape. Zoltan Pfeiffer and family fled Hungary in 1947 via four crates, guided by James McCargar a Pond agent, bribing a Russian guard at one roadblock. The operation and Pond’s network spanned 82 countries with 40 chief agents and 600 sources, ending as a contractor for the CIA and drawing scrutiny over secrecy and agency rivalry.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Mark Stout
International Spy Museum
United States
Berlin
Washington
Stout
America
U.S
New York
Budapest
Zoltan Pfeiffer
Hungary
James McCargar
The
Pond
American Express
Chase National Bank
Philips
Culpeper
Central Intelligence Agency
National Archives
College Park Md
Associated Press
FBI
CIA
Joseph McCarthy
Germany
Hermann Goering
Adolf Hitler
Charles “Lucky” Luciano
Benito Mussolini
Norway
Russia
Secret Police
Empire State
the Pond
Iron Curtain
Moscow
Pfeiffer
McCargar
State Department
Edmund Price
Frankfurt
Madeline
Madeline Pfeiffer
San Francisco
Col
John V. Grombach
West Point