WW II Escape Films

Fiction - Escaping from a German POW camp. Not a very well known film and not yet available on DVD. I've never seen it.

Fiction - Plot summary from IMDb: "In 1943, an Italian-administered POW camp for captured Allies goes through a series of failed escapes only to culminate in a daring plan for a literally-dramatic mass escape."

Fiction - I don't know much about this film, except from the IMDb plot descriptions. Seems like fictional escapes from a real WW II POW camp in Poland. It may be more about a romance involved than the actual escape.

Truthful - Not a very well known film, but it's an interesting depiction of multi-national cooperation in escaping the Germans. Colditz is a castle in former East Germany, about 20 miles SE of Liepzig. During the war it was a POW camp, but no escapes. Americans freed the POWs in 1945, but then gave up the town to the Soviets under the Yalta agreement.

Fiction - This is a comedy about a fictional escape from a POW camp in Germany.

Fiction - An uplifting story of surviving in a German POW camp. They receive counsel from a soldier priest who gives them moral strength to survive and find a way out.

Truthful - This film shows the escape of Jews from a labor camp in eastern Poland in 1943. It was the largest escape from a German concentration camp in WW II. The camp was closed shortly after the escape, partly because there were no more prisoners, but also due to the horrors committed against the Jews at the camp. The film does not dwell on the horrors, but dwells on the escape.

Truthful - Probably the best known of all the WW II escape films. Starring Steve McQueen, the film shows the planning and tunneling out of the POW camp. It shows that the tunnel actually ended up being just short of the trees they had planned on reaching. The escape is from Stalag Luft III in SW Poland, 24 March 1944.

Truthful - A sort of followup of the famous Steve McQueen film. This film depicts the escape more truthfully than the original film, but also shows the postwar investigation of the Gestapo members who killed the 50 escapees.

Truthful - This film shows the escape of the American POWs from a Japanese POW camp. These particular POWs were those who survived the Bataan Death March in 1942 after the Japanese captured the Philippines. The film shows how the POWs were rescued from the Japanese camp in January 1945.

Truthful - The film shows the real life story of Gladys Aylward, English missionary in China. It's an exception to my criteria of this list, in that the escape does not involve a POW camp. But it's such a great story, include it here.

For China WW II started in 1937 with the Japanese invasion of China. In 1938 as Japanese forces threatened the orphanage that Aylward was managing, she led the children to safety. In my opinion this was Ingrid Bergman's greatest role, depicting Aylward.

Fiction - This is a story of German POWs in a prison camp in Scotland and their attempted escape. Their escape is suspected, so a tough Capt. Connor (portrayed by Brian Keith) is called in to deal with it.

Truthful - This is the real life story of Franz von Werra (portrayed by Hardy Kruger), the only German POW to escape from Canada all the way back to Germany. One can imagine the difficulty involved in escaping across the Atlantic back to Germany. After several unsuccessful escape attempts in England, Werra was sent to a POW camp in Canada in January 1941. On the way in Canada Werra escapes a train to the United States. Since the United States was not yet in the war, Werra manages to travel through the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and back to Germany. Hitler of course made the most of the incident, awarding Werra the Iron Cross. I have not seen this film, but it looks very interesting, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Truthful - An actual story of a fellow who escaped several times and was purposely recaptured as he sent info back to the Allies in England. According to the IMDb plot summary, he was a British soldier, who was awarded the Nazi Iron Cross in the process of his escapades.

Fiction - An interesting story of Sgt Sefton (portrayed by William Holden), who is accused by his fellow POWs of giving information to the Germans about escape attempts. So in order for Sefton to clear his name, he must find out the real informer. Then he has to make his own escape. I have not seen this film, but I really like William Holden, so will look for it.

Fiction - A comedy of older POWs in a German camp. They manage to switch places with the German guards and officers and start running the camp with the Germans being the prisoners. I have not seen this film. It is not well known. Being a comedy, it reminds me of Hogan's Heroes.

Truthful - Based on the plot summaries at IMDb, this film depicts a sort of spiritual escape from harsh Japanese treatment by British prisoners earning the respect of their Japanese captors. It seems there is no physical escape, only a spiritual escape, and being a spiritual individual, I've included it herein.

The film also reminds me of another WW II film, "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) (not an escape film), also showing British soldiers building a railroad for the Japanese in the Southeast Asian jungle.

Truthful - Real story of an American, Varian Fry (portrayed by William Hurt), who aids the escape of Jews from Vichy France. Fry was an American journalist living in the USA and went to France specifically to aid the Jews. He is helped in this effort by Miriam Davenport (portrayed by Julia Ormond, a favorite actress of mine), another American in France since the start of the war. Together they helped thousands of Jews from all over Europe escape through France to Spain and on to the United States from 1940 to 1942.

Fiction - A great story of a soccer team competing with Germans in Paris. Allies, playing soccer in a German POW camp, are challenged to a match in a huge stadium in Paris (Colombes Stadium, about 1500 feet from the Seine, but the stadium used in the film is located in Budapest). If you get a chance to see this film, be certain to watch it all the way to the end to see the actual escape. The players are heroic and the actual escape is a great tribute to the masses of people. Sylvester Stallone plays an American on the team who knows very little about soccer, but makes a great goalie. Michael Caine stars as the captain of the team and works with Max von Sydow, portraying a German officer in the POW camp, to get the game to happen. You really have to see the actual escape. It's amazing, even if it is fiction.

Fiction - A story of British & American prisoners in an Italian POW camp just as the Allies have conquered Sicily. Frank Sinatra stars as American pilot, Colonel Ryan. He gains the moniker "von Ryan" from British Major Fincham (portrayed by Trevor Howard) for exposing escape intentions to the Italian guards. Ryan, aka von Ryan, did this to get medicine, food and clothing for the prisoners, justifying the exposure by the belief that the American forces would rescue them in a few weeks. The Italian guards abandon the POW camp as the Americans are marching north through Italy. As Italy has surrendered to the Allies, Germans quickly recapture the prisoners and plan to take them by train to Austria. So the Allied prisoners take over the train and have to maneuver their escape.

Truthful - This film depcits an escape from Stalag Luft III in SW Poland, October 1943 (same camp as The Great Escape -1963). I have not seen this film, so the significance of the wooden horse is not clear to me. But evidently there was a wooden horse involved in the escape, and it was small enough for a man to carry.