Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Everybody remembers the first time they learned to ride a bike.
Speaker 1: They have memories of spending their childhood in the saddle,
Speaker 1: holding those handlebars and cruising around the neighborhood. The bicycle, though,
Speaker 1: wasn't always an instrument of glory for Gino Bartali. In fact,
Speaker 1: it was just a way to get to school. Gino
Speaker 1: was born in nineteen fourteen to a working class family
Speaker 1: in a small village in Tuscany, Italy. By the time
Speaker 1: he was eleven, he needed to find a way to
Speaker 1: get to Florence every day for school. A car was
Speaker 1: out of the question, so Gino saved his money to
Speaker 1: buy his first bike. He quickly fell in love with
Speaker 1: racing through the Tuscan countryside. He started taking cycling seriously,
Speaker 1: and at the age of seventeen, in nineteen thirty one,
Speaker 1: he won his very first bike race. By his twenties,
Speaker 1: all those long bike rides across Tuscany began to pay off.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty six, at the age of twenty two,
Speaker 1: he biked twenty one days and over two thousand miles
Speaker 1: to win the Giro Detelia, the biggest bike race in Italy.
Speaker 1: His fame was immediate. Tuscans loved that they could see
Speaker 1: their champion training most days on the same country roads
Speaker 1: that they drove. He cemented his hometown hero status when
Speaker 1: he won the race again in nineteen thirty seven, and
Speaker 1: his fame grew to a fever pitch in nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: eight when he won the biggest bike race in the world,
Speaker 1: the Tour de Frontce. But despite those fans, Gino's achievement
Speaker 1: was not met with national pride. There was no hero's
Speaker 1: welcome when he came home to Italy, no ceremony or
Speaker 1: gala in his honor, Because on the national stage right
Speaker 1: as he proved the athletic might of Italians, Gino refused
Speaker 1: to dedicate his win to Benito Mussolini. Fascist dictator. Mussolini
Speaker 1: had ruled Italy for sixteen years. He had modeled his
Speaker 1: government on the Nazi Party in nearby Germany, and in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty eight, the same year as Gino's win, he
Speaker 1: signed Italy's version of the Nuremberg Laws. The freedoms of
Speaker 1: Italian Jews were severely limited, and these laws would eventually
Speaker 1: let Italy deport them to Nazi concentration camps. By refusing
Speaker 1: to dedicate his Tour de France medal to Mussolini, Gino
Speaker 1: was publicly indicating his disapproval. Over the next few years,
Speaker 1: his distaste for the fascists drove him to action. Italy
Speaker 1: entered World War II in nineteen forty, joining the Nazis
Speaker 1: against the Allies. By nineteen forty three, Mussolini had been
Speaker 1: overthrown and Germany invaded North Italy, including Gino's home province
Speaker 1: of Tuscany, and as a result, the deportation and imprisonment
Speaker 1: of Jewish people was becoming more widespread. Yet at the
Speaker 1: same time, a resistance movement was growing. A network of
Speaker 1: religious leaders, including undercover rabbis, monks, and Catholic archbishops, were
Speaker 1: looking for ways to protect Italian Jewish families from the Nazis,
Speaker 1: and it was one of these resistance members, Florentine Cardinal
Speaker 1: Elia de la Costa, who asked Bartali for help with
Speaker 1: his cover story. As a cycling champion taking cross country
Speaker 1: training rides, he was the perfect spy For the next year.
Speaker 1: Bartali rode back and forth across the countryside, transporting photographs
Speaker 1: of Jewish people to forgers, then bringing fake IDs and
Speaker 1: travel visas back to the families. He distributed funds to
Speaker 1: people in hiding, and even brought one group of refugees
Speaker 1: to the Swiss border hidden in a cart attached to
Speaker 1: his bike. At the same time, he hid a Florentine
Speaker 1: Jewish family in his basement. At first, travels weren't questioned.
Speaker 1: Even when he was stopped by Fascist police and German soldiers,
Speaker 1: he would insist that they not touch his bike, as
Speaker 1: it was perfectly calibrated for him. They agreed, and the
Speaker 1: documents hidden in his bike frame and handlebars remained undiscovered.
Speaker 1: As time went on. However, even famous cyclist Gino Bartali
Speaker 1: fell under suspicion. He was questioned in the La Villa Triste,
Speaker 1: a government building in Florence where Fascist officials tortured prisoners.
Speaker 1: Florence was finally freed of Nazi occupation on August eleventh
Speaker 1: of nineteen forty four. As the war came to an end,
Speaker 1: Gino never told anyone about what he had done for
Speaker 1: the Jewish families of Italy. Instead, he focused on training,
Speaker 1: overcoming the malnourishment he suffered during the war to win
Speaker 1: the Tour de France one last time in nineteen forty eight.
Speaker 1: After Gino died in twenty ten, his story finally came
Speaker 1: to light. In twenty thirteen, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Speaker 1: awarded him the title Righteous among the Nations, an honor
Speaker 1: he shares with Oscar Schindler and others who risked their
Speaker 1: lives to save Jewish people during the war. After his death,
Speaker 1: Gino's son told a newspaper what his father said in
Speaker 1: those rare moments that he mentioned the war. Real heroes,
Speaker 1: he said, are those who have suffered in their soul,
Speaker 1: in their heart, in their spirits, in their mind for
Speaker 1: their loved ones. Those are the real heroes. I am
Speaker 1: just a cyclist. Bertha was at her wits end. It
Speaker 1: wasn't that she didn't love her husband, or even that
Speaker 1: she didn't believe him. The problem was that Karl had
Speaker 1: lost faith in himself, and after everything that Bertha had
Speaker 1: sacrificed that was just unacceptable. For the previous fifteen years,
Speaker 1: she had devoted every ounce of energy to Carl's dreams,
Speaker 1: from using her dowry to save him from bankruptcy and
Speaker 1: managing his business to raising their children while he tinkered
Speaker 1: in his lab. She had done it all. She even
Speaker 1: served as his assistant and partner, pouring countless hours into
Speaker 1: his invention. Two years prior they had finally unveiled it
Speaker 1: to the public. Bertha had stood proudly by Carl's side
Speaker 1: during the demonstration. Now, as a married woman, her name
Speaker 1: could not legally appear on the patent application, but she
Speaker 1: still felt that this was her greatest accomplishment. Unfortunately, the
Speaker 1: public didn't agree. The unveiling received a tepid response. Carl
Speaker 1: was crushed and now believed that the business would never
Speaker 1: be profitable. Bertha had tried to lift his spirits to
Speaker 1: no avail, and she finally had enough. So one morning
Speaker 1: in early August, she woke before dawn and roused her
Speaker 1: two teenage sons the trio. Quietly opened the garage and
Speaker 1: pushed the car to the road where Carl wouldn't hear
Speaker 1: the engine start, and then they set off on their journey.
Speaker 1: A short while later, Carl woke to find the house
Speaker 1: quiet and empty. A note on the dining room table
Speaker 1: explained that Bertha had taken the boys and the car
Speaker 1: to visit her parents in Forsheim, roughly sixty five miles away,
Speaker 1: and when Carl read that, his blood ran cold. Because
Speaker 1: the year was eighteen eighty eight. Carl was Carl Ben's,
Speaker 1: creator of the world's first true automobile, and the car
Speaker 1: Bertha had just driven often was his prototype. Carl immediately
Speaker 1: flew into a panic. His invention had never been subjected
Speaker 1: to this kind of test, no gas powered vehicle ever had.
Speaker 1: The unpaved roads between Mannheim and Forsheim were designed for
Speaker 1: sturdy horses and carriages, not the flimsy tires of his
Speaker 1: three wheeled prototype, and with all the hills and uneven
Speaker 1: terrain they'd be facing, there were countless things that could
Speaker 1: go wrong. But it was too late to dissuade Bertha,
Speaker 1: and with no way of getting in touch with her,
Speaker 1: Carl was forced to wait for news. He soon learned
Speaker 1: the details of his wife's journey from the local papers,
Speaker 1: which followed the test ride with eager interest. The journey
Speaker 1: had not gone smoothly. Of course, the engine had to
Speaker 1: be doused with water every few miles to keep it
Speaker 1: from overheating, and just as Carl feared, the car kept
Speaker 1: breaking down, forcing Bertha to find increasingly inventive solutions to
Speaker 1: get it started again. When the fuel line cogged, she
Speaker 1: cleared it with her hat pin. When the brakes failed,
Speaker 1: she hired a cobbler to add leather to the pads.
Speaker 1: She bought fuel from a skeptical pharmacist, and enlisted locals
Speaker 1: to help her push the car up a steep hill.
Speaker 1: The most exciting moment, though at least as far as
Speaker 1: the male journalists were concerned, came when the vehicle's ignition
Speaker 1: cable shorted out. Bertha stripped off her garter and used
Speaker 1: the fabric to insulate the exposed wire, and despite all
Speaker 1: the obstacles, she reached foresim late that evening and telegraphed
Speaker 1: to tell Carl that she and the boys were safe.
Speaker 1: By the time she made the return trip a few
Speaker 1: days later, word of the test drive had spread around
Speaker 1: the globe. No one cared that the car had broken
Speaker 1: down several times along the way. The image of a
Speaker 1: young mother taking her children for a drive through the countryside,
Speaker 1: had captured the public consciousness, and it wasn't letting go anytime.
Speaker 1: Soon heard this plan had worked perfectly. She had proven
Speaker 1: that there was demand for her husband's invention while bringing
Speaker 1: their company all the publicity they would ever need. And
Speaker 1: she came back with something else too, a list of
Speaker 1: potential improvements inspired by her time on the road, and Carl, well,
Speaker 1: he got straight to work. I hope you've enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.