Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland)
Model of the set used to film the movie The Great Escape. It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in Stalag Luft III. The model is now at the museum near where the prison camp was located.
Allied air crews, including Britons, Canadians, Poles, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, Norwegians, Czechs, South Africans, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Belgians, Greeks
Stalag Luft III (German: Stammlager Luft III; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel.
The camp was established in March 1942 near the town of Sagan, Lower Silesia, in what was then Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland), 160 km (100 mi) south-east of Berlin. The site was selected because its sandy soil made it difficult for POWs to escape by tunnelling.
It is best known for two escape plots by Allied POWs. One was in 1943 and became the basis of a fictionalised film, The Wooden Horse (1950), based on a book by escapee Eric Williams. The second breakout – the so-called Great Escape – of March 1944, was conceived by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and was authorised by the senior British officer at Stalag Luft III, Herbert Massey. A fictionalised version of the escape was depicted in the film The Great Escape (1963), which was based on a book by former prisoner Paul Brickhill. The camp was liberated by Soviet forces in January 1945. The site of the former POW camp is now the 'Stalag Luft III Prisoner Camp Museum'.[citation needed]
StalagLuftIII (German: Stammlager LuftIII; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second...
The StalagLuftIII murders were war crimes perpetrated by members of the Gestapo following the "Great Escape" of Allied prisoners of war from the German...
returned to the Lazarett (medical care facilities) at the parent stalag. StalagLuftIII, a large prisoner of war camp near Sagan, Silesia, Germany (now...
StalagLuft I was a German World War II prisoner-of-war (POW) camp near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany, for captured Allied airmen. The presence of...
prisoner of war, Parker escaping was constant. He escaped from StalagLuft I and StalagLuftIII. In May 1942, the German prison authority sent Parker to a...
StalagLuft II (German: Stammlager Luft II; literally "Main Camp, Air, II"; SL II) was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II...
Bremen, Germany. Cleven was then taken as a prisoner-of-war to StalagLuftIII and Stalag VII-A, before escaping to American lines in March 1945. During...
South African RAF aviator. He masterminded the "Great Escape" from StalagLuftIII in 1944, but was one of the 50 escapees to be recaptured and subsequently...
decorated aviator in Dutch history. In March 1944, he broke out of StalagLuftIII – a prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi Germany – during the mass break-out...
Sagan. Buckley, with all other POWs from Barth, was transferred to StalagLuftIII in April 1942. The escape organisation remained unchanged with Buckley...
including Dowse, was able to do so. In May 1942, Dowse was transferred to StalagLuftIII at Sagan with a batch of other RAF officers. Dowse's next escape attempt...
1992) was a Norwegian fighter pilot and POW in the German POW camp StalagLuftIII and one of only three men to escape to freedom in the "Great Escape"...
1939 and held in twelve different prisoner of war camps, including StalagLuftIII, later the site of the "Great Escape". As the last of the "39ers" (those...
World War. It occurred on 12 June 1943 from the North Compound of StalagLuftIII Prisoner of War Camp in Germany. The plan was masterminded by Squadron...
investigation of the SS and Gestapo men who murdered 50 escaped prisoners from StalagLuftIII in 1944, in the aftermath of what became known as the "Great Escape"...
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Nazi Germany