Thursday, March 31, 2016

How Monopoly saved POWs in WWII

I was watching and episode of one of my favorite television shows called "What History Forgot" on the "American Heroes Channel" and it tells about events in American history that are very little known. One episode told about this topic, which I am sharing with you all today.

During the height of German control in Europe during World War Two, the POW (prisoner of war) camps were cram packed with British soldiers. Sometimes the Red Cross would drop board games for the soldiers. If you were lucky you might get a Monopoly game. These weren't just any Monopoly games, they had supplies hidden inside. They were recognizable by a red dot on the game board. Some of the supplies included a map of Germany printed on silk. It was printed on silk because it was easy to fold, water proof, and quite to fold, German, Italian, and French money in the Monopoly money. One of the most underpaid jobs was guarding POWS, so guards were easily bribed into setting off the alarm hours after they escaped. A compass in the playing token, Metal files, a handheld cutting saw that was a circle of wire that had metal beads on it. It could saw through metal and steel in no time at all. It is estimated that that thousands of POWS escaped, but the British government made them swear to secrecy, so they could use it in a later war. It wasn't until 2007 that they reveled their tactics.
This Monopoly board is showed with the dot, the map, and the box of extra stuff.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, Toby! This is really cool and interesting. I really like your blog, keep up the good work!

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  2. This is a very interesting blog with lots of cool history facts in it. This is probably one of the smartest things they did in WWII. I'm glad I was able to read about it in your blog.

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