Table of Contents

Through the eye of the needle; down uncharterd roads; Dulag Luft; before the gates opened; the Kriegie's domain; the price of allegiance; home rule; the essentials; health and welfare; man to man; sustaining mind and spirit; the brighter side of life; covert activities and German countemeasures; escape - the binding thread; on the outside looking in; evacuation; liberation. Appendix: a history of prisoners of war.

Reviews

Stalag Luft III, a POW center in Germany, will be familiar to readers who remember the film The Great Escape. Historian Durand here writes a comprehensive history of the camp (some 10,000 prisoners at one point) from its beginning in April 1942 until its chaotic evacuation in February 1945, much of the material based on an ingeniously coded log kept by three officers in one of the compounds. The author covers every conceivable aspect of daily life including prisoner-generated educational and cultural programs, relations with the German administrators, and the obsessive planning, preparation and execution of various escapes and escape attempts. The book is crowded with interesting characters, primarily American and British, but the most memorable is Col. Friedrich-Wilhelm von Lindiener, the commandant, whose professional code and personal kindness ensured that conditions at the camp were as good as possible under the circumstances. Illustrated. History Book Club alternate. (June 17)

$29.95. hist Stalag Luft III was the site of the mass escape attempt described by Paul Brickhill in The Great Escape (1950). Unlike David Foy's more comprehensive study of German POW camps, For You The War Is Over ( LJ 4/15/84), this work is devoted to a single military prison for allied officers and pilots. Durand describes POW life, carefully researched and written to academic standards. There were few Hogan's Heroes- type hijinks and even fewer escapes, but the Stalag's inmates accomplished wonders in providing for their own welfare and survival. The book belongs in public as well as military collections. Raymond L. Puffer, U.S. Air Force History Prog., Los Angeles