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Speaker 1: Hey there, history fans, We're taking the day off, but

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Speaker 1: don't worry. We've got plenty of classic shows to tide

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Speaker 1: you over. Please enjoy these flashback episodes from the TDI

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Speaker 1: HC Vault. Hello, and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that uncovers a little bit more about history

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Speaker 1: every day. I'm Gabe Luzier, and today we're reflecting on

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Speaker 1: one of the many despicable practices utilized by Nazi Germany

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Speaker 1: during World War II. After the day was September one,

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, the Nazi regime ordered all Jews in

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Speaker 1: Germany over the age of six to publicly identify themselves

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Speaker 1: by wearing a yellow star. The decree was made in

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Speaker 1: accordance with Nazi racial laws, which falsely claimed that Jewish

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Speaker 1: identity was a matter of biological inheritance. Anyone caught without

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Speaker 1: this so called Jewish badge was liable to be punished,

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Speaker 1: either with fines, imprisonment, or even execution. Of course, wearing

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Speaker 1: the badge was no guarantee of safety either, since it

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Speaker 1: effectively put a target on the wearer's back. The decree

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Speaker 1: was intended to make it easier for officers of the

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Speaker 1: Third Reich to identify, track and control German Jews. Its

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Speaker 1: secondary purpose was to inflict a sense of isolation on

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Speaker 1: Jewish families, to make them feel embarrassed and alone, outcasts

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Speaker 1: within their own country. On both counts, the dehumanizing badges

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Speaker 1: proved all too effective. This specific form of persecution is

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Speaker 1: closely associated with the Nazis, but they actually weren't the

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Speaker 1: first to employ it. In Baghdad, Jewish residents were forced

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Speaker 1: to wear identifying badges in the ninth and tenth centuries,

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Speaker 1: and in Europe, the first record of the practice dates

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Speaker 1: back to the thirteenth century, when Jews were legally compelled

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Speaker 1: to wear pointed hats to distinguish themselves from the rest

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Speaker 1: of the population. Similar laws were enforced throughout Europe for

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Speaker 1: the next three hundred years, but by the seventeenth and

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Speaker 1: eighteenth centuries the practice had mostly fallen out of favour,

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Speaker 1: that is, until the Nazis revived it to aid in

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Speaker 1: their holocaust. In May of nineteen thirty eight, Nazi propaganda

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Speaker 1: minister Josef Gerbels became the first to suggest a quote

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Speaker 1: general distinguishing mark for German Jews. The idea was raised

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Speaker 1: again six months later by security police chief Reinhardt Heidrich,

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Speaker 1: but in both cases the proposals were rejected for fear

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Speaker 1: that identifying Jews with badges would result in the creation

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Speaker 1: of ghettos in German cities. Of course, in the years

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Speaker 1: to come, the Nazis would eventually embrace both practices. The

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Speaker 1: first European Jews required to wear badges were those living

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Speaker 1: in German occupied Poland. In November of nineteen thirty nine,

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Speaker 1: local governments there began instituting the practice, and within a month,

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Speaker 1: every Jewish resident over the age of twelve was forced

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Speaker 1: to wear a white armband emblazoned with a blue star

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Speaker 1: of David. From there, similar laws were gradually adopted by

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Speaker 1: other German occupied countries and eventually by Germany itself. On

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Speaker 1: September one, nineteen forty one, Reinhardt Heidrich finally got his wish.

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Speaker 1: He commanded that all Jews over six years of age

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Speaker 1: must wear a yellow star of David on their outer

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Speaker 1: layer of clothing at all times. The six sided stars

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Speaker 1: were to be four inches long and worn on both

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Speaker 1: the left side of the chest and on the back.

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Speaker 1: The word Jew was to be inscribed in the center

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Speaker 1: of the star. This was Heydrich's way of ensuring what

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Speaker 1: he described as quote the control of the jew through

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Speaker 1: the watchful eye of the whole population. His order applied

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Speaker 1: to Jewish residents not only in the Reich, but in Alzas,

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Speaker 1: in Bohemia, Moravia, and in the German annexed region of

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Speaker 1: Western Poland. Forgetting or refusing to comply with the order

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Speaker 1: could easily result in death, so those affected had to

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Speaker 1: scramble to fashion the badges from whatever materials they could find.

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Speaker 1: As a result, the stars can look drastically different. Some

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Speaker 1: were hand stitched, while others were sown by machine. Heidrich's

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Speaker 1: decree filled in the gaps left by earlier orders, extending

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Speaker 1: the public labeling of Jews to nearly every corner of

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Speaker 1: Europe under Nazi control. Belgium and the Netherlands followed suit

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Speaker 1: in the spring of nineteen forty two, and most parts

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Speaker 1: of fan Pants imposed the badges not long after. In

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Speaker 1: March of nineteen forty four, Hungary became the final country

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Speaker 1: to require the wearing of badges. One notable holdout to

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Speaker 1: the policy was the nation of Denmark, where Jewish badges

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Speaker 1: were never introduced due to the danes vocal opposition to

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Speaker 1: anti Jewish measures. There's a popular legend that Danish King

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Speaker 1: Christian tenth wore a yellow star in solidarity with the

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Speaker 1: Jewish population. However, there was no need for him to

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Speaker 1: do so, as German occupiers never tried to introduce the

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Speaker 1: star to Denmark. That said, the king did make clear

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Speaker 1: his feelings on the matter, saying quote, if the Jews

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Speaker 1: are forced to wear the yellow star, I and my

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Speaker 1: whole family shall wear it as a badge of honor.

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Speaker 1: The German government's use of identifying badges was just one

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Speaker 1: of many craven tactics employed to stigmatize, humiliate, and segregate

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Speaker 1: the Jewish people. The yellow stars and other such markings

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Speaker 1: made it easier to separate these supposedly inferior citizens from

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Speaker 1: the rest of society, effectively paving the way for their

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Speaker 1: eventual deportation and systematic murder. Many of those badges survived

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Speaker 1: the Holocaust and now reside in the homes of Jewish

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Speaker 1: families and in museums throughout the world. They were intended

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Speaker 1: as symbols of shame for those who wore them, but

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Speaker 1: today they are reminders of the resilience and courage of

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Speaker 1: the millions who suffered and died under a hateful regime.

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Speaker 1: The only shame the yellow badges represent belongs to the

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Speaker 1: people who forced other human beings to wear them, and

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Speaker 1: to those who looked the other way as it happened.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabelusier and hopefully you now know a little more

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Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. If you have

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Speaker 1: a second and you're so inclined, please follow the show

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show. You

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Speaker 1: can also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or you can write to me directly at this Day

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Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing

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Speaker 1: the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another Day in History Class.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that tallies the gains and losses of everyday history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode, we're talking about

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Speaker 1: a true crime farce from the early days of American history,

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Speaker 1: the time when a wrongfully accused man was able to

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Speaker 1: reclaim his good name thanks to a comical misstep by

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Speaker 1: a not quite criminal mastermind. The day was September two,

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Speaker 1: seventeen ninety eight, over one hundred and sixty thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: was stolen from the Bank of Pennsylvania at Carpenter's Hall,

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Speaker 1: marking the first recorded bank heist in American history. The

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Speaker 1: theft occurred early that morning and had all the telltale

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Speaker 1: signs of an inside job. There was no evidence of

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Speaker 1: forced entry, not on the doors of the building nor

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Speaker 1: on the vault itself. That technically made the crime a

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Speaker 1: burglary rather than a robbery, as the latter involves the

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Speaker 1: use or threat of force and intimidation, whereas a burglary

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Speaker 1: is merely theft by unlawful entry. But whatever you call it,

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Speaker 1: the crime was a big deal. After all, nothing like

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Speaker 1: it had ever happened in the country before. Carpenter's Hall

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Speaker 1: was constructed in seventeen seventy by the Carpenter's Company, the

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Speaker 1: oldest craft guild in the United States. In seventeen seventy four,

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Speaker 1: the building served as the meeting place for the First

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Speaker 1: Continental Congress, and it was later home to the Philadelphia Library,

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Speaker 1: as well as the First and Second Banks of the

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Speaker 1: United States. Banking institutions were especially attracted to the hall

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Speaker 1: as its solid construction provided a safe place to operate

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Speaker 1: while they put up their own buildings. In seventeen ninety eight,

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Speaker 1: the building's latest tenant was the Bank of Pennsylvania. In

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Speaker 1: August of that year, the bank was in the process

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Speaker 1: of moving in, but first it needed to make a

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Speaker 1: few changes to make the building more secure. First, and foremost,

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Speaker 1: the doors of the vault had to be upgraded, and

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Speaker 1: to do that the bank hired the services of a

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Speaker 1: local black bas smith named Patrick Leon. The twenty nine

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Speaker 1: year old Scottish born craftsman had emigrated from London five

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Speaker 1: years earlier. He worked as a journeyman until seventeen ninety seven,

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Speaker 1: at which point he established his own shop in Philadelphia,

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Speaker 1: which at the time was the nation's capital. Leon had

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Speaker 1: been hired by Samuel Robinson, the man in charge of

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Speaker 1: overseeing the bank's move into Carpenter's Hall. One day, the

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Speaker 1: blacksmith was hard at work on the new vault doors

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Speaker 1: in his shop when Robinson stopped by with a carpenter

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Speaker 1: whom Leon had never met before. According to a later

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Speaker 1: account by Lyon, the stranger seemed to take a special

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Speaker 1: interest in the vault's locking system, but since he was

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Speaker 1: there as Robinson's guest, Leon said nothing of it. Besides,

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Speaker 1: he didn't have time to be suspicious. Philadelphia was in

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Speaker 1: the midst of a yellow fever epidemic, and Leon had

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Speaker 1: been on his way out of town when he received

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Speaker 1: the vault door rush job from the bank. More than

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Speaker 1: five thousand city residents had already contracted the disease that summer,

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Speaker 1: and nearly thirteen hundred of them would die from it.

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Speaker 1: Leon didn't want his name added to that list, so

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Speaker 1: he worked to complete the vault doors as fast as possible.

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Speaker 1: Shady visitors or not, Leon finished the job without being infected,

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Speaker 1: but the same couldn't be said for his nineteen year

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Speaker 1: old apprentice, Jamie. Once the blacksmith had delivered the doors

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Speaker 1: to the bank, he dragged his sick apprentice aboard a

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Speaker 1: ship and traveled to Lewistown, Delaware, in search of help. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: Jamie died two days after their arrival. Leon decided to

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Speaker 1: remain in Delaware for the time being until the wave

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Speaker 1: of sickness in Philadelphia had passed. While he was there,

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Speaker 1: he began hearing news of a break in at Carpenter's Hall.

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Speaker 1: The papers reported that someone had slipped into the vault

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Speaker 1: and made off with one hundred and sixty two thousand,

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Speaker 1: eight hundred and twenty one dollars in cash and Spanish gold,

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Speaker 1: the equivalent of nearly four million dollars today. The theft

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Speaker 1: had taken place just two days after Leon's departure, a

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Speaker 1: fact that made him look awfully suspicious in the eyes

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Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania police. He soon discovered he was the prime

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Speaker 1: suspect and wanted for questioning. He hastily returned to Philadelphia

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Speaker 1: in the hope of clearing his name, But try as

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Speaker 1: he might, Leon couldn't get the police to believe his story.

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Speaker 1: They arrested him on the spot and threw him into

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Speaker 1: a twelve by four foot cell in the Walnut Street Jail.

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Speaker 1: To be fair, Leon was the most obvious suspect due

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Speaker 1: to his role in upgrading the vaultdors and his immediate

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Speaker 1: flight from the city just before the heist. Authorities were

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Speaker 1: convinced he had made himself a spare key and then

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Speaker 1: returned to the city under cover of night to let

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Speaker 1: himself into the bank. Even when Leon offered proof that

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Speaker 1: he hadn't returned to fear Philadelphia until after the robbery,

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Speaker 1: authorities maintained that he was still somehow involved. The timing,

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Speaker 1: they argued was just too perfect to be coincidental. But

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Speaker 1: of course it was just a coincidence. The real culprit

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Speaker 1: turned out to be Isaac Davis, the stranger who had

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Speaker 1: visited Leone's shop in late August. Davis was a member

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Speaker 1: of the carpenter's company that owned the hall, and had

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Speaker 1: pulled off the heist with the aid of a bank

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Speaker 1: porter named Thomas Cunningham. An inside man in the most

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Speaker 1: literal sense. Cunningham had actually stayed inside the hall overnight

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Speaker 1: and then used his key to let Davis into the

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Speaker 1: vault when he arrived. The pair hadn't intended to frame

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Speaker 1: the blacksmith. That was just a happy accident, or happy

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Speaker 1: for them at least. Leon went on to spend the

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Speaker 1: next three months in police custody, desperately hoping not to

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Speaker 1: catch the yellow fever that was running rampant through the jailhouse.

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Speaker 1: Authorities had few other leads, so it's likely that Leon

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Speaker 1: would have stayed there even longer if not for a

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Speaker 1: gloriously stupid move on the part of Isaac Davis. Within

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Speaker 1: a few days of the theft, Thomas Cunningham had himself

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Speaker 1: died of yellow fever that left the entirety of the

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Speaker 1: loot in the hands of Isaac Davis. He wasn't sure

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Speaker 1: what to do with such a large sum of money,

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Speaker 1: so he just started depositing it into several different Philadelphia banks,

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Speaker 1: including the very bank he had just ripped off. It

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Speaker 1: didn't take long for bank officials to realize that Davis

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Speaker 1: had suddenly come into quite a bit of money. In fact,

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Speaker 1: when the various banks conferred with each other, they found

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Speaker 1: the deposits added up almost exactly to the amount stolen.

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Speaker 1: On September second, when Davis was questioned about where he'd

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Speaker 1: gotten so much money, he almost immediately admitted to the crime.

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Speaker 1: Soon after, the governor of Pennsylvania granted him a full

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Speaker 1: pardon in exchange for a full confession and the return

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Speaker 1: of all the money he'd stolen. Davis complied, of course,

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Speaker 1: and as a result, he didn't serve a single day

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Speaker 1: in prison. As for Patrick Leon, the man who had

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Speaker 1: nothing at all to do with the theft, he remained

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Speaker 1: in jail even after Davis's confession for three weeks. The

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Speaker 1: police continued to insist that Leon had supplied an extra

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Speaker 1: key to the vault. Finally, with no evidence to support

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Speaker 1: their accusation, and no jury willing to convict him, the

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Speaker 1: charges were dropped and at last Leon was released. It's

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Speaker 1: worth noting that two guards had been on duty outside

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Speaker 1: the bank on the night of the heist, and they

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Speaker 1: had also been jailed on suspicions. They too were eventually released,

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Speaker 1: but it's astonishing that three men were imprisoned indefinitely while

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Speaker 1: the admitted criminal walked away scott free. Patrick Leon tried

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Speaker 1: to make the best of a bad situation by writing

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Speaker 1: a tell all book about the whole messy ordeal. His

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Speaker 1: first hand account has proven invaluable to historians, as it

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Speaker 1: supplied much of the information we have about the heist today.

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Speaker 1: It also provided an unintended lesson on the importance of brevity,

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Speaker 1: as Leon gave his book a ridiculously long title. It

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Speaker 1: reads as follows the narrative of Patrick Leon, who suffered

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Speaker 1: three months severe imprisonment in Philadelphia jail on merely a

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Speaker 1: vague suspicion of being concerned in a robbery of the

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Speaker 1: Bank of Pennsylvania, with his remarks thereon quite a mouthful,

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Speaker 1: but in his defense, he was a blacksmith by trade,

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Speaker 1: not a writer. Long winded title. Aside, Leon's book actually

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Speaker 1: helped him find justice in the end, as it attracted

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Speaker 1: the attention of several prominent lawyers. With their help, Leon

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Speaker 1: was able to sue the state in eighteen oh five

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Speaker 1: for malicious prosecution and wrongful imprisonment. In the end, the

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Speaker 1: jury took his side and awarded him twelve thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: in damages. That ruling was appealed by the defense, but

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Speaker 1: was settled out of court with Lyon for nine thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars before the second trial could begin. That reduced award

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Speaker 1: was still a very tidy sum in those days, representing

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Speaker 1: several years worth of wages for a tradesman. The money

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Speaker 1: allowed Leon to start his own business, manufacturing hand pumped

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Speaker 1: fire engines. The venture proved quite successful, and by all accounts,

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Speaker 1: he was able to live the rest of his life

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Speaker 1: with all wants provided. He even managed to avoid dying

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Speaker 1: of yellow fever. Way to go, Pat, I'm Gaybelusier and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than he did yesterday. He can learn even more about

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Speaker 1: history by following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: TDI HC Show and if you have any comments or suggestions,

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Speaker 1: you can always send them my way at this day

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Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing

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Speaker 1: the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you back here again soon for another day in History

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Speaker 1: class