Truth! British POW’s were helped by the Monopoly game!
British Secret Service, MI-5, developed a plan to send specially packaged versions of the popular board game “Monopoly” by means of the International Red Cross to prisoners of war in Germany during World War II. Agents contacted the British company who made the Monopoly game, Waddington PLC, and requested that design and manufacture silk maps to be hidden inside the games. Specially marked games were not only equipped with the hidden silk map noting safe houses for food and shelter but also included secret devices like files and a compass disguised as game pieces to aid in an escape from the POW camp and behind enemy lines. Also hidden within the play money was real German, Italian, and French currency.
