READING THE CARDS
During World War II one of the possessions most prized in German prison camps was a deck of playing cards. Under the Geneva Convention a prisoner was entitled to receive “recreational devices” and playing cards fell under that category. However, it wasn’t the possibility of whiling away the time that made these cards so popular. It was the possibility of escape. The U.S. Playing Card Company under the direction of the secret unit MIS-X sandwiched a map of Nazi Germany between the front and back of the cards. When soaked in water, the outer layers peeled off and revealed routes to freedom on a detailed map of Germany. What appeared to some as diversion was to others direction.
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