Don's Great Escape: Life in a German POW Camp

Don’s Great Escape is one man’s story of being in two German POW camps in WWII. Don’s plane went down over occupied France in 1943. He was captured and sent to Stalag Luft III made famous by the 1963 movie The Great Escape which chronicled the tunneling and escape efforts of the prisoners. Equally dramatic to the tunneling story is the story of evacuation of this camp later in the war. On January 28, 1945, Stalag Luft III was evacuated so the camp would not be captured by the Russians. After several days of walking in severe winter conditions and being transported by boxcars, the prisoners eventually ended up in Stalag VIIA at Moosburg where circumstances at war’s end were challenging on all levels of daily life. Don was liberated on April 29, 1945, by General Patton and his troops. His story is told by letters written home to his parents in rural Illinois.