70th anniversary of "The Great Escape" March 24-25, 2014, Part One

001 – 003 Here are various shots from around the town square.

According to a town historian, Sagen did not suffer much damage during the war, even though many train lines ran (and still go) through the town. In fact, Sagen was an important link on the railway between Berlin and Breslau (today, Wrocław, Poland). Four lines, from the north-northwest, west, south-southwest, and southwest, converge at the train station.

The train stations of most towns of the size of Sagan/Żagań have two platforms for travelers. The Żagań station has five! As you can imagine, with such train traffic, Sagan would have been an attractive target for Allied bombers. However, as I mentioned, the town suffered little damage. Why? Because of the POW camps. The Germans used the POW’s as human shields, and Allied Air Command did not want to risk killing Allied personnel.

So, a lot of these shots would look at least somewhat familiar to the men.

In the first shot, "Wielka Ucieczka" means "Great Escape." The road sign above that, "Pałac Książęcy" means "Prince's Palace."

004 This is the county courthouse.

005 This is the front of the Prince's Palace. It is located directly across from the county courthouse.

006 The back of the Prince’s Palace

007 The view from the balcony in the back.

008 – 011 "Dworzec Kolejowy" means "Train Station." This is the train station that the escapees would have used. Taking this photograph was not easy, because the station sits on an embankment, and on the other side of the street is the edge of a 20-30 foot drop! That’s where I stood to take these photos. Once again, there have been few changes, and the escapees would definitely recognize this today. In Photograph 10, the ticket booths are to the left. In Photographs 8 and 11, you see the north side of the building.

012 There are five platforms at the train station, a large amount for a town the size of Żagań.

013 This is an underground entrance to the platforms and the station hall. It is south of the hall. According the Wikipedia article on the Great Escape, “an early problem for the escapees was that most of them were unable to find the entrance to the railway station until daylight revealed it was in a recess in the side wall of an underground pedestrian tunnel.” It is true that this entrance is not easy to find. I don’t think that using the main (north) entrance was a very good alternative. To get to that entrance, a person would have to either (a) jump a bunch of tracks (which, I’d guess, were guarded by German soldiers), or (b) take a long walk. The person would have to (1) turn left and walk about a kilometer (2/3 of a mile) to the main road, then (2) turn right and walk about a kilometer to the road for the train station, then (3) turn left and walk a little more than a kilometer (essentially doubling back) to the train station.

014 – 016 Here are the Museum grounds.

017 I don’t know if this is there all the time, or if it was there just for the anniversary.

018 – 023 These are various exhibits inside the museum, including a scale replica of the prison camp.

024 – 026 This is inside the replica prisoners’ hut. According to the museum director, this hut is ½ the size of an original hut.

027 Here is the exit for Harry.

028 Here you can see what is beyond the exit. Back in March, 1944, the view was very different. The whole area was cleared—so that Germans in the watch tower could see any escaping prisoners, of course. The trees are obviously young trees, younger than 70 years old. The underground entrance to the train station (photograph 013) is to the north–northeast

029 In this photograph, I am on top of the exit. The guard tower is exactly where the original tower stood. So you can see just how close the exit was to the exit.

030 In this photograph, look at the people in the distance. I’m standing on top of Harry’s exit, and they are standing on top of Harry’s entrance.

031 – 033 During this anniversary commemoration, reenactors were all over the grounds. These particular reenactors (who came from Germany for this anniversary) played the roles of Germans patrolling the area around the camp. Other reenactors played the roles of Allied prisoners. On one day, there was a reenactment of a WWII skirmish, and that included Soviet reenactors.

034 – 035 This is the entrance to Harry.

036 – 037 I’m on top of the entrance to Harry. In the distance, you can see the monument at the exit.