What a coincidence, I'm currently reading a book called "Piercing the Reich" [0] about the OSS's missions into Germany itself during WWII. It has a really interesting and detailed description of the process by which clothing was collected from refugees coming into New York, as mentioned in this article.
The OSS officers collecting Old World clothing gave refugees new clothes in exchange and did a full debrief about what had been going on in that person's hometown. They also used the opportunity to screen for potential OSS agents. One very interesting aspect of this was that they were especially keen to find trade unionists / socialists, because this was the most logistically organized anti-Nazi faction under the Reich, and the OSS wanted to send people who had access to and credibility within a broad underground network.
The account of the perfection of forgery techniques in this book is also worth a read. Highly recommended.
The OSS officers collecting Old World clothing gave refugees new clothes in exchange and did a full debrief about what had been going on in that person's hometown. They also used the opportunity to screen for potential OSS agents. One very interesting aspect of this was that they were especially keen to find trade unionists / socialists, because this was the most logistically organized anti-Nazi faction under the Reich, and the OSS wanted to send people who had access to and credibility within a broad underground network.
The account of the perfection of forgery techniques in this book is also worth a read. Highly recommended.
[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Piercing-Reich-Penetration-Germany-Am...