Stalag Luft III was a prisoner of war camp built in 1942 and it was directly controlled by the High Command of the Luftwaffe. It was part of the network of Zagan camps. It was the last one established in the adjacent area to Stalag VIIIC, in the East. At
first, most of the prisoners were from the British Royal Air Force and
American pilots but they were gradually arriving pilots of various
nationalities. They became a total of 10,494 prisoners.
Prisoners in a small plantation in front of the barracks.
Stalag Luft III was famous for the escape attempts. The biggest one was organized by a secret committee "X" established by the prisoners in the spring of 1943 and led by the Commander Roger Bushell. They built three tunnels, "Tom", "Dick" and "Harry". Tom was going to be the main escape tunnel, Harry and Dick the plan B in case the Germans were able to learn their plans. Tom was discovered 5 months later so they had to escape through Harry. The flight took place the night of March 24, 1944. Eighty prisoners managed to escape from the camp through the 111 meters tunnel. When it was discovered what was happening and the alarm was raised, four prisoners were caught inside the tunnel. They began an exhaustive search throughout the country and managed to hunt down another 73. Only three of the prisoners managed to escape and return to their countries. In retaliation, under direct orders of Hitler, 50 of the escapees were shot.
In 1963, this story was filmed by John Sturges with Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough, among others. If this movie fascinates you as much as me and you want to visit what remains of the Stalag here are some tips for your trip.
GETTING TO STALAG LUFT III
The Stalag Luft III is in Zagan
, a small town in southwestern Poland, where there are no tourists and no
one speaks a word of English. It's convenient that you bring a map printed, the accommodation booked if you want to stay
overnight and the transport cheked before you go. If we go through the day it is best to hire a car from any major city. It is very close to Germany, from cities such as Dresden or Berlin it can be reached in less than two hours. It
also has a train station and a bus that communicates with some cities
both Poland and Germany, but in general will have to make more than one
transfer to reach. Websites of the public transports:
- Polish railway network: http://rozklad-pkp.pl/bin/query.exe/en?
- Trains from Germany: http://www.bahn.com
- Bus company (in Polish): http://www.busportal.pl
From Wroclaw, 165km away, is easy to get Zagan by public transport. We can return the same day by train or bus:
- By train we can catch a train from the main station in Wroclaw ( Wroclaw Glówny ) to Zagan station . There are direct trains that reach Zagan in 2h 20min. If you want to return the same day you will have to check here for the trains schedule.
- By bus: there are buses from the company PKS (Żary direction) from the main bus station in Wroclaw to Zagan station (some of them has a first stop in Piłsudskiego Street). They depart at 07:40 and arrive at the Zagan station at 11:05. The ticket price is of 36.50 zlotys (about 9 euros) round. If you want to return the same day by bus, in the same station there is one bus at 17:20 that leaves you back in Wroclaw at 20:15. You can check here the route and schedule. These services may not travel every day of the week. You'll have to check in advance. Bus schedule:
