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Short Stuff: POW Olympics · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Charles. Wait,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I'm Josh. There's Charles.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: This is off to a good start already, this is
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: short stuff. Jerry's here too, YadA YadA.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Let's go all right, this is about the Pow Olympics.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: We're going to hop in the al wayback machine and
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: go back to nineteen forty four and Voldenbruke in western Poland,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: where Polish military officers were being held captive as POWs
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: by the Nazis. But the Nazis were like, hey, be
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: glad you're here, because it's not so bad. We treat
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: you guys pretty well. We adhere to the Geneva Convention
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: for the most part. And if you'll notice, there are
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: no death chambers and things like that here. You've got
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: an orchestra, you're taking classes. Treat us well after the war.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Because I think I see where this whole thing's ended.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, did you did you say that the POWs were
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: all officers?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I did?
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, so that that that was why this pow camp
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: was called offlog two c Offlog is derived from a
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: German word. I think it might be slang for an
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: officer's prison camp.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of like the Great Escape. Okay, sure,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: remember they had it pretty easy in that camp.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Right, So, yeah, I think that was there were a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: lot of political reasons why they were taking it easy
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: on them and following the Geneva Convention. But doesn't it
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: just feel dirty to give the Nazis credit for anything?
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: No, for sure, but I think it was one of
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: those cases where I wasn't really joking when I said
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: they were like, hey, remember this after the war, because
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: they were trying to set themselves up for being treated
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: okay after the war, and also to draw comparisons to
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: at the time Russian prison camps and saying like they're
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the they're the really bad ones. This one isn't so bad,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: specifically here in Poland.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: So part of that was allowing of an Olympic Games
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: to be held at Waldenburg. It was a Pow Olympics
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that was organized and carried out in cooperation with the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: German captors that were supposed to be in London and
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: then got canceled and then popped up again in the
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: at the Waldenburg Pow camp.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Right. Yeah. I doubt if the real Olympic Games people
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: know about it, although you never know, you never know.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, we know about it so well.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I know that I know that the Chinese held a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two POW Olympics at a camp in Korea,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: in North Korea with Korean War captives as a huge
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: propaganda coup. Like they kept records, they followed the IOC
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: instructions to a t, and they let the world know
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: about it. So I wouldn't surprised that the Nazis told
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: people that this was going on as a pr thing.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and since we're talking about other Pow Olympics, got
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: it to talk about nineteen forty because they were supposed
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: to be in Tokyo. World War II was just getting
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: cranking up there, so they moved it to Helsinki, Finland,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: and then they canceled those altogether. And there was a
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: German POW camp in Langfasa, Germany that had they called
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: it the International Prisoner of War Games, but that one
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: was a little bit different. That one was in secret.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: There would have been penalties by the German captors for
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: holding that Olympics. So somehow they managed to pull off
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: a secret Olympics nineteen forty.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess the captors just thought they were watching
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: a basketball game or something like that.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Maybe, and that weird Olympic flag with the rings
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: was I don't know, just for fun.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's take a break, chuck.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: All right, let's do it.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: And job.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: All right. So geez, we've now covered very quickly two
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Olympic game POW Olympic games, but we're gonna go back
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: to the one in nineteen forty four and voted in
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: book because they, like you said, had the permission of
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: the Nazis to do this, and it was It kind
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: of became one of those stories of the war, kind
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: of like the Christmas where the ceasefire happened on Christmas Eve. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and they got together. It sort of has that air
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Man, that's just such an amazing story.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: So Yeah, they are probably the most famous long long
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Losser and Woldenburg are about the most famous of all
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the POW games, so we know the most about them.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: In Waldenburg's they had a bunch of different events, like
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: they really kind of followed the Olympics at the time
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: to a t. There was soccer aka football, handball, basketball,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: track and field, but there were some events that they're like,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: we're gonna draw the line at that because we don't
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: trust you. Still, this is a pow camp.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty funny. Of course, they were like, maybe
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: nothing where you shoot an arrow, so archery was out.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: They said maybe nothing where you hold a sword, so
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: fencing was out. And then they said, beer, wow, we're
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: at it. Let's get rid of the javelin because I imagine
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: that would not feel good in the chest. And it
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: seems to me that practicing for pole vaulting, it's just
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: another way of saying practicing for getting over that fence
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: over there.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Right, tough to slip it past them while you're having
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: an Olympics. They also had to say no boxing, not
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: because there was any they were worried about it were
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: getting beaten up, I guessed by the boxers. They were
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: worried about the boxers killing one another because they were
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: again even though they were officers, these were held in
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: pow camps, and so the boxers were essentially too frail
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: to box. It was just too dangerous for the boxers.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we can't not mention the great great World
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: War two soccer film Victory with Sylvester Stallone and Michael
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Caine and.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Pele Plee was in it.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Plee was in it neat what year was this?
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Uh?
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: This is in the eighties. But it told the story
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: of a soccer match that was held between the Nazis
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: and the POW's. But there was an escape plan at halftime.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: They were to bust out dig they had people digging
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: in and then we're going to bust into the locker
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: room and get them out. And I'm not gonna spoil it,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: but let's just say they are faced at halftime with
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: the choice do we escape during this game or do
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: we go back on that field and try and beat
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: the Nazis at soccer?
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Uh? You escape.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: It's unequivocal, great, great movie, one of the great sports movies.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: It sounds like it was remade as The Longest Yard.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Isn't that kind of like the plot of that too?
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Hmmm? I mean no, it wasn't like a remake. But
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: The Longest Yard was That was the Burt Reynolds football
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: movie about prison Adam game. Yeah, well, then remade again
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: by Adam Sandler. But I don't think there was an
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: escape thing in the Longest Yard? Was there?
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: That's what I thought. That's why I said that. I
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: thought there might be, But maybe I just put that
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: in there to entertain myself because I was bored.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: It's been it's been. Thanks a lot. Appreciate that.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, I mean with the movie, not with
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: your anecdote.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, no, I don't think there was, unless I'm wrong.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: I think Along as Yar was just about a football game.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: But I may be wrong. It's been a minute.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, this conversations boring. Let's move on.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Still unplays a goalkeeper?
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Does he really?
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: True? Yeah?
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Does he take one in the face?
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Uh? Well, they had to teach him. He wasn't very
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: good at it, but they needed him on the escape team.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: So he was not the most gifted goalkeeper. But they
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: had Pele, and they had all these other English football
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: stars from the time that I didn't know about. But
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: my friend Justin's like, oh that was Bobby's something something
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: and whatever.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I hadn't realized Pele had been a pow.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, we just stop.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Well, wait a minute, wait a minut. Before we stop,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: we have to say that. In addition to those like basketball, handball,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: track and field, that kind of stuff, they actually held
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: cultural events as part of the Olympic competitions at Woldenburg
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: in nineteen forty four for like sculpture and painting and chess,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: and you would just normally think like, okay, they were
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: just trying to round some stuff out. Maybe they were
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: trying to replace the javelin event with something else, so
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: they came up in chess. No. From nineteen twelve to
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two, the Olympics awarded one hundred and fifty
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: one medals to original works in the fine arts. Like
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: you you could go see a sculpture exhibit and a
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: long jump competition in the same place, maybe even during
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: that fifty years or forty years, you can see a
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: sculpture battle, a sculpt off.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I had no idea, So that was sort of
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: on My big one takeaway out of this whole thing
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: was that they actually, for four decades gave out Olympic
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: medals in the arts. Yeah, so cool.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: It is very cool. Its a surprising little factoid that
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I had not expected to learn from this one.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That, and that Pele was a POW in nineteen
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: eighty three or whatever.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Right, So hats off to everybody who participated in Olympics
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: and Pow camps. It is kind of the triumph of
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the human spirit. You know what, I mean totally like
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the purest form of Olympic competition. That's right, And I
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: guess since Chuck is agreeing with me, then we should
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: just go ahead and say this short stuff is out.
• 10:23
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• 10:26
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