THE GREAT ESCAPE

"Locked behind barbed wire, the men who lived The Great Escape tunneled their way toward freedom with nothing but guts, perseverance and ingenuity. With only their bare hands and the crudest of homemade tools, they sank shafts, built underground railroads, forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes. They developed a fantastic security system to protect themselves from the German "ferrets" who prowled the compounds with nerve-wracking tenacity and suspicion. It was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than 600 men -- every single one of them, every minute, every hour, every day and every night for more than a year. Never has the human capacity been stretched to such incredible lengths or shown with as much determination and courage." -- Producer - Director John Sturges.

Here is the story of the real 'Great Escape'.

George Harsh, an American who was part of it all, said in his introduction to Paul Brickhill's book."It is the story of achievement against impossible odds..... And it proves something that I believed then and know now -- there is nothing that can stop a group of men, regardless of race, creed, color, or nationality, from achieving a goal once they agree as to what that goal is. The aftermath may be sheer, stark tragedy -- that lies with the gods -- but the point is, men working together can accomplish anything . . . In one magnificent gesture the seventy-six ragged, verminous men of all nationalities who climbed out of that stinking hole in the ground in Silesia on that windy March night in 1944 thumbed their collective nose at the entire Third Reich and all it stood for. They triumphed, through the only means left to them, over an idea that was rotten from the core out."

THE GREAT ESCAPE is one of five films on this site that cover the tumultuous years of the Second World War. The others are Patton, Bridge on the River Kwai, Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. They are part of the larger History in Film web site that supports teaching history using popular films. It includes films from Rome up to the war in Vietnam.

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Teacher Notes

If you're a teacher who is interested in using this film and you would like these pages to edit and print as your own, they are all available here as Rich Text Format files in one relatively small WinZip package. Alternatively, if you only want a few of the files, each page has a download link for that RTF WinZip file alone (usually 3 or 4 K). If you would like the short answer essay test that accompanies this film, please E-mail me at the mail box below. I'd be glad to send it back to you.

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