56: Extraordinary people in World War II: how did they cope with the challenges they faced?

Today’s episode comes from the Imperial War Museum, London, where we investigate: Odette, the spy; Roy and Bob’s great escape at sea; Daisy’s story of imprisonment in Hong Kong.

We are delighted to be joined by co-host Benji – and we are amazed by how he happens to find his own family history in the museum.

At the end of today’s episode (after our outro theme song), you’ll hear the questions (see below) and then the outtakes.

Here are some questions to test your listening skills:

1. Which museum were we in?

2. Who was the relative whose name Kim and Benji found embroidered (sewn) on a bedsheet from a World War II prisoner camp in Hong Kong?

3. What’s the difference between an “internee” and a “prisoner of war”?

4. What happened to Roy and Robert?

5. What role/job did Odette perform when she was parachuted into France?

6. What happened to Odette after she was arrested by Nazi forces?

For mature history lovers: read industry reviews of Dad’s World War II novels, A Chance Kill and The Slightest Chance, at paulletters.com. Available as e-books, as well as in paperback. Dad’s first wartime novel, A Chance Kill, is a love-story/thriller based on real events in Poland, Paris, London and Prague. The Slightest Chance follows the remarkable true story of the only escape from Japanese imprisonment by a Western woman during World War II.

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Podcast cover art by Molly Austin

All instrumental music is from https://filmmusic.io and composed by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)