[Peace-discuss] Interesting history [Monopoly games and WW II]

[Jenifer Cartwright]

A different take on the Military - Industrial connection... --Jenifer

Original message---Hey there history buffs.... 
Here's a fun historical tidbit that an Ohio cousin emailed me. This story has been circulating on the web  for awhile so perhaps you've have already seen it; but if you haven't -- enjoy.  There's a link at the bottom for verification at Snopes, and one to abc coverage of it too.



Monopoly  - You'll never look at the game the same way again!


When WW II 
Allied airmen began risking their lives flying missions over occupied 
Europe, the British War Office worked with British game manufacturer, 
Waddingtons Ltd., to create a way to package escape aids into a game 
that could be sent to POWs.  Maps, files, compasses, and cash currency were hidden in Monopoly sets sent to WW II German prison camps to help prisoners of war escape. 



The  information was
                                      declassified in 2007, when surviving craftsmen from
                                       Waddington's, as well as the firm
                                      itself, were finally honored in a
                                       public ceremony. Since then, many stories have circulated on the internet about the Monopoly game escape aids, some of them containing inaccurate facts, such as that the maps showed the location of safe houses, and that the games were delivered via the Red Cross.



Victor Watson, chairman of Waddington's said, "Monopoly boards were made containing maps on one side, inserted
 into depressions under the paper covering, and into the other side was
 inserted a tiny compass and several fine quality files. The money 
piles were real money, hidden by one piece of Monopoly money on the top 
and bottom of the pack. We're not sure how many prisoners were able to 
escape by this method, but the company likes to think a few did." 

A
 former archivist for John Waddington's stated, "The escape aids sent
 to Nazi prison camps were always sent via private, often fictitious 
organizations, like the 'Licensed Victuallers Prisoner Relief Fund.'  No 
escape aids were enclosed in Red Cross relief parcels, so that the Germans 
would have no justification for stopping the much needed Red Cross parcels 
from reaching the prisoners.  Safe houses were not shown on the maps, as
 it was a virtual certainty that some of the maps would fall into German
 hands - the Germans were not fools when it came to tracking down 
prisoner's ruses."

Powell Davies, who was a 19-year-old flier when he was captured, 
said the 'prisoner escape committees' would destroy the sets after removing 
the escape aids, to keep the guards from finding out what was going on.

Story  verification: http://www.snopes.com/military/monopoly.asp  

abc coverage of the story: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/monopolys-hidden-maps-wwii-pows-escape/story?id=8605905


 












      


      
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