July 3, 2024 • 10 mins
While it sounds like something out of a movie, some POWs in WWII really held an Olympics. And it happened more than once.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Charles. Wait,
I'm Josh. There's Charles.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is off to a good start already, this is
short stuff. Jerry's here too, YadA YadA.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Let's go all right, this is about the Pow Olympics.
We're going to hop in the al wayback machine and
go back to nineteen forty four and Voldenbruke in western Poland,
where Polish military officers were being held captive as POWs
(00:37):
by the Nazis. But the Nazis were like, hey, be
glad you're here, because it's not so bad. We treat
you guys pretty well. We adhere to the Geneva Convention
for the most part. And if you'll notice, there are
no death chambers and things like that here. You've got
an orchestra, you're taking classes. Treat us well after the war.
(00:59):
Because I think I see where this whole thing's ended.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, did you did you say that the POWs were
all officers?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I did?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, so that that that was why this pow camp
was called offlog two c Offlog is derived from a
German word. I think it might be slang for an
officer's prison camp.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, it's kind of like the Great Escape. Okay, sure,
remember they had it pretty easy in that camp.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Right, So, yeah, I think that was there were a
lot of political reasons why they were taking it easy
on them and following the Geneva Convention. But doesn't it
just feel dirty to give the Nazis credit for anything?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
No, for sure, but I think it was one of
those cases where I wasn't really joking when I said
they were like, hey, remember this after the war, because
they were trying to set themselves up for being treated
okay after the war, and also to draw comparisons to
at the time Russian prison camps and saying like they're
(01:58):
the they're the really bad ones. This one isn't so bad,
specifically here in Poland.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So part of that was allowing of an Olympic Games
to be held at Waldenburg. It was a Pow Olympics
that was organized and carried out in cooperation with the
German captors that were supposed to be in London and
then got canceled and then popped up again in the
at the Waldenburg Pow camp.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Right. Yeah. I doubt if the real Olympic Games people
know about it, although you never know, you never know.
I mean, we know about it so well.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I know that I know that the Chinese held a
nineteen fifty two POW Olympics at a camp in Korea,
in North Korea with Korean War captives as a huge
propaganda coup. Like they kept records, they followed the IOC
instructions to a t, and they let the world know
(02:58):
about it. So I wouldn't surprised that the Nazis told
people that this was going on as a pr thing.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, and since we're talking about other Pow Olympics, got
it to talk about nineteen forty because they were supposed
to be in Tokyo. World War II was just getting
cranking up there, so they moved it to Helsinki, Finland,
and then they canceled those altogether. And there was a
German POW camp in Langfasa, Germany that had they called
(03:27):
it the International Prisoner of War Games, but that one
was a little bit different. That one was in secret.
There would have been penalties by the German captors for
holding that Olympics. So somehow they managed to pull off
a secret Olympics nineteen forty.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, I guess the captors just thought they were watching
a basketball game or something like that.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah. Maybe, and that weird Olympic flag with the rings
was I don't know, just for fun.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, let's take a break, chuck.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
All right, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And job.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
All right. So geez, we've now covered very quickly two
Olympic game POW Olympic games, but we're gonna go back
to the one in nineteen forty four and voted in
book because they, like you said, had the permission of
the Nazis to do this, and it was It kind
of became one of those stories of the war, kind
(04:49):
of like the Christmas where the ceasefire happened on Christmas Eve. Yeah,
and they got together. It sort of has that air
about it.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Man, that's just such an amazing story.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It was.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
So Yeah, they are probably the most famous long long
Losser and Woldenburg are about the most famous of all
the POW games, so we know the most about them.
In Waldenburg's they had a bunch of different events, like
they really kind of followed the Olympics at the time
to a t. There was soccer aka football, handball, basketball,
(05:26):
track and field, but there were some events that they're like,
we're gonna draw the line at that because we don't
trust you. Still, this is a pow camp.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, it's pretty funny. Of course, they were like, maybe
nothing where you shoot an arrow, so archery was out.
They said maybe nothing where you hold a sword, so
fencing was out. And then they said, beer, wow, we're
at it. Let's get rid of the javelin because I imagine
that would not feel good in the chest. And it
(05:56):
seems to me that practicing for pole vaulting, it's just
another way of saying practicing for getting over that fence
over there.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Right, tough to slip it past them while you're having
an Olympics. They also had to say no boxing, not
because there was any they were worried about it were
getting beaten up, I guessed by the boxers. They were
worried about the boxers killing one another because they were
again even though they were officers, these were held in
pow camps, and so the boxers were essentially too frail
(06:27):
to box. It was just too dangerous for the boxers.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, and we can't not mention the great great World
War two soccer film Victory with Sylvester Stallone and Michael
Caine and.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Pele Plee was in it.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Plee was in it neat what year was this?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
This is in the eighties. But it told the story
of a soccer match that was held between the Nazis
and the POW's. But there was an escape plan at halftime.
They were to bust out dig they had people digging
in and then we're going to bust into the locker
room and get them out. And I'm not gonna spoil it,
(07:07):
but let's just say they are faced at halftime with
the choice do we escape during this game or do
we go back on that field and try and beat
the Nazis at soccer?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Uh? You escape.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
It's unequivocal, great, great movie, one of the great sports movies.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
It sounds like it was remade as The Longest Yard.
Isn't that kind of like the plot of that too?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Hmmm? I mean no, it wasn't like a remake. But
The Longest Yard was That was the Burt Reynolds football
movie about prison Adam game. Yeah, well, then remade again
by Adam Sandler. But I don't think there was an
escape thing in the Longest Yard? Was there?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That's what I thought. That's why I said that. I
thought there might be, But maybe I just put that
in there to entertain myself because I was bored.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
It's been it's been. Thanks a lot. Appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
No, no, no, I mean with the movie, not with
your anecdote.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Oh okay, no, I don't think there was, unless I'm wrong.
I think Along as Yar was just about a football game.
But I may be wrong. It's been a minute.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Okay, Well, this conversations boring. Let's move on.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Still unplays a goalkeeper?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Does he really?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
True? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Does he take one in the face?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Uh? Well, they had to teach him. He wasn't very
good at it, but they needed him on the escape team.
So he was not the most gifted goalkeeper. But they
had Pele, and they had all these other English football
stars from the time that I didn't know about. But
my friend Justin's like, oh that was Bobby's something something
and whatever.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I hadn't realized Pele had been a pow.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Oh my god, we just stop.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Well, wait a minute, wait a minut. Before we stop,
we have to say that. In addition to those like basketball, handball,
track and field, that kind of stuff, they actually held
cultural events as part of the Olympic competitions at Woldenburg
in nineteen forty four for like sculpture and painting and chess,
(09:03):
and you would just normally think like, okay, they were
just trying to round some stuff out. Maybe they were
trying to replace the javelin event with something else, so
they came up in chess. No. From nineteen twelve to
nineteen fifty two, the Olympics awarded one hundred and fifty
one medals to original works in the fine arts. Like
you you could go see a sculpture exhibit and a
(09:27):
long jump competition in the same place, maybe even during
that fifty years or forty years, you can see a
sculpture battle, a sculpt off.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, I had no idea, So that was sort of
on My big one takeaway out of this whole thing
was that they actually, for four decades gave out Olympic
medals in the arts. Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
It is very cool. Its a surprising little factoid that
I had not expected to learn from this one.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah. That, and that Pele was a POW in nineteen
eighty three or whatever.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Right, So hats off to everybody who participated in Olympics
and Pow camps. It is kind of the triumph of
the human spirit. You know what, I mean totally like
the purest form of Olympic competition. That's right, And I
guess since Chuck is agreeing with me, then we should
just go ahead and say this short stuff is out.
(10:23):
Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Charles. Wait,
I'm Josh. There's Charles.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is off to a good start already, this is
short stuff. Jerry's here too, YadA YadA.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Let's go all right, this is about the Pow Olympics.
We're going to hop in the al wayback machine and
go back to nineteen forty four and Voldenbruke in western Poland,
where Polish military officers were being held captive as POWs
(00:37):
by the Nazis. But the Nazis were like, hey, be
glad you're here, because it's not so bad. We treat
you guys pretty well. We adhere to the Geneva Convention
for the most part. And if you'll notice, there are
no death chambers and things like that here. You've got
an orchestra, you're taking classes. Treat us well after the war.
(00:59):
Because I think I see where this whole thing's ended.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, did you did you say that the POWs were
all officers?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I did?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, so that that that was why this pow camp
was called offlog two c Offlog is derived from a
German word. I think it might be slang for an
officer's prison camp.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, it's kind of like the Great Escape. Okay, sure,
remember they had it pretty easy in that camp.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Right, So, yeah, I think that was there were a
lot of political reasons why they were taking it easy
on them and following the Geneva Convention. But doesn't it
just feel dirty to give the Nazis credit for anything?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
No, for sure, but I think it was one of
those cases where I wasn't really joking when I said
they were like, hey, remember this after the war, because
they were trying to set themselves up for being treated
okay after the war, and also to draw comparisons to
at the time Russian prison camps and saying like they're
(01:58):
the they're the really bad ones. This one isn't so bad,
specifically here in Poland.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So part of that was allowing of an Olympic Games
to be held at Waldenburg. It was a Pow Olympics
that was organized and carried out in cooperation with the
German captors that were supposed to be in London and
then got canceled and then popped up again in the
at the Waldenburg Pow camp.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Right. Yeah. I doubt if the real Olympic Games people
know about it, although you never know, you never know.
I mean, we know about it so well.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I know that I know that the Chinese held a
nineteen fifty two POW Olympics at a camp in Korea,
in North Korea with Korean War captives as a huge
propaganda coup. Like they kept records, they followed the IOC
instructions to a t, and they let the world know
(02:58):
about it. So I wouldn't surprised that the Nazis told
people that this was going on as a pr thing.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, and since we're talking about other Pow Olympics, got
it to talk about nineteen forty because they were supposed
to be in Tokyo. World War II was just getting
cranking up there, so they moved it to Helsinki, Finland,
and then they canceled those altogether. And there was a
German POW camp in Langfasa, Germany that had they called
(03:27):
it the International Prisoner of War Games, but that one
was a little bit different. That one was in secret.
There would have been penalties by the German captors for
holding that Olympics. So somehow they managed to pull off
a secret Olympics nineteen forty.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, I guess the captors just thought they were watching
a basketball game or something like that.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah. Maybe, and that weird Olympic flag with the rings
was I don't know, just for fun.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, let's take a break, chuck.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
All right, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And job.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
All right. So geez, we've now covered very quickly two
Olympic game POW Olympic games, but we're gonna go back
to the one in nineteen forty four and voted in
book because they, like you said, had the permission of
the Nazis to do this, and it was It kind
of became one of those stories of the war, kind
(04:49):
of like the Christmas where the ceasefire happened on Christmas Eve. Yeah,
and they got together. It sort of has that air
about it.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Man, that's just such an amazing story.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It was.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
So Yeah, they are probably the most famous long long
Losser and Woldenburg are about the most famous of all
the POW games, so we know the most about them.
In Waldenburg's they had a bunch of different events, like
they really kind of followed the Olympics at the time
to a t. There was soccer aka football, handball, basketball,
(05:26):
track and field, but there were some events that they're like,
we're gonna draw the line at that because we don't
trust you. Still, this is a pow camp.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, it's pretty funny. Of course, they were like, maybe
nothing where you shoot an arrow, so archery was out.
They said maybe nothing where you hold a sword, so
fencing was out. And then they said, beer, wow, we're
at it. Let's get rid of the javelin because I imagine
that would not feel good in the chest. And it
(05:56):
seems to me that practicing for pole vaulting, it's just
another way of saying practicing for getting over that fence
over there.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Right, tough to slip it past them while you're having
an Olympics. They also had to say no boxing, not
because there was any they were worried about it were
getting beaten up, I guessed by the boxers. They were
worried about the boxers killing one another because they were
again even though they were officers, these were held in
pow camps, and so the boxers were essentially too frail
(06:27):
to box. It was just too dangerous for the boxers.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, and we can't not mention the great great World
War two soccer film Victory with Sylvester Stallone and Michael
Caine and.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Pele Plee was in it.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Plee was in it neat what year was this?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
This is in the eighties. But it told the story
of a soccer match that was held between the Nazis
and the POW's. But there was an escape plan at halftime.
They were to bust out dig they had people digging
in and then we're going to bust into the locker
room and get them out. And I'm not gonna spoil it,
(07:07):
but let's just say they are faced at halftime with
the choice do we escape during this game or do
we go back on that field and try and beat
the Nazis at soccer?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Uh? You escape.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
It's unequivocal, great, great movie, one of the great sports movies.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
It sounds like it was remade as The Longest Yard.
Isn't that kind of like the plot of that too?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Hmmm? I mean no, it wasn't like a remake. But
The Longest Yard was That was the Burt Reynolds football
movie about prison Adam game. Yeah, well, then remade again
by Adam Sandler. But I don't think there was an
escape thing in the Longest Yard? Was there?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That's what I thought. That's why I said that. I
thought there might be, But maybe I just put that
in there to entertain myself because I was bored.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
It's been it's been. Thanks a lot. Appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
No, no, no, I mean with the movie, not with
your anecdote.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Oh okay, no, I don't think there was, unless I'm wrong.
I think Along as Yar was just about a football game.
But I may be wrong. It's been a minute.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Okay, Well, this conversations boring. Let's move on.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Still unplays a goalkeeper?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Does he really?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
True? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Does he take one in the face?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Uh? Well, they had to teach him. He wasn't very
good at it, but they needed him on the escape team.
So he was not the most gifted goalkeeper. But they
had Pele, and they had all these other English football
stars from the time that I didn't know about. But
my friend Justin's like, oh that was Bobby's something something
and whatever.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I hadn't realized Pele had been a pow.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Oh my god, we just stop.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Well, wait a minute, wait a minut. Before we stop,
we have to say that. In addition to those like basketball, handball,
track and field, that kind of stuff, they actually held
cultural events as part of the Olympic competitions at Woldenburg
in nineteen forty four for like sculpture and painting and chess,
(09:03):
and you would just normally think like, okay, they were
just trying to round some stuff out. Maybe they were
trying to replace the javelin event with something else, so
they came up in chess. No. From nineteen twelve to
nineteen fifty two, the Olympics awarded one hundred and fifty
one medals to original works in the fine arts. Like
you you could go see a sculpture exhibit and a
(09:27):
long jump competition in the same place, maybe even during
that fifty years or forty years, you can see a
sculpture battle, a sculpt off.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, I had no idea, So that was sort of
on My big one takeaway out of this whole thing
was that they actually, for four decades gave out Olympic
medals in the arts. Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
It is very cool. Its a surprising little factoid that
I had not expected to learn from this one.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah. That, and that Pele was a POW in nineteen
eighty three or whatever.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Right, So hats off to everybody who participated in Olympics
and Pow camps. It is kind of the triumph of
the human spirit. You know what, I mean totally like
the purest form of Olympic competition. That's right, And I
guess since Chuck is agreeing with me, then we should
just go ahead and say this short stuff is out.
(10:23):
Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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