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1 You’re Talking — But Are You Truly Communicating? 2 Old-School Habits That Will Save Your Wallet INSIDE THIS ISSUE
How the New Tax Bill Affects You
3 Garlic Parmesan Shrimp Win of the Month 4 The Most Dangerous Game of Monopoly Ever Played
WHEN MONOPOLY HELPED WIN A WAR Allied Powers Outwitted the Enemy, One Game at a Time
You know Monopoly as the game that ruins friendships and sparks hourlong battles over Park Place. But during World War II, it played a much more significant and far braver role: helping Allied soldiers escape from German POW camps. Yes, really. In one of the most brilliant covert ops of the war, the British Secret Service turned Monopoly into a top-secret escape kit. Before this tactic, smuggling noisy paper maps without tipping off the guards was too risky, and getting caught could be fatal for prisoners. Enter silk — strong, weather-resistant, and, most importantly, silent. The British turned to John Waddington Ltd., the licensed Monopoly manufacturer in
the UK, who also happened to be an expert in printing on silk. It was a match made in espionage heaven. Waddington didn’t just tuck maps into game boxes, though. In a locked room most employees didn’t know existed, craftsmen rigged Monopoly sets with tiny metal files, magnetic compasses, and even real currency hidden beneath the play money. Each game was marked with a secret red dot on the Free Parking space — an insider’s clue for captured soldiers to look out for. Thanks to a clever partnership with the Red Cross, these “games” were slipped into POW camps as humanitarian aid packages. The guards thought
they were passing along innocent entertainment. Meanwhile, inside the box were the tools to freedom. By the end of the war, over 35,000 POWs had escaped German camps — many with the help of these customized Monopoly sets. Though exact numbers are lost to history, Monopoly’s role in those escapes is one of the war’s clever secrets. The mission was kept quiet for decades to preserve the strategy for future use. Today, the story reminds us that the simplest tools can sometimes carry out extraordinary missions. Next time you pass “Go,” just remember Monopoly once helped people pass barbed wire.
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