Welcome to AirNenky's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm

and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

History is full of daring escapes and near misses.

One of the most famous involved in 1944 mass escape of Allied soldiers from a German POW

camp.

The story eventually became the subject of a book by one of the Royal Australian Air Force

pilots imprisoned there.

It was then adapted into a film in 1963 starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough.

The great escape is remembered today as a cinema classic.

A similar event occurred 80 years prior during the Civil War.

Hundreds of Union officers were being held at Libby Prison in Virginia, a Confederate

prison where captives faced dismal living conditions.

There wasn't enough food, disease, ran rampant, and many men were crammed into cells, shoulder-to-shoulder.

The prisoners dug a tunnel for months, carving through the bricks behind the kitchen stove.

On February 9th, they got their chance.

109 Union prisoners of war crawled dozens of feet through the darkness, rats scurrying

around them until they were able to breathe the fresh air of freedom.

Though almost 50 were caught in the following days, about 60 made it back to Union lines,

...