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March 24th: Anniversary Of Mass POW Escape From Stalag Luft III In 1944
March 24th is the anniversary of the mass escape of Allied POWs from Stalag Luft III, in 1944. Of the 76 men who escaped, just three made “home runs” to Allied territory. In a dastardly deed, 50 escapees who were re-captured were executed by the Wehrmacht, on orders from the highest echelons of the Nazi government.
I had the honor of meeting one of the Stalag Luft III survivors, Colonel Jerry Sage
March 24th is also the Birthday of Dr. Art Robinson. (Born in 1942.) MORE HERE
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FROM WIKIPEDIA:
The Stalag Luft III murders were war crimes perpetrated by members of the Gestapo following the “Great Escape” of Allied prisoners of war from the German Air Force prison camp known as Stalag Luft III on March 25, 1944. Of a total of 76 successful escapees, 73 were recaptured, mostly within days of the breakout, of whom 50 were executed on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. These summary executions were conducted within a short period of recapture.
Outrage at the killings was felt immediately, both in the prison camp, among comrades of the escaped prisoners, and in the United Kingdom, where the Foreign Minister Anthony Eden rose in the House of Commons to announce in June 1944 that those guilty of what the British government suspected was a war crime would be “brought to exemplary justice.” [1]
After Nazi Germany‘s capitulation in May 1945, the Police branch of the Royal Air Force, with whom the 50 airmen had been serving, launched a special investigation into the killings, having branded the shootings a war crime despite official German reports that the airmen had been shot while attempting to escape from captivity following recapture. An extensive investigation into the events following the recapture of the 73 airmen was launched, which was unique for being the only major war crime to be investigated by a single branch of any nation’s military.[2]
