Stalag Luft 3 POW Camp

ZAGAN, Poland – Soldiers with the U.S. Army Garrison Poland took a trip through time during a visit to an installation used to house World War II prisoners of war. During the experience, they recounted the steps taken by their brothers in arms as they tunneled their way to freedom.

In a place where military history goes back thousands of years, Stalag Luft 3 and Stalag VIII C need few introductions. They were prisoner of war (POW) camps run by the Germans in Sagan (now Zagan, Poland) during World War II (WWII), made famous in the 1960’s Hollywood film “The Great Escape”.

These POW camps mainly housed Allied aircrew’s shot down during the war. At the peak, the camps held around 11,000 service members from several countries including Poland. About 100 miles south-east of Berlin and spanning approximately 60 acres in size, there were close to 7,500 U.S. Army prisoners, 2,500 Royal Air Force prisoners, and around 900 officers from other Allied countries.

The prisoners were incarcerated after being interrogated by the Luftwaffe who operated the camps.

On the night of March 24, 1944, 76 prisoners of Stalag Luft III escaped through a 111-yard-long tunnel code named “Harry.” Within days, most were recaptured. Outraged by the incident, Hitler ordered 50 of them to be shot in violation of the Geneva Convention. Twenty-three were reincarcerated. Only three made it all the way to freedom—a Dutchman and two Norwegians, which were all part of the British Royal Air Force.

Today, at the Muzeum Obozow Jenieckich, there is a visitors center with artifacts from the camps, recreations of guard towers and barracks built in the exact dimension the prisoners lived in. Visitors can also try their hand at traveling down a replica tunnel and see a memorial in the area the actual tunnel existed.