1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:09,320 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 3 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,280 Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 6 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 7 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:38,800 Speaker 1: If you're anything like me, you spend a lot of 8 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:43,839 Speaker 1: time at museums, whether it's geology, science, arts, or general history. 9 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:46,599 Speaker 1: There are few places like a good museum for immersing 10 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,599 Speaker 1: yourself in the past. At their most cynical, they are 11 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: tax havens for rich donors, but at their best they 12 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: provide centers for culture, learning and research. If this show 13 00:00:56,880 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: has taught me anything over the years, it's that the 14 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 1: past is still very much alive in small, tangible ways, 15 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 1: because life leaves behind evidence from the fossils of the 16 00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:10,240 Speaker 1: dinosaurs to the footprints of small creatures walking through your backyard, 17 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:15,200 Speaker 1: and all that evidence requires intensive cataloging and studying from many, 18 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:18,280 Speaker 1: many people. But it's not just people who work at museums. 19 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:21,279 Speaker 1: Some of their work is done by colleagues that aren't 20 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: exactly human. I'd like to introduce you to the strangest 21 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,679 Speaker 1: employee of many natural history museums, a creature called the 22 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:32,440 Speaker 1: dermisted beetle. These small bugs have been part of museum 23 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:35,720 Speaker 1: preservation for over a century, and their function is a 24 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:39,680 Speaker 1: delicate one. You see, animal bones can be incredibly fragile, 25 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:42,720 Speaker 1: and cleaning them with man made tools would likely damage 26 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:46,479 Speaker 1: or destroy precious specimens. It's possible to use boiling water 27 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:49,960 Speaker 1: to clean individual bones, but it's a labor intensive process 28 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 1: and it contains many opportunities for human error. So what 29 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:57,480 Speaker 1: museums do is unleash a small army of dermistids on 30 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:00,400 Speaker 1: animal carcasses and let them do the work for them. 31 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: Both larvae and fully grown beetles eat the flesh from 32 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:07,280 Speaker 1: the bones until they're spotless and ready to exhibit. It's 33 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,920 Speaker 1: the larvae that are particularly effective, leaving even these smallest 34 00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:14,560 Speaker 1: bones without a scratch on them. It's not a perfect process, 35 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:18,079 Speaker 1: and sometimes museum employees need to use tricks to entice 36 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:20,919 Speaker 1: the creatures to feed on these animal parts, and these 37 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:25,559 Speaker 1: tricks include drying out animal carcasses or painting less appetizing 38 00:02:25,639 --> 00:02:29,680 Speaker 1: meat with things like bacon grease. Now, it's not definitively 39 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,600 Speaker 1: known where this practice started, but some theorized that the 40 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:35,720 Speaker 1: first dermisted beetles used in a museum were in Kansas 41 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:37,640 Speaker 1: University in eighteen ninety five. 42 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:39,000 Speaker 2: There they were. 43 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:41,520 Speaker 1: Employed by a man named Charles Dean Bunker to clean 44 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: full skeletons for study. But given how widespread the practice 45 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,000 Speaker 1: has become, it's very possible that Bunker was not the 46 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:51,400 Speaker 1: first man to attempt using bugs to clean bones. What 47 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:55,240 Speaker 1: makes dermisted beetles especially useful is that they're surprisingly picky 48 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,119 Speaker 1: eaters for what they do. They won't touch anything that's 49 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:01,560 Speaker 1: been preserved like fur, feathers or organs, and they also 50 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: don't touch anything that's been treated with formaldehyde. Therefore, the 51 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 1: chances of them damaging completed exhibit pieces is very low. 52 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:13,080 Speaker 1: In the wild, Dermistid beetles are a little bit more problematic, though. 53 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:16,680 Speaker 1: They appear wherever there is carrion, and sometimes they appear 54 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 1: in places where there is no carrion at all. Certain 55 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,400 Speaker 1: strains of dermistids are fond of violin strings, causing stress 56 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:26,720 Speaker 1: to musicians all over the world. They're called bow beetles, 57 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: nesting on the strings that are made with animal guts. 58 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:32,959 Speaker 1: The regularity with which they appear on dead bodies left 59 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 1: in nature proves useful in forensics too. When a decomposing 60 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:40,200 Speaker 1: human body is found in the wilderness, forensic analysts can 61 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:42,680 Speaker 1: use the life cycle of the beetles as a way 62 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 1: of determining the time of death. It's easy to write 63 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:50,600 Speaker 1: certain creatures off as parasites, particularly insects like dermisted beetles 64 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: that nest in rotten corpses, moldy wood, roadkill, and rank 65 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 1: animal flesh. But as we continue to study the ways 66 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:01,960 Speaker 1: the natural world works, worth remembering that even the gross 67 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:05,960 Speaker 1: little insects have a role to play, and sometimes they 68 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 1: can be the most curious of lab assistance. The three 69 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:25,960 Speaker 1: British airmen had seen miracles in the past few days. 70 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,279 Speaker 1: Their plane had been forced to land in Nazi occupied Belgium, 71 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:32,360 Speaker 1: but they had narrowly avoided capture by the Germans. They 72 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:35,800 Speaker 1: somehow lucked their way into a Belgian underground safehouse, and 73 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 1: now they were being told that a fearless secret operative 74 00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:42,400 Speaker 1: was coming to lead them home. As she entered the room, 75 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: though the tired airmen thought that she looked like one 76 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: miracle too many. They listened in stun silence as a diminutive, 77 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:52,040 Speaker 1: dark haired young woman explained that she was now their mother, 78 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:54,120 Speaker 1: and as their mother, it was her job to get 79 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: all three of them to safety in Spain. She left 80 00:04:56,920 --> 00:04:58,839 Speaker 1: and it was a while before one of the airmen 81 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,320 Speaker 1: broke the silence. Our lives are going to depend on 82 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 1: a schoolgirl. Small and young as she was, Andre DeJong 83 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: was no schoolgirl. In fact, the twenty four year old 84 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 1: was the leader of the Comet Line, a secret five 85 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:16,599 Speaker 1: hundred mile underground path from Nazi occupied Belgium to freedom 86 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:20,400 Speaker 1: in Spain. Andrea was born in Belgium in nineteen sixteen, 87 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:22,599 Speaker 1: and from a young age she knew that she wanted 88 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: to help her people. Her hero was Edith Cavell, a 89 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:28,640 Speaker 1: nurse who had helped hundreds of Allied soldiers escaped German 90 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:31,479 Speaker 1: camps during World War One. So it only followed that 91 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 1: when Germany began to invade Belgium in nineteen forty, Andre 92 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:37,839 Speaker 1: jumped right in to help. She joined the Red Cross 93 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:40,920 Speaker 1: as a nurse helping captured Allied soldiers, but her real 94 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:43,880 Speaker 1: work was with the Belgian resistance. She started by bringing 95 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,360 Speaker 1: British soldiers captured at Dunkirk to safe houses and getting 96 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:50,840 Speaker 1: them disguises and fake IDs, while the soldiers were safe 97 00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:53,200 Speaker 1: for the time being, getting them back home was a 98 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:55,960 Speaker 1: whole other challenge, but Andrea was determined to live up 99 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:58,800 Speaker 1: to her hero Edith, and soon enough she and a 100 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:02,040 Speaker 1: few like minded friends came up with the plan. They 101 00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:05,560 Speaker 1: would lead small groups of soldiers in disguise through the countryside, 102 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:10,520 Speaker 1: taking trains, buses, even walking through fields. They'd identified sympathetic 103 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:13,800 Speaker 1: citizens and they would use homes as safe houses, and 104 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:16,919 Speaker 1: with extreme care, they would lead the soldiers five hundred 105 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:20,480 Speaker 1: miles through France, cross the Pyrenees and get them to Spain. 106 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:23,719 Speaker 1: They'd bring the soldiers to the British embassy in Bilbao, 107 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:26,360 Speaker 1: and the British could get them to the British owned 108 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,279 Speaker 1: Gibraltar at the southern tip of Spain, and from there 109 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:32,320 Speaker 1: they could safely be ferried or flown home. Through trial 110 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:34,640 Speaker 1: and error, Andrea and her friends soon found that this 111 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:37,839 Speaker 1: was easier said than done. To avoid German patrols, they 112 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:41,080 Speaker 1: had to travel miles out of their way. Several conspirators 113 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 1: were captured, killed, or sent to concentration camps, including Andre's 114 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:47,760 Speaker 1: own father, and it was a hard task to feed, 115 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:51,120 Speaker 1: cloth and keep captured soldiers healthy on the long march 116 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:54,520 Speaker 1: to Spain, Andre famously told many of the soldiers that 117 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:56,760 Speaker 1: they would be lucky to get through it without being 118 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:00,920 Speaker 1: captured or even dying. Despite all this, though, Andre's escape 119 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:03,600 Speaker 1: route gained a reputation for being the quickest way home, 120 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:07,279 Speaker 1: which gained the nickname the Comet Line. For two whole years, 121 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:11,000 Speaker 1: Andre herself led dozens of expeditions to the British consulate 122 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:15,000 Speaker 1: in Bilbao and personally saved one hundred and eighteen Allied 123 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:18,880 Speaker 1: soldiers with each successful mission. Andre was also able to 124 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:22,400 Speaker 1: smuggle information back to the Belgian resistance, but the Comet 125 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:25,240 Speaker 1: Line came crashing to the ground in January of nineteen 126 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:29,240 Speaker 1: forty three, when Andrea was betrayed. She had arrived in 127 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,040 Speaker 1: a French Basque town just over the border from Spain. 128 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:34,600 Speaker 1: She and three British airmen planned to spend the night 129 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:36,960 Speaker 1: in a safe house and crossed the border in the morning, 130 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:39,880 Speaker 1: but the group was spotted by a neighbor who alerted 131 00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:43,400 Speaker 1: the German authorities. Andrea and the soldiers were captured and 132 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:47,680 Speaker 1: sent to concentration camps. But Andrea's small size and unassuming 133 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:51,360 Speaker 1: looks saved her once again. While being questioned at Ravensbrook 134 00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:54,680 Speaker 1: concentration camp. The Gestapo refused to believe her when she 135 00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:57,480 Speaker 1: admitted that she was the organizer of the Comet Line. 136 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:00,480 Speaker 1: They sent her into the general population of the camp, 137 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 1: where she mixed in with the other hundreds of small, 138 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:06,680 Speaker 1: malnourished prisoners. By the time the Germans realized that she 139 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,120 Speaker 1: had been telling the truth, they were unable to figure 140 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:12,200 Speaker 1: out which of the prisoners was her. Even with their 141 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:15,280 Speaker 1: leader captured, though the Commet Line continued to ferry another 142 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:19,120 Speaker 1: seven hundred British soldiers to Spain. Andre DeJonge stayed at 143 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,400 Speaker 1: Ravensbrook for two years until the Allies liberated the camp 144 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 1: in April of nineteen forty five. After the war, she 145 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:29,280 Speaker 1: worked as a nurse at leper colonies in several African countries. 146 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:31,960 Speaker 1: She passed away in two thousand and seven at the 147 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:35,800 Speaker 1: age of ninety, after a long life spent helping other people. 148 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:38,560 Speaker 1: While that British airmen may have worried about such a 149 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:42,080 Speaker 1: young looking girl being the mastermind of an underground escape route, 150 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:46,240 Speaker 1: Andrea's story is a reminder that looks can be deceiving. 151 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:52,880 Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet 152 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:56,760 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 153 00:08:56,840 --> 00:09:01,839 Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosity's podcast. The show 154 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,320 Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how 155 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 156 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and 157 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:15,520 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore 158 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:19,959 Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.