Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Cat & Mouse

Transcript

Cat & Mouse · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Let me paint a picture for you. It was nineteen
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: forty four in German occupied France, east of Paris, in
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the country's more mountainous region. A woman furiously pedaled her
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: bicycle up a rocky hill. She'd been traveling for hours
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to complete a special mission. She was hungry and exhausted,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and her legs felt like lead. But then she came
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: upon a Nazi checkpoint. They were scattered throughout for so
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: she knew this moment was inevitable. Despite the butterflies in
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: her stomach and the knowledge that if she was caught
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: she would surely be killed, she rolled to a stop
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: beside two German officers. They looked her over. She forced
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: her breathing to steady, then flashed them a friendly smile.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: In her experience, this was the best way to put
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: German soldiers at ease. To convince them that she was
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a local villager, a young housewife, a supporter of the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Nazi occupation. Of course, this was all a careful ruse,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: but it worked. The men grinned back without even looking
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: at her passport. They waved her through the checkpoint. She
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: thanked them and rode away at a leisurely pace. However,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the minute she was out of their sight, she began
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: peddling harder. She forced her way through the mountains, barely
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: stopping to rest, to eat, or even to use the
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: bathroom for thirty six hours. By the time she finally
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: reached her destination, she had traveled nearly one hundred and
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: twenty five miles on her bicycle. She made it to
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the French city of Chateauroux, where she could access a
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: private radio transmission. She sent a message to her contact
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: in London with a set of new codes so that
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: they could re establish a safe line of communication. This
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: was crucial to an upcoming military operation, one that was
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: called the Invasion of Normandy, better known as D Day.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: You see, this woman was a spy for the British government, and,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: unbeknownst to those two German soldiers who had led her
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: through their checkpoint. She was also one of the Nazis'
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: most wanted people. The year before, in nineteen thirty four,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the Gestapo had put a five million franc bounty on
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: her head. The problem was no one in the German
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: army actually knew who she was or what she looked like.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: They just knew that she was impossible to catch, which
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: is why they called her the White Mouse. As for
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the woman's friends, well, they just called her Nancy. Her
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: full name was Nancy Wake. She was born in New
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Zealand in nineteen twelve and raised in Australia. She moved
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to Paris as a young adult, where she met and
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: married a wealthy businesiness man. The two often traveled throughout Europe,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: which is how during the nineteen thirties Nancy watched the
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: rise of the Nazis' first hand. She promised herself that
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: if she ever got the chance, she would do whatever
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: she could to fight back. When the Nazi army invaded
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: France in nineteen forty, she got that chance. She volunteered
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: as a member of the French Resistance. Her wealth and
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: status gave her the ability to cross international borders with ease,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: so she primarily worked as a transporter helping vulnerable people
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: get out of Nazi occupied France. She actually bought an
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: ambulance and used it to help refugees get across the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Spanish border. She continued doing this until nineteen forty three,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: when the German Army caught wind of what she was
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: up to. The Gestapo put her on their most wanted
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: list and offered a huge reward in exchange for her capture.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: This put Nancy in a really tough spot. Her husband
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: was a high profile businessman. He couldn't just up and
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: leave the country without arousing suspicion. That meant that either
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: she had to stay and risk capture, or leave her
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: husband and flee to safety, and she chose the second option.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Nancy traveled to England, where she was trained by the
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: British Special Operations Executive. In nineteen forty four, she parachuted
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: back into France to help Allied forces prepare for the
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: upcoming D Day invasion. She organized ammunition drops, set up
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: supply lines, and biked hundreds of miles to make sure
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Allied communications were secure. When France was liberated in late
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: nineteen forty four, Nancy went back to Paris in the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: hopes of finding her husband, but all she found was
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: bad news. He had been captured, interrogated, and killed by
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the Gestapo over a year earlier. He was heartbreaking, as
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: was the case for most people, The war changed Nancy's
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: life forever. She fought for freedom and lost her marriage
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and became a new person. Nancy received military honors from France,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Great Britain, and the United States. She also eventually remarried
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: and moved back to Australia, where she lived for over
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: forty years. After her second husband's death in the late
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, she returned to England. She died in London
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: in twenty eleven, just one month shy of her ninety
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: ninth birthday. According to her wishes, Nancy was not buried
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: in one place. Instead, her ashes were scattered throughout France.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: To me, it's a poetic ending to a truly incredible
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: story in death, as she had been in life. Nancy
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Wake the White Mouse could never be pinned down. In
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, US President Woodrow Wilson was sitting in his
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: office in the White House, holding his head in his hands.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: He was in a difficult position, after all, as World
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: War One raged across Europe, he had two contradictory goals
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to support the Allied war effort and to simultaneously keep
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: America out of conflict. This geopolitical dance was exhausting, and
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: it wasn't the only problem on Wilson's mind. Just months earlier,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: his wife Ellen had passed away from a kidney disorder.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: The loss was crushing. Ellen was his closest confidant, the
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: mother of his two children, and the first Lady of
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the United States. Ever since she died, Wilson had been
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: depressed and lonely. He couldn't focus, He couldn't bring himself
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: to care about anything. But that was all about to
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: change that day. The doors of the White House elevator
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: opened to reveal a tall woman with a mess of dark,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: curly hair. She was wearing walking clothes and mud stained boots.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Right away, she struck Wilson as a unique kind of woman,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: one who wasn't afraid to get her shoes dirty. She
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: introduced herself as Edith Bowling, and she certainly was unique.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: At forty two years old, she was a widow with
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: no children. She'd been born into a prominent Virginia family,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: so she was wealthy and well educated. When her husband
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: passed away seven years earlier. He left her a jewelry
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: store in Washington, which she ran by herself. The circumstances
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: of her life made her fiercely independent, quick witted, and adventurous.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: She was also friends with one of Wilson's cousins who
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: happened to work as a hostess at the White House,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: and that's how Edith wound up inside. The President was smitten.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: He and Edith were married that December, and just like that,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: the United States had a new First Lady. Edith was
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: known to be smart, fashionable, and gracious, but she tried
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: to stay out of politics. She was afraid of being
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: seen as a quote unquote too authoritative person. It wasn't
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: until nineteen seventeen, when the US officially entered World War One,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: that she stepped into a more leadership kind of role.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: She worked to support the war effort and fostered trust
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: with the public. For example, during World War One, the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: US Food Administration had to ration certain items like flour
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: and meat. In an attempt to set a positive example
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: for the American people, Edith had the White House follow
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: these same rationing rules as the company flock went on.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Though Edith did much more than choose the presidential menu.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: She had a gift for puzzles and languages, and she
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: actually helped decode some secret messages during the war. On
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: top of this, in nineteen eighteen, she accompanied her husband
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: to Europe to visit American troops. This made her the
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: first first lady to travel to Europe on political business.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: In June of nineteen nineteen, she went again to attend
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: World War One. Back in Washington, with a newly international
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: peace established, things were going well for the first couple.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: But then in October of nineteen nineteen, Woodrow Wilson's life
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: changed once again. He suffered a major stroke that left
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: him partially paralyzed and completely incapacitated. But here's the thing.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Throughout history, US presidents have gone to great lengths to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: hide their health problems. Wilson was no different. He hid
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the severity of a stroke from almost everyone, including the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: American people, the US Congress, and members of his own cabinet.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: The war had just ended, and Wilson didn't want to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: introduce any sense of panic or instability back into politics.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: The only people who knew how sick Wilson was, were
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: his doctor and his wife, and suddenly Edith found herself
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: in a very unique position. She was the president steward
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: between October of nineteen nineteen and January of nineteen twenty one.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Every bit of correspondence with Wilson went through Edith first,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: and every decision the president made was filtered through and
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: finalized by her. Now, Like I said, Edith was always
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: afraid of being seen as too authoritative. She insisted that
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: she never made decisions without her husband's input, but many
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: historians believe that she was far too modest. Edith is
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: considered by some to have been America's first unofficial female president,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: a decision maker who worked behind the scenes when the
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: real president no longer could. After his term ended, Woodrow
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: and Edith Wilson retired to a townhouse in Washington. D. C.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Wilson died three years later, but Edith lived on for
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: another four decades. The Wilson House is a National Historic
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Landmark and is open to the public for tours. Inside
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: you'll find multiple portraits of Edith Wilson looking fashionable, gracious,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and authoritative, which, despite her own reservations, is certainly not
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a bad thing. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: stay curious.