I don’t know about you, but when I think about Monopoly, the first thing that comes to mind is all the fights it has caused for me with my family and friends. Let’s be honest here, the only thing this game does is break families apart and give us hope that we’ll be able to buy property one day, even though that’s extremely unlikely. Now, besides causing fights, Monopoly has been part of some of the most important events in history, and saving thousands of lives during World War II is perhaps one of its greatest achievements.
It’s said that desperate times call for desperate measures, and during the war, saving as many soldiers was a priority that pushed governments to do everything in their power. Perhaps one of the craziest yet most effective plans the Allies resorted to was using Monopoly boards to save prisoners of war (POW). But, how did they do it?
As it turns out, thanks to the Geneva Convention policies, Germany allowed organizations like the Red Cross to send goods to POW soldiers. So, the Allies took advantage of this, and instead of just sending food and clothes, they gave their soldiers secret tools to help them escape the prison camps.
This particular mission was called MI9, and it was orchestrated by the British Ministry of Defense and John Waddington, publisher of the board in the UK. The idea was to give prisoners tools to escape from the camps without raising any suspicion. Thus, boards became the perfect way to do so, since the Germans allowed these games to be delivered along with food and clothes. They naïvely believed that if their prisoners were entertained, they wouldn’t cause any trouble.
Most of these Monopoly packages were delivered by fake organizations with addresses in bombed buildings or non-existent locations, making it impossible to trace. This wasn’t any random experiment: everything was carefully planned to keep the Nazis from discovering the plot. The boxes were marked with secret codes that represented each German prison camp, so they would know which particular set was to be delivered to each prison camp. They also created different board sets that included miniature tools (like miniature metal files and saws to cut wires) disguised as playing pieces, golden pieces they could use as currency, and notes from different countries to make their way out to neutral countries.
Perhaps the most important element included in the board game was the silk maps created by Waddington. These were perfect, since they could be used without making any sound, but more importantly, they wouldn’t be damaged if they got wet. Marking each set perfectly was crucial so that POW soldiers could receive an accurate map. The maps also indicated any possible perils along the way, as well as safe places where they could spend the night.
Of course, this mission was completely secret and even after the war, they kept it undisclosed. As you know, the Cold War threatened a third world war, and the MI9 kept the secret in case they had to put the operation in practice once again. As a result, the story only became public in the eighties, and even though there’s no way to know exactly how many prisoners escaped successfully thanks to the Monopoly boards, historians estimate there were thousands. Never underestimate what you can do with the simplest things, especially in a world full of creative people willing to go to great lengths to save others.
***
You might also like these:
How A Game Of Monopoly Was Behind The Greatest Train Robbery
Victor A. Lundy And His Vivid Drawings Capture The High Spirit Of A Young WWII Soldier
Where Did Ouija Boards Come From And How Do They Work?
***
