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This man was the Nazi's worst nightmare Historical Legends Part 1 · Crime and Horror

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  Speaker 3: All right, let's get into today's story.
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  Speaker 1: The United States formally entered World War Two on December eighth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Hawaii.
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  Speaker 2: At the time, Joseph Bierley was a senior at his high.
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  Speaker 1: School in Muskegon, Michigan, and he had a scholarship to
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  Speaker 1: attend Notre Dame University the next year, but after his
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  Speaker 1: graduation in nineteen forty two, he decided he didn't want
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  Speaker 1: to go to college so long as other kids his
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  Speaker 1: age were going off to fight the war, and so
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  Speaker 1: he enlisted in the Army, and he immediately volunteered for
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  Speaker 1: one of the most dangerous units, the Parachute Infantry. Joseph
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  Speaker 1: completed a brutal accelerated training regimen that included exhausting pt
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  Speaker 1: and blistering heat, extended forced marches, grueling full kit runs
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  Speaker 1: up mountains, as well as both American and British jump schools.
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  Speaker 1: By nineteen forty three, Joseph was fully trained and stationed
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  Speaker 1: in England and was eager to put his training to
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  Speaker 1: the test. But the Allied invasion of Nazi occupied France,
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  Speaker 1: also known as D Day, was still a few months away.
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  Speaker 2: But Joseph didn't want to wait that long, so he
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  Speaker 2: volunteered for an incredibly.
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  Speaker 1: Dangerous mission that the OSS was recruiting paratroopers for. The
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  Speaker 1: OSS was the predecessor to the CIA. Basically, volunteers would
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  Speaker 1: parachute in the middle of the night into Nazi occupied
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  Speaker 1: France with a backpack full of gold. Once they hit
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  Speaker 1: the ground, they'd meet up with the French resistance and
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  Speaker 1: give the gold to them, and then the resistance would
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  Speaker 1: do their best to protect these volunteer paratroopers and hopefully
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  Speaker 1: give them a ride back out to England, but by
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  Speaker 1: no means was at a guarantee, because many of these
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  Speaker 1: volunteers were killed in the process. This was some hardcore
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  Speaker 1: deep cover spy work that the OSS would tell their volunteers,
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  Speaker 1: if you get caught on this mission, you're going to
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  Speaker 1: get tortured and you're gonna get executed. Joseph would successfully
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  Speaker 1: complete this insane mission, and then he liked it so
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  Speaker 1: much he did it again. Shortly after his second successful
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  Speaker 1: OSS mission, word came down that D Day was set
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  Speaker 1: to take place on June sixth.
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  Speaker 2: Joseph's unit was.
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  Speaker 1: Told they were going to be parachuted into France the
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  Speaker 1: night before in order to destroy bridges, cut power supply lines,
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  Speaker 1: and generally soften up defenses before the main invasion happened
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  Speaker 1: just a couple of hours later at Utah Beach. So
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  Speaker 1: in the dead of night on June fifth, Joseph and
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  Speaker 1: his unit were flying over France when they were struck
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  Speaker 1: by enemy fire and so as their plane is literally
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  Speaker 1: falling to the ground, Joseph leaps out the door when
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  Speaker 1: he's only four hundred feet off the ground, and he
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  Speaker 1: manages to serve I've the jump. His parachute inflated just
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  Speaker 1: in time, but he landed on top of a church
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  Speaker 1: where a Nazi sniper was up in the steeple taking
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  Speaker 1: shots at all of the other paratroopers, and when the
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  Speaker 1: sniper saw Joseph on the roof, he began taking shots
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  Speaker 1: at him, and Joseph managed to dodge the rounds before
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  Speaker 1: slipping off the roof and running out of sight. Once
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  Speaker 1: on the ground, he slammed a mag into his M
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  Speaker 1: one carbine and then began a one man mission so
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  Speaker 1: incredible that there is a plaque inside of the church
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  Speaker 1: he landed on that looks like this, completely alone, with
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  Speaker 1: no idea where the rest of his unit was. Joseph
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  Speaker 1: took off running from the church and once again had
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  Speaker 1: to dodge more sniper fire, and he eventually made it
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  Speaker 1: to the town's power substation, which he blew up with thermites.
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  Speaker 1: He cut the power to the town and from there
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  Speaker 1: he went building to building to building, killing every Nazi
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  Speaker 1: he came across, including an entire squad of Nazi infantry
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  Speaker 1: that he ambushed with grenades. At some point, Joseph made
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  Speaker 1: his way over to one of the bridges leading into
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  Speaker 1: this town that if he blew up it would prevent
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  Speaker 1: Nazis from sending reinforcements to Utah Beach. But as he
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  Speaker 1: crawled through one of the hedgerows, he fell headfirst into
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  Speaker 1: a Nazi machine gun nest, and when he turned around
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  Speaker 1: there were a bunch of machine guns pointed at his face,
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  Speaker 1: and so he surrendered.
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  Speaker 2: Joseph was marched.
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  Speaker 1: Deeper into France to a pow holding area, and as
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  Speaker 1: soon as he got there, explosions ripped out all around him.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't clear if it was German artillery or American.
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  Speaker 1: Aircraft, but whatever it was, it was killing both Germans
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  Speaker 1: and American POWs. Joseph took shrapnel to the leg and
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  Speaker 1: was blown into a ditch, and despite being an excruciating pain,
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  Speaker 1: he took this as an opportunity to escape, and so
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  Speaker 1: he got up and ran away as best as he
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  Speaker 1: could with his injury, and for twelve hours he remained
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  Speaker 1: uncaught behind enemy lines before he was ultimately caught again.
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  Speaker 1: This time they put Joseph in the back of a
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  Speaker 1: cupboard locked truck to keep him from escaping, and they
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  Speaker 1: decided they would send him to Saint Low and decide
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  Speaker 1: what to do with him there, but on their transit
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  Speaker 1: to Saint Loe, an Allied aircraft strafed the vehicle that
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  Speaker 1: Joseph was in, and Joseph survived the attack and was
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  Speaker 1: able to leap out of one of the holes in
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  Speaker 1: the side of the truck from this attack, and he
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  Speaker 1: attempted to escape, but once again he was caught. The
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  Speaker 1: Nazis finally got Joseph to Saint Low, and as soon
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  Speaker 1: as they got there, the Americans launched an all night
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  Speaker 1: bombing campaign on the city, but once again Joseph narrowly survives.
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  Speaker 1: A recurring theme of Joseph's story is that he is
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  Speaker 1: repeatedly almost killed by his own teammates. For the next
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  Speaker 1: few days, Joseph was interrogated twenty to twenty four hours
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  Speaker 1: a day, but he didn't give them any information, and
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  Speaker 1: he repeatedly called them sons of bitches until they got
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  Speaker 1: so fed up with him they just beat him to
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  Speaker 1: a pulp and he was knocked unconscious and kept in
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  Speaker 1: the hospital for several days.
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  Speaker 2: For the next three months, Joseph.
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  Speaker 1: Was starved, beaten, interrogated some more, and moved to multiple
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  Speaker 1: pow camps. He'd be forced to do backbreaking labor all day.
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  Speaker 1: At night, he would survive Allied bombing runs, and he
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  Speaker 1: would constantly weather hunger, disease, and exhaustion. At one point
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  Speaker 1: he was locked inside of this box car with fifty
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  Speaker 1: other guys. He could barely move inside of it, and
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  Speaker 1: once again it was strafed by Allied planes and he
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  Speaker 1: was one of the very few people to survive that.
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  Speaker 1: In September of nineteen forty four, Joseph was moved to
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  Speaker 1: a Russian pow camp in Poland that held about twelve
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  Speaker 1: thousand Russian men and women POWs, and as soon as
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  Speaker 1: he got there, he immediately began planning his escape. Two
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  Speaker 1: months later, on a freezing night in November, Joseph, along
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  Speaker 1: with three other American POWs, managed to cut the barbed
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  Speaker 1: wire and snuck out of the camp and began making
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  Speaker 1: their escape stout. They snuck into a railway station and
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  Speaker 1: hopped on a train car they believed was headed for Poland.
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  Speaker 1: Their plan was to meet up with the Soviet Red
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  Speaker 1: Army as it pushed through the region, but unfortunately they
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  Speaker 1: got on the wrong train and they wound up in Berlin,
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  Speaker 1: the capital of Nazi Germany.
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  Speaker 2: One thing you don't hear much about when it.
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  Speaker 1: Comes to World War two is there was actually a
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  Speaker 1: large number of Germans that.
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  Speaker 2: Hated Hitler and totally disagreed.
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  Speaker 1: With the Nazis, and so they organized a German underground
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  Speaker 1: resistance that was designed to help the Allies during the war.
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  Speaker 1: And so when Joseph and the other three American POWs
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  Speaker 1: arrived in Berlin, still wearing their pow uniforms, a member
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  Speaker 1: of the German resists since saw them and immediately grabbed
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  Speaker 1: them and brought them into hiding. But after only a week,
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  Speaker 1: the infamous Nazi secret police aka the Gestapo discovered them
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  Speaker 1: and arrested them.
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  Speaker 2: Over the next ten days.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph and the other American POWs got to see firsthand
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  Speaker 1: just how awful the Gestapo really were. They were constantly
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  Speaker 1: interrogated while they were beaten, kicked, walked on, strung up
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  Speaker 1: by their arms backwards. They were hit with whips, clubs,
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  Speaker 1: and rifle butts until they drifted into unconsciousness, and then
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  Speaker 1: as soon as they started to come too, it would
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  Speaker 1: start all over again. After those ten days, the Gestapo
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  Speaker 1: turned Joseph and the other three American POWs over to
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  Speaker 1: the German army, who put them in the brutal prison
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  Speaker 1: camp called the stalog Looft three. Upon arrival, Joseph was
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  Speaker 1: immediately sentenced to thirty days inside of a four by
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  Speaker 1: five foot pine box that was too small to stand
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  Speaker 1: up or lay down in. Fortunately for him, he only
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  Speaker 1: had to endure seven days because they red cross operative
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  Speaker 1: from Geneva.
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  Speaker 2: Intervened on his behalf.
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  Speaker 1: It would take months for Joseph to get his strength
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  Speaker 1: back after being inside of this box, but as soon
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  Speaker 1: as he did, he began plotting his next escape. One night, Joseph,
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  Speaker 1: along with his three American pow buddies, managed to break
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  Speaker 1: through a prison wall and made a mad dash for freedom,
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  Speaker 1: but the Nazi prison guards saw it and open fire
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  Speaker 1: on them. All three of Joseph's friends were killed as
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  Speaker 1: they ran, but Joseph got away only to hear the
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  Speaker 1: faint barking of the German shepherds.
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  Speaker 2: The Nazis had sent to hunt him down.
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  Speaker 1: So, in the freezing cold of Poland in January, Joseph
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  Speaker 1: leapt headfirst into a partially frozen river and swam over
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  Speaker 1: two miles down it before getting out and running blindly
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  Speaker 1: into the woods. Somehow, miraculously he managed to reach Soviet
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  Speaker 1: lines before he froze to death, and there he spoke
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  Speaker 1: with battalion Commander Alexandra Semasenko, a woman who holds the
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  Speaker 1: distinction of being the only female tank commander in all
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  Speaker 1: of World War Two. Even though Joseph spoke very little Russian,
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  Speaker 1: he convinced her to let him join her unit, and
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  Speaker 1: so she gave him a gun and some ammunition, and
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  Speaker 1: she told him what their next objective was. They were
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  Speaker 1: going to liberate the same Pow camp had just escaped from,
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  Speaker 1: and so Joseph, alongside the Soviet Red Army that he
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  Speaker 1: now fought for, turn around and goes smash this Pow camp.
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  Speaker 1: And after the dust had settled, Joseph raided the main
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  Speaker 1: camp office and stole his defiant official Pow photo that
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  Speaker 1: the Germans had taken of him on.
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  Speaker 2: The first day he got captured.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph continued to fight alongside the Soviets across the Eastern
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  Speaker 1: Front for a couple of months, but when a German
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  Speaker 1: dive bomber blew up the tank that Joseph was riding on,
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  Speaker 1: he was evacuated to a Russian field hospital. There, he
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  Speaker 1: received a visit from Georgi Zukov, the most important Soviet
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  Speaker 1: military commander in World War Two who was intrigued by
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  Speaker 1: the only non Soviet in the hospital. He sat with
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  Speaker 1: Joseph and learned his story through an interpreter, and then
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  Speaker 1: afterwards he provided Joseph with official paperwork that would allow
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  Speaker 1: him to rejoin American forces, and so in February of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen forty five, Joseph was sent to the US embassy
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  Speaker 1: in Moscow. But unfortunately, when he finally met a friendly
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  Speaker 1: American face after nearly a year of fighting behind enemy lines,
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  Speaker 1: they didn't believe his story. They told him that Joseph R.
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  Speaker 1: Byerley had been killed in action on June tenth, nineteen forty.
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  Speaker 2: Four, and that they had already had.
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  Speaker 1: A funeral mass in his honor in the Skegan, and
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  Speaker 1: that his obituary had already been printed in the paper.
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  Speaker 1: But despite Joseph painstakingly going through his story over and
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  Speaker 1: over again, the ambassador just could not believe what he
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  Speaker 1: was hearing, and so worried Joseph might actually be a
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  Speaker 1: well trained German spy, the ambassador sent him to Odessa
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  Speaker 1: to have his credentials verified, but Odessa had the same
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  Speaker 1: problem and couldn't verify him, so they sent him to Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: Egypt had the same problem, and they too could not
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  Speaker 1: verify his credentials, and so they sent him to Italy
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  Speaker 1: where they finally used fingerprints and they confirmed that yes,
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  Speaker 1: this is.
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  Speaker 2: In fact Joseph R.
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  Speaker 1: Byerley, and so on April eleventh, nineteen forty five, Joseph
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  Speaker 1: returned home, and needless to say, his parents were very
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  Speaker 1: surprised to see him because they were convinced he died
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  Speaker 1: ten months earlier. One year later, Joseph would actually get
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  Speaker 1: married in the same church that held his funeral mass
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  Speaker 1: when everybody believed he was dead. Joseph was given the
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  Speaker 1: Purple Heart and then in the nineteen nineties was given
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  Speaker 1: additional presidential awards from US President Bill Clinton as well
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  Speaker 1: as the Russian president Boris Yeltsen.
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  Speaker 2: Joseph was also given a custom made.
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  Speaker 1: AK forty seven from the guy who invented the AK
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  Speaker 1: forty seven. Joseph died in two thousand and four at
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  Speaker 1: the age of eighty one, and his son would go
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  Speaker 1: on to become the US Ambassador to Russia under George W.
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  Speaker 2: Bush and Barack Obama. So that's going to do it, guys.
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  Speaker 1: If you found the secret in today's episode, let us
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  Speaker 1: know in the comments what it is and where you
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  Speaker 1: found it. So give us the timestamp, and if you're
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