The Great Escape murders: The Nazi slaughter of escaped heroes

Daily Mail ^ | 3rd March 2013 | SIMON READ

[the scotsman]

'Immortalised in the film The Great Escape, the mass breakout from PoW camp Stalag Luft III on March 24-25, 1944, was swiftly followed by terrible retribution – the cold-blooded murder of 50 recaptured prisoners, on Hitler’s direct orders.'

[robowombat]

Interestingly at the officer level at any rate there was already in 1945 a clear understanding of what was going to happen when the Reich finally crumbled. US forces reached a stop line about a 100 miles east of the zonal boundaries agreed upon at Yalta in late April. German units were still fighting a very big war to the east with the Soviets right up until the surrender was officially promulgated. In at least the 17th Airborne division it was openly permitted for German units to cross division boundaries and load up on munitions, from overrun German ammo dumps, and head back to resupply units still locked in combat with the Russians. MG Miley made no bones of his detestation of the Soviets and that he believed the US would soon be in some sort of war with them and the Germans (at least a lot of them) would be on our side in that conflict. He was not the only officer that believed that by a long shot.

[EDINVA]

One of the saddest things I remember hearing on the radio was a black American talking about how the German prisoner in VA were treated vs. native born blacks.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

After Hitler’s suicide, Doenitz continued the War against the Russians for another week, and encouraged Germans to evacuate to the West. He prolonged the War for a week to give Germans a chance to get behind the American lines. During the Battle of Berlin, a German army fought, successfully, to create an escape route for the defenders of Berlin. While the Volkssturm and Hitler-Jugend were fighting to the bitter end, the Wehrmacht was struggling to stay out of the hands of the Russians.

If the Germans had done to America what they did to the Russians, there probably wouldn’t be a blade of grass alive in Germany today.

[dfwgator]

Why everyone focuses on what the Germans did during WWII while ignoring what the Japs did, I will never understand.

Simple. The Germans filmed their atrocities, we have the images of them embedded into our conscience. The Japanese and Russians were more discreet.

[PapaBear3625]

Why everyone focuses on what the Germans did during WWII while ignoring what the Japs did, I will never understand.

The victims of the Germans had a lot more kin in Hollywood and academia than the victims of the Japanese and Russians.

[Moltke]

Very true, but those interred in Germany weren't treated too well.

Rheinwiesenlager

And after the war was over...

Forced Labor of Germans after World War II

In March 1947, an estimated 4,000,000 Germans were being used as forced labour.

Bottom line: War is hell, and losing sucks.

[dfwgator]

Germans sure as hell were better off after the war than the Poles were. Germany got the Marshall Plan, Poland got the Marshall Stalin Plan.

[drjimmy]

If you want to read about being a POW of the Japanese, check out “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.” It’s the story of Louis Zamperini, a distance runner who was in the Berlin Olympics and had his hand shaken by Hitler. Later as a bombardier on a B-24 in the Pacific, his plane is shot down and he spends a harrowing 47 days adrift on a raft. When he finally reaches land and is captured by the Japanese, that’s when things really get rough for Louis.

[eartrumpet]

My dad was Army and a POW guard in the south for a while during the war. He said the Germans were no trouble. He would deliver them to local farms to help, and pick them up later. And he learned to curse fluently in German.

[Moltke]

Oops. interred = interned.

[jmacusa]

Fleps was a ''booty'' German. Persons the SS considered ''Aryan''enough to be in the SS. The SS were pure scum. Read what they did to the Belgian village of Stavelot during The Battle of the Bulge.

[Moltke]

Well, those Germans that were lucky enough to be in (West)Germany at least.

[jmacusa]

The SS also executed 85 men of the Royal Norfolk Regiment in May 1940 on the orders of SS Lieutenant Fritz Knochlein. Knochlein later had the nerve to complain that he had been ''tortured'' by his British captors. He was executed as a war criminal in 1949.

[GreyFriar]

I read that the 50 were not shot in a group as in the movie, but in sets of 1, 2 or 3, as they had been captured and then executed shortly after capture.

[GreyFriar]

I read that the 50 were not shot in a group as in the movie, but in sets of 1, 2 or 3, as they had been captured and then executed shortly after capture.

[CodeToad]

“Why God permitted satan to act through the Nazis I will never understand. God grant me wisdom in Jesus’ name”

Then you had best say a prayer to understand the liberals in this country. They are no different and desire the same things: Dead Republicans, conservatives, patriotic Americans, religious people, etc.

[yldstrk]

i won’t argue with that. I think liberals hate people.

[mc5cents]

Why God is permitting this nation to be in the grip of evil is beyond me and I have asked for wisdom to understand.

Roe v. Wade.

[zot]

Thanks for the clarification in your post # 54.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

I know but it was head and shoulders above any of the utter crap coming out of the left coast craphole today.