Plenty of people around the world grew up reading the adventures of an impish monkey named Curious George. </p><p>But probably few people are aware of the incredible tale of escape made by the book character&rsquo;s creators &mdash; Margret and H.A. Rey. </p><p>The way the story goes, as German troops invaded Paris in June 1940, the Reys stashed a few precious belongings in their knapsacks and bicycle baskets, including the manuscript and illustrations from the book that became &ldquo;The Adventures of Curious George.&rdquo;</p><p>The couple&rsquo;s odyssey has been captured in an exhibit called &ldquo;Saving the Little Brown Monkey: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey,&rdquo; which will be on display from Oct. 21 to Dec. 1 at the Jewish Community Center Gallery, 5801 W. 115th St., Overland Park.</p><p>The exhibition, based on an adaptation written by Louise Borden and illustrated by Allan Drummond, features 27 framed prints. Borden will speak Nov. 4 at the Jewish Community Campus. On Nov. 17, a celebrity panel will share short stories of Curious George on the campus.</p><p>&ldquo;The story is compelling to a lot of people because it has to do with Curious George,&rdquo; said Jean Zeldin, executive director of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, which is co-sponsoring the exhibit. &ldquo;Everybody can relate to Curious George.&rdquo;</p><p>It is hoped the exhibit will educate people on what was happening at the time the story was written. </p><p>&ldquo;The Reys were really some of the fortunate ones,&rdquo; Zeldin said. &ldquo;They had South American passports. Even though they were in France when the Germans came in, they were able to get out pretty easily.&rdquo;</p><p>The Reys had been living in Brazil when they decided to go on an extended vacation to France in 1940. As the Germans invaded France, the couple fled &mdash; first by bicycle and then by train and eventually back to Brazil.</p><p>&ldquo;Fortunately, they managed to stay ahead of the Germans,&rdquo; Zeldin said. &ldquo;Curious George is a charming story. It&rsquo;s a compelling story. But there&rsquo;s a bigger background story.</p><p>&ldquo;Had they not made it out, the world might not have Curious George,&rdquo; Zeldin said. &ldquo;It makes you stop, pause and think about what other important literature would have come from the people that were murdered. And not just literature. In the fields of science and medicine also. What advances would have been made that the whole world may have benefited from?&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s a question that is impossible to answer.</p><p>But we all can imagine what was lost &mdash; all those dreams and hopes that were taken along with the victims lost in gas chambers and concentration camps.