A Big Chill

I'm not talking about propaganda or even ideology. I'm talking about how in nineteen seventy one lone housewife in Russia set off a new type of Cold War where two world powers tried to create weapons of psychic destruction. Sometime in the early nineteen seventies, tapes smuggled out of the Soviet Union made their way to the CIA. One video, recorded on March tenth of nineteen seventy quickly became an

object of fascination to the agency. The tape showed forty four year old Nina Cooliina, a housewife and former Red Army soldier, in an observation room somewhere in Leningrad. Sitting in front of her on a table was a tiny, still beating heart. The heart had been taken from a frog just minutes before and placed in a solution that would allow it to keep beating for up to an hour after death. Both Nina and the tiny heart were

wired with electrodes which recorded their heart rates. As CIA analysts watched the small, dark haired woman on the tape focused intently, to their amazement, the frog heart began to beat faster. Nina screwed up her face in concentration again, and the frog heart beat slowed, and finally, after a few minutes, Nina focused one last time, and right before the analyst's eyes, through the power of thought alone, she

stopped the frog heart cold. Dozens of tapes trickled in from across the Iron Curtain, showing Nina moving matchsticks across a table with her mind, separating egg whites from yokes, even accelerating a researcher's heartbeat to dangerous levels. And needless to say, the CIA was shocked. It seemed that the Soviets had found someone who could master ESP or extrasensory perception. You see for decades, researchers at the fringes of respectable

science had been looking into the world of ESP. Psychical researchers, as they called themselves, were bent on discovering whether humans could do extraordinary things with psychic energy, such as reading another person's thoughts, viewing a place halfway around the world, or even moving objects with their minds. With the discovery of Nina's tapes, the world of psychical research immediately went

from crackpot theories to serious, government funded science. The American government commissioned an intelligence report on what they called Soviet psycho energetic threat. When it was finished, it was a bombshell. Researchers and intelligence officials believed the Soviets were trying to develop mind control and wanted to use people with powers like Nina's to defeat their enemies. By nineteen seventy eight, the CIA began its own top secret ESP program, which

they called Stargate, hoping to spy on the Soviets. Researchers especially focused on remote viewing, or using a psychic to see inside a place on the other side of the world. They gave their subjects the coordinates of Soviet military bases and asked them to describe what they saw in some cases, the results were scarily accurate. Both countries continued psychical research for the next few decades, although as far as we know, they've yet to employ telekinesis or remote viewing as wide

scale weapons. However, sources report that military psychics were used by Russia as recently as the Chechen Wars, which ended in two thousand and nine. And as for Nina Well, she gained international note notoriety for her part in the psychic Cold War. She claimed the newspapers that she realized her powers when she was young when she noticed that things near her would move when she got angry. According to her, her mother had the same ability to fine

tune it. She began to meditate to prepare herself to concentrate intensely unmoving objects with her mind, and while she had many supporters in the military, she found even more critics once she went public with her powers. It was pointed out that many of her miraculous tricks could be

faked using sleight of hand. Not to mention, the Soviet Union had a reputation for exaggerating their victories for use in propaganda, and wouldn't you know it, Nina was caught cheating during demonstrations using magnets and tiny threads, and it was believed by some that she had faked all of her powers. Even Pravda, the official communist newspaper of the

Soviet Union, called her a fraud. In nineteen eighty seven, another magazine called her a fake, and Nina sued and won the lawsuit, and she maintained the truth of her abilities until she died in nineteen ninety. Maybe Nina really did have powers, or perhaps she was faking all along. Either way, with all the news coverage of the debate, she really did a great job of getting inside our heads.

When we think of World War II, we picture the forces of the US and Western Europe coming together unanimously to defeat the Germans. But it's easy to forget that every nation had a diverse population with different views on the war. There were Nazi sympathizers inside America, England, and France, and there was resistance to the Nazis inside Germany and Austria.

Perhaps the most colorful example of this, though, came right at the end of the war, when Americans, Germans, and the French joined together at a castle in Austria to defeat a Nazi assault. Castle. It was the Nazi version of a luxury prison located in western Austria, sandwiched between Germany and Italy. It housed French VIPs from the very

beginning of the war. Among the many who were held there were Paul Renaud, former French Prime Minister, Marie Agnes Cayu, sister of then leader of the French military Charles de Gaul,

and Tennis star Jean Buautra. As the Allies closed in on Germany and Austria in April of nineteen forty five, the guards at Castle Eiter fled, but the region was still swarming with Nazis belonging to the ESS, the most loyal and brutal organization within the German military, and the French prisoners worried that if THEESS found them trying to escape, they would kill them, and so they sent one of their own to sneak out of the castle and through

the countryside to the nearest village, where they made contact with Major Josef Gongel. Now Josef was Austrian, but he had defected from the German military recently after seeing what it had become under Hitler. He was filled with regrets over his role in helping them conquer Europe. Joseph heard about the plights of the French prisoners and immediately went on a covert mission of his own, sneaking through the countryside and making contact with a nearby American tank division.

It speaks to how late in the war this all was, that these different factions were all right there on top of each other. The combined pleas of Joseph and the French prisoner were enough to motivate at least one of

the Americans, Captain John Kerrie Lee. He was only twenty seven years old and a football player back home, and as much as his men just wanted to keep their heads down and avoid putting their lives on the line this close to German surrender, Lee knew that it would be wrong to leave the French prisoners there to die, so he rallied his men and they began to drive their tanks toward the castle. This was a process of attrition, as they had to cross several bridges into the mountains

leading to the castle. The bridges were narrow and weak, so Lee ended up leaving behind all but one of his tanks. When they finally arrived at the castle, they prepared to defend it from any SS troops who might take an interest. Lee even blocked the entrance with his tank,

and the French prisoners were determined to help. Imagine the elderly French prisoner Agnes holding a machine gun next to a young American soldier, and of course Josef also continued to assist, providing what insight he could into SS tactics. They went to bed that night, hoping that all their precautions wouldn't be needed, but as it so happened, a

lookout spotted grappling hooks on the castle walls. Just hours into his watch, the SS were on their way, and soon enough they were pouring out of the woods heading for the castle. The Americans, the French, and Joseph all stood side by side, firing machine guns down at the invading army. Lee's tank fired off shells from the front gates, blowing away any Germans who came close. But then things

took a turn for the worse. As morning arrived, German eighty millimeter guns appeared on the horizon, blowing massive holes in the side of the castle. Then one of the shells got especially lucky, striking Lee's tank. His men had just enough time to flee before it exploded into flames, and so Joseph and Lee kept moving everyone further and further into the castle. But this was a losing game.

In one last desperate gamble, they sent a volunteer, Jean the Tennis Star, to pull vault over a castle wall and sneak past the enemy lines to find help. While they waited, Paul Renaud, the elderly former Prime Minister of France, viciously fired down from a castle window, refusing to give up. Joseph, sensing that Paul was in danger, rushed forward, throwing his body in front of him. Joseph's instincts were correct, too. A sniper's bullet meant for Paul struck him in the head,

killing him instantly. He had given everything to make up for his role in the German Army, and that included his life. Just as all hope seemed lost, new arrivals appeared on the horizon. Jean the Tennis Star had been successful. He'd found a second American tank division and led them straight to the castle. He even showed up wearing one of their uniforms, and soon enough the tanks tour through

the SS, driving them away from Castle Eider. The prisoners were saved and the curious band of Americans, French and German soldiers suffered zero casualties, that is except for Joseph, who was later honored as an Austrian war hero, and just three days later, the war in Europe was over. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.

The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.