The Grim Story Of The 1945 Nazi Death March | Forced March To Freedom | Timeline

[Music] January 18 1945 a man's eyes betray his hunger watch the eyes recede and narrow as they probe deeply for the taste of remembered meals an empty belly is a very basic thing talk concerns a rumor that we will be forced to march to the west away from the approaching Russians the room is cold tonight our fire will shortly die and we'll retreat to our bed wards blankets and great coats the hungry eyes will close awhile [Music] more stories are about war they're about heroism about death about cowardice about bombing mostly about action this story is one of sheer human drama perseverance against all odds it's not the titanic clash of empires of armies of armor it's a story about how for four years people held themselves together in the hope that somehow they would live that they would find freedom that they would be liberated again and these people persevered January 1945 Northern Europe endures the worst winter in 50 years caught in the middle of this one of the final battlefields of World War two are 10,000 Allied air force officers they are prisoners of war and they are about to face a journey that will challenge they're very determination to survive the Nazis are desperate to keep the captive men out of the hands of the advancing liberating armies so they plan to March the POWs out of prison onto the frozen countryside and toward the heart of a collapsing Third Reich bobert button is one of those prisoners of war his diary and sketches of the forest March remains some of the few chronicles of this test of endurance [Music] in 1942 robert Buckham is an art director with a montreal advertising agency he heeds his majesty's call for pilots and joins the royal canadian air force the general feeling I remember in this first studio he worked in was well we're not going to the trenches and of course trenches was the First World War terminology and this was the impression that was coming in on the 20 year olds and causing a negative feeling for a while for the first year when when our friends began to be killed a difference happened in terms of attitude and we all began to join up very quickly as quickly as we could for much of the war the German forces are entrenched across fortress Europe the Allies main strategic advantage is aerial attack day and night the air forces of Canada Great Britain in the United States level demoralizing blows at the Third Reich's industrial military complex Hitler may control the ground but the Allies only air over Europe the life expectancy of a bomber crew is desperately short perhaps it's this knowledge that leads to their Cavalier reputation every pilot knows that each mission is likely to be his last day alive or his first day as a prisoner of the Third Reich ten trips just ten trips the pilot says to say that we had paid for our our education as pilots if we made ten trips and I I never know how true that was or not but I knew that it was certainly going to be true in my case because I wasn't coming back the forest March to freedom is in fact the last leg of a remarkable journey taken by these Airmen a journey beginning on military air strips across England and each man remembers the fateful trip that transformed him from spirited flyer to oppressed prisoner of war [Music] we took off from our base in Yorkshire and we went on immediately across the the North Sea when I was 10 years old and in third grade in church I learned that the 23rd psalm and I didn't fly mission without saying the 23rd psalm and I it gave me strength the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters he restoreth my soul [Music] we dropped our bombs and turned away and it was then that this whole incident happened the Germans had thrown up a bomb at me I won't fly the aircraft was damaged the aircraft just went like that right up straight up [Music] nine me-109 s were off to our right side looking us over and he suddenly came in line astern [Music] a rocket hit our right entry and it blew up can see the Pistons flying out the support engine that got hit and fortunately it was on the outside of the port engine if it would be on inside it would have taken the whole cabinet the night fighter crept up on us we didn't see it in time and blasted our our Portman Road I couldn't maintain Heights so I gave the order to bail out and suddenly you see one hit you know go down burst into flames and then you would try to come the number who parachuted out the altimeter was just unwinding and unwinding in front of my eyes like this it was burning pretty briskly you've got about 200 gallons of petrol in that tank I saw we weren't gonna make it we were approaching the ground about 6,000 feet a minute so I pushed the yoke forward and nothing happened nothing happened nothing nothing nothing I could do this well I knew I was in trouble now he took one looking to do we've got to get out of here I hit the bailout button twice that means to put on your parachute and look back to the earth when they were all done with no experience first parachute drop you have to make the first week out you know you don't get a credit of patience I was blown through the side of the fuselage the nose was blown off and bomb adair still in there so he just bailed out and just as he gets out the airplane blows up I quite honestly don't remember pulling the ripcord but I guess I did and then it was just a question you can't help but wonder where you're going to land [Music] and when he came to watch crystal had broken the watch had stopped and it was at 3:30 approximately and so I'd been up in that tree for over four hours trying to get down I would say paper that Bearden I was beat I was just playing beat and I didn't fight it directly I just had to give in because I didn't have the strength to beat my way out of the proverbial paper bag and that was that was and he said for you before the war is over which is the portal praise that very POWs heard Robert Buckham is shot down on April 8 1943 with other captured Airmen he's imprisoned in Stalag Luft 3 the Luftwaffe is supposedly perfect prison camp the camp is best known as the location of the legendary Great Escape but as the war draws to a close Stalag Luft 3 will be the starting point for a lesser known but greater test of a POWs fortitude January 22nd our bread ration has been stopped thank God for the Red Cross parcels for they assure us of tea and coffee and a daily dinner earlier today the cap was shaken by a large explosion in the vicinity browsing some concern regarding air raids in the near future large crowds were on the circuit today toughening feet and legs in case the threatened forced march becomes reality [Music] again once a Germantown is now part of Poland approximately a hundred kilometers to the southeast of Berlin this isolated place was the perfect location for a prisoner of war camp just outside the town a scrub pine forest reclaims the land where Stalag lutherie once stood the evidence of a vast containment complex for 10,000 prisoners of war slowly disappears because it was run by the Luftwaffe and not Hitler's notorious SS death camp unit Stalag look three was often referred to as the country club of prison camps life in the camps in general and Stalag Luft three in particular was not bad compared to some of the other camps Hermann Goering the head of the German or Air Force had decided this would be a model camp he would show that he could run one it was a discipline when you see films people assume that it was like a Boy Scout camp you know we all have impressions of what a style glue is going to look like or a prison camp that was well organized but despite the relatively comfortable conditions Stalag Luft 3 is nothing more than a prison the food was never good and had it not been for the Red Cross I think things could have been a lot worse for most of us the packages had milk which they called Klim they had candy they had chocolate they had cigarettes they had vegetables enough to keep them alive if it hadn't been for the Red Cross I'm not saying we wouldn't have made it but I think we'd had a lot more casualties later on January 23rd our lunch consisted of the daily Germans soup ration each cup full containing several well boiled white maggots angry frustration finally surrendered to hunger and we fished them out and ate the soup the greatest enemy of prisoners is boredom when boredom comes morale declines and soon you have mutiny lack of discipline and people who will no longer take an interest in their life spend on yourself if you booted about it got depressed I guess it was tough there were some fellows that you know they went round the band as they say you know well I knew I knew that I couldn't go on forever without drawing that was a very real part of my my question that and the camp I guess was to express myself in drawing because there was a need for it there was never lack of someone to draw [Music] we had all sorts of walks of life there you know teachers actors carpenters electricians lawyers doctors you name it so some fellas took classes in anything about it no recreational materials were supplied by the Germans the POWs depended on international aid groups and their own ingenuity once a month we'd have a play or a band concert I took you away from everything so life wasn't that bad [Music] another activity pursued by the prisoners of war is a game of a deadlier nature escape air force be it officers or personnel always see themselves as an elite they don't slog through mud they don't blow their brains out with artillery fire they're high in the sky scarves that - and daring for them escape was almost something they owed themselves it was forbidden by the Geneva Convention it was forbidden by the Commandant of Stalag Luft 3 that almost acts as a challenge so for them to dig out to show the enemy they're still alive they're still an allied force they're still life left in them was just a task they couldn't resist these impressions in the earth are all that remain of Harry one of three tunnels constructed for the Great Escape the most audacious Prison Break of the Second World War 250 officers plot to tunnel out of Stalag Luft 3 and disrupt the German war effort in the months leading up to the escape robert Buckham forges required visas and work permits but despite intricate planning nothing can prepare the POWs for the circumstances of chance on that March night in 1944 of course the worst thing was we were 50 feet short of what we were supposed to come out so they're coming out the exit in the bushes we came out about 50 feet away and when they found that out then slowed up the operation considerably get it wait to the guy who went by on his beat so he could scoot one man out 76 allied officers escaped a four guard stumble onto the tunnel alarm sound the manhunt begins and the Nazis know that there are men still in the camp who assisted with the plan they took us out of the huddle lined us all up and had machine guns all around and they're screaming yelling in German and I really thought you know maybe we were gonna get shot there the only time I was really scared only three of the 76 men who escaped managed to return to England the remaining 73 are recaptured at great expense and embarrassment to the Nazis in retribution and in defiance of the laws of war the Gestapo systematically executes fifty of the escaped officers they brought them back in turns and let us bury them there and we had a little cemetery outside the wire were they very had a formal ceremony I have no qualms about Stalag Luke three except the 50 guys they shot I set me back the advance of freedom three months after the daring escape came a day that brings new hope to the prisoners of war June 6 1944 d-day Allied troops gain a precious foot hole on the beaches of Normandy the liberation of Europe begins the POWs at Stalag Luft free anticipate their freedom but for Allied airmen shot down into the chaos following d-day capture is the beginning of a journey into hell not a powa amp but the Nazi concentration camp work involved and we've been taught by the Luftwaffe with a probably gone to prison worked out but we were right on through and devote them all [Music] I was in there from August October we had heard we were going to be executed because they were executing some of the others but I don't think I ever gave up and I'm sure a lot of the other didn't either [Music] and I've seen him break bodies by that looked like a skeleton with skin stretched over it and you'd see a finger wiggle well you know there's still light in the body I don't know whether they did I put hit the Crematory not righteousness for his name's sake yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me that prepares the table before being present mighty enemies the 168 allied air officers imprisoned in Buchenwald are slated for execution by their SS jailers rescue for these men doesn't come from the advancing Allied troops but from officers of the Luftwaffe horrified that fellow pilots could be treated so barbarous Lee get away from there helped a lot and then we showed up it's darling the three and we were spread out then among the four compounds in there and I wound up in the breeze got bad horrific reports permeate Stalag Luft three first the execution of escaped prisoners of war then revelations of the death camps and the Nazi genocide and now after five years of combat and the inevitable defeat of the Third Reich come disturbing rumors of a forced march in the dead of winter the illusion of gentlemanly conduct between the Allied air officer and his Luftwaffe captor fades lifts gangsters air gangsters as the German called them proper Minister Goebbels wants to put them in the German cities let the Allies bomb their own Airmen justice others say leave them to the Russians let the Russians take care of them what are you going to do with them January 24th the Russians have advanced the point from which they are shelling Breslow the persistent rumor of a forced march is now apparently confirmed but with no positive date being given the result has been a renewed interest in preparing pack sacks and in washing and mending clothes this evening was occupied in sorting my drawings and paintings into two ten cylinders which are hopefully waterproof [Music] we are prepared to pack immediately and so it was decided that rather than let these 10,000 stay in the camp let the Russians liberate them keep hold of them March them west there an ultimate bargaining chip [Music] Longman's the vast Russian French had been the scene of terrific rise by muscle Stalin against the Nazi horse Roosevelt's was echoed by a Soviet spokesman when he said January 1945 Russian guns firing on Nazi fortifications echo in the distance as liberation becomes inevitable so does the forest March January 27th at 8:30 p.m. we were told to be ready to march in one hour a moment of disbelief was immediately followed by a reaction verging on panic lockers were stripped duffle bags were stuffed to the overflow unpacked and packed again there's great panic about getting prepared sewing kit bags together for backpacks and taking bed boards and making sleighs along with many other people I made a sledge of Red Cross bombs which is about the size of a tea chest with new top on we were told to fall that would go and March that night we didn't know it had we got no preparation for that that was a sudden move and weather was awful we older prisoners had a better handle on it than the new boys I know pros speaking for myself I felt this is going to be this winter March is gonna be grim we were used to cold weather here and it was just the same it was a very bitter winter and I thought you're gonna get as far as your feet Legault they were playing for keeps I had a notebook that had notes in there some photographs and drawings that were made in the camp and I dearly wanted that thing and I kept it close to me but you can only carry just so much and I actually disposed of some food in order to carry that a little bit as we approached the gate Red Cross food parcels were issued one per man the added weight and bulk had not been reckoned for a whole one would normally do your whole room for a week and here we got this process oh we had nowhere to put it January 28th we finally left camp at 4:00 a.m. I was outside the wire for the first time in 20 months only a few photographs of the forced march to freedom are known to exist these images were surreptitiously taken by one of the POWs shortly after the March began the Germans had made absolutely no preparation for this forced march there was no direction there was no ultimate goal no food no water no housing they simply had chosen to keep the prisoners under their control so they had a West retreated deeper into Germany the line of Marx I understand extended about 18 to 20 miles long when we all got out of there it took several hours for all these men to get out and we had 10,000 POWs in style I blew three half-starved inadequately dressed for the worst storm in Europe in 50 years there was a certain amount of I was already exhilaration there was a change coming we know there is a change coming I think the thing was we could see the end there here is a positive move that the end was in sight the senior versus officer gave us word that we wouldn't try to escape he said we better first not do because eventually we knew we're gonna get picked up by the British just a matter of time for the main we stayed together was safer at a group it was interesting to see the guards how they changed they became more and more terrified than we were because they were leaving with their families in saga and they didn't know really really end up the guards were like for effort they were the lowest of all though they weren't fit for anything else but guard duty the Germans who were guarding them were either Hitler youth young kids 1516 years old who saw adventure in this or superannuated veterans in their 60s and 70s who could hardly carry their rifles [Music] the actual experience of marching I would think in the first hour or two was an absolute pleasure because we were outside of the wire we're breathing free air and we were marching down the road and snow admittedly and it was 12 degrees below zero [Music] the marching was terrible there was some snow on the ground it was cold and as we march you know you try everything you can to make things easier desperation exhilaration confusion in the darkness of a German winter the Allied prisoners of war can only depend on each other if they hope to survive we all form little groups four or five s at a time and if we were fortunate enough to have made a slave we put it much on the slave if we couldn't carry the rest on her back and we had four men in there who had been in Buchenwald concentration camp like bill was for four months they were in a weakened condition and we made a pact that we would watch them very very closely the ones coveted Red Cross packages quickly proved to be more of a hindrance than a blessing to the marching prisoners so what do we do who started opening the boxes and throwing out the stuff we couldn't carry wasted all that food when we could have used it you know weeks before you took out the dried fruit the chocolate and just threw the other stuff away and the road was just littered the Germans apparently the rear party is coming up or just infuriated at seeing their civilians picking up this stuff a lot of guys were starving and they just went in and they'd this food and they couldn't stand their stomachs couldn't handle it they get sick and they get diarrhea bloody diarrhea eventually not everybody got bleh diarrhea but a lot of them did and they weren't gonna make it [Music] I think that's the one time I really paid close to giving up old dope when I decided I couldn't make any further and thankful buddy as they took me they made sure I got there marching along back roads the prisoners of war find themselves amongst a bizarre confluence of frightened humanity retreating from the vengeful Russian guns when the Allied prisoners marched through places such as Frye Valdo but Moscow's brim bared they were really the last of several waves of refugees first of all at the approach of the Red Army the Germans who lived in those areas fled they threw everything they had on to a wagon spun a horse to it and headed west next an entire wave of Jews came through their area those who had been evacuated from the extermination camps in Poland were now Marg d'Huez also in rags bones no preparation nothing then came a third wave Russian prisoners of war who had been forced labor on the farms in the east and so by the time the Allied prisoners of war come in January 45 this is the fourth major wave of migration heading west and right on their heels the Red Army we slowly passed a farm wagon cameras covered hauled by an emaciated horse a woman's laughter was hurt softly from within browsing the blanket wrap driver to a terse replied wine laughing I couldn't get over the fact that a woman was laughing under these circumstances and I wondered why she was laughing as the expansive column of prisoners disappears into the enemy night one question burns in all of their minds where are we going [Music] January 28th Don arrived and with it the icy gutting of reality our line of the March was revealed ahead of us winding to the horizon the column trudged on throughout the endless day covering an estimated 36 kilometers feet froze limping marchers became commonplace we halted finally in the darkness of the bitter night we marched and we marched when you march on dark night and you know you have guards out there and you're told don't step away from the road or we shoot it's not easy to do that sort of thing Morel was getting low because you're hungry and you didn't know what where you were going after 36 hours of relentless marching the POWs are finally allowed relief from the frigid cold the March came to a halt here in the Polish village of previs today called pres watts that night snow blanketed these pastures that night flesh froze to bone the Nazis faced a daunting task shelter several thousand men in a town with a population of only a few hundred we were shouted into a farmyard and closed by a barn a stable and some small outbuildings following a group into the stable I fell into the straw covered floor fully dressed leaning my back against the steaming side of a reclining horse I wouldn't have made it I had tremendous pain in my leg and knees and I was just practically raised I just didn't give up I've already lay down just beside the road and of course that would have been hit but buddies buddies are man they're great he said no way you've gone over this and they took me right on the rest of that march into that barn they took it a long time to find some way for us to stay there were people outside under shelter of the barn who were actually freezing and getting frostbite I knew that something was happening my feet oh so cold fortunately I tried to keep things dry and warm enough so I did not get frostbite those are the things that you think about constantly sheds barn stables lofts garages the prisoners of war sought shelter in any building made available to them the church had a 500 capacity and we were 2,000 of us so what we did we took turns sleeping I know I went in maybe the second group he walked around outside the church some of them got their backs to the church which he could radiate some warmth out of the church and sat there and then we finally all got to sleep there they didn't have to put us in there there there's there's good and evil everywhere in there they were good people in bed and so that's one example of good people and just let us stay in that church save a lot of lives we couldn't stay outside all night and not walk or anything just lay down and die this simple act of kindness afforded 2,000 weary prisoners of war better odds for surviving the night years later the American prisoners who were sheltered here commissioned this stained-glass window as a symbol of their gratitude January 29th our group reassembled in the barn this morning departure was announced to be in half an hour upon leaving the barn we stumbled over an American named McLaughlin wrapped in a frozen blanket semi-conscious he mumbled only a few words but appeared to be traveling solo we fed him hot coffee and lashed him on top of our Laden sled March began on this one occasion we were going through this small town and here was a German woman with the kettle of hot boiling water giving it to the boys because we had instant coffee and one of the guards came up to her and said do you know who these people are and they used to call us the lift gangsters and she said he said instead of giving it to them you should be giving it to us and she said if I can't give it to the prisoners I'm not giving it to you and I saw her dump the whole works on the ground the march trudges westward deeper into the frozen countryside after the POWs cover a distance of 60 kilometers over two and a half days they're granted a full day of rest here in the town of Moscow January 30th we arrived at moose cow about noon we were directed through a large stone and iron archway which in turn led us into the stable yard at the castle von arnim I discovered a small room at the rear of the horse stall it contained a four-legged bathtub with a hot water system and a floor large enough to sleep eight the first bath in years eight men in various stages of undress reclining standing voices raised periodically obscured by clouds of steaming hot water gushing from the faucet a happy humid help regenerated Robert Buckham grows curious of his new surroundings sensing relaxed security Buckham cannot resist the opportunity not escape but a simple walk to stroll unguarded unthreatened a free man even if only for a little while evening the same day I decided to approach a house and barter for food a knock on the door brought a teenage boy who promptly called his mother we exchanged cigarettes for bread while attempting further conversation they appeared to be quite friendly initially the Germans were too afraid to talk to us all fraternize with us and if they did the guards were pretty ruthless dark omnia an Americana an American came up to me and asked whether it was possible to get some needs in order to build a sled zo upon I returned to my shop and got some steel nails and gave them to him he spoke relatively good German I would say naturally I received cigarettes in return in an odd way I first learned to smoke he sews we're my first cigarettes some of those Germans were kind and gave us hot soup and some fellas got a hot wine even to drink then mentality awake - la dee da Molly Pagano it was the propaganda of that day Kadets propaganda that the Jews their passions and the polls were subhumans but the Americans we're never referred to in those terms for that reason they were not seeing us as the enemy the Allied prisoners traded chocolate cigarettes cigarettes were the currency of 1945 and they bartered their way across North Germany begging everywhere a little hot water a piece of vegetable a piece of bread there's another woman who stood and she was crying she said they're so young you know we've been portrayed as I guess air pirates or whatever they wanted to call us and she was here she was and some of our kids own our fathers weren't quite young you know 1890 and she was crying she said they are so young it was very touching January 31st I returned to the house which had proved so hospitable yesterday I asked if some beer wine or schnapps was available for trade to my surprise the mother returned with a bottle of Jamaican rum and proceeded to pour me a large glass I drank it down during the next quarter hour the rest period over the Germans announced departure the freedoms experienced at Moscow are fleeting and Robert bottom grows ill disease is an enemy altogether different from the one he faced in the skies over Europe or behind the barbed wire of stolid Love 3 February 1st although experiencing waves of nausea throughout the day I packed and was ready for departure at 9:30 p.m. an air raid alert created a delay thoughtful time for we are leaving behind the assurance of warmth and shelter when facing the uncertainty of the conditions on the road ahead day five of the forest March sees the arctic conditions give way to warmer temperatures the change in weather while welcomed by the Allied prisoners of war now poses new obstacles the hastily built sleds are almost useless and diseased percolates throughout the column February first we marched out in ragged order the roads were barren of snow and pocketed with slush filled puddles the weather had become extremely mild I began to sweat freely warmth rapidly turned to fever then to chills nausea hit me again and I vomited I slumped by the roadside my group pulled to the side and a hurried decision was made I was to wait for the sick wagon John Crozier helped me and I dropped down to the side of the road and John said he would stay with me and the guard hit him over the head with his rifle and John had to move on god bless him i sprawled there leaning against my pack as the entire column passed me by half an hour Walker time I remain there motionless until the reality of the situation took form within me I must rejoin the column the longer I delayed the worse my situation I saw some terrible things I saw fellows huddled on the ground some just laying there and no you couldn't do anything he couldn't stop you had to stay with your group February 2nd I lay on the straw covered floor of a barn this morning I rested only briefly before having another bout of chills diarrhea and vomiting an hour later we were informed of yet another March but this time of short-duration we walked two further three kilometers the column came to a halt in a train yard [Music] [Music] as a vital rail hub for the Nazi war effort Prem Berg was considered a prime target by the Allies seventy percent of the town was destroyed by Allied bombs and his since been rebuilt the Third Reich was now unable to cope with the monumental task of feeding and sheltering the 10,000 prisoners of war in one location the Nazis decided to March the POWs into the scrum burg railyards separate the men by nationality and farm them out across Germany the Americans are sent south the rest north and finally we got into spring burg and there was just short much from there to the railroad yards and then they started putting us in cattle cars on the sudden sook there stood a train a freight train and they attempted to get into this it was extremely difficult for one could see that they were all very tired not totally exhausted but one could see that they had traversed an extremely difficult March one helped the next but overall I felt sorry for them because it was really damp and cold the Americans were taken straight south the Canadians along with New Zealand and Englanders were put into cattle cars many of them couldn't climb into the cars they had to be carried in helped in many of them were physically extremely ill they were not a happy lot and as the doors were slammed on those cattle cars nobody had any inkling where the journey was going the opportunity for transportation should be a welcome respite from the stresses of marching instead the trains are seen as a premonition of death all sorts of rumors went through the ranks where are we going to boo invite to places elsewhere and we didn't know what to where they were gonna take us look we're all about as close as any place has we thought we might even go back there at least that wasn't mama eventually the Train moved off we had no water no light no strong for betting above 40 men crowded dark confinement endurance was our only resource they put a bucket of water in the middle of the car the German just a bucket of water that was gone in four or five hours and then that became our latrine and we were locked in there where do you go you go where you can and that's in your clothes well you had to go you had to go so you say to your buddy hey give me a hand here and what we would do would drop our trousers and lean out the window we were passing through a little talent where the villagers were standing on the station watching a train go by and I could just imagine their feelings when they saw these their rear ends are going by hanging out the box cards well the prisoners of war fear the Nazi death camps a more immediate threat is attacked from their own comrades the Germans did not mark the train with red crosses like you're supposed to do like a Geneva Convention calls fire four four ambulances and four wounded people and stuff like that and of course the Allies were still bombing trains and we felt that if we got on a train it wasn't marked and we doesn't splatter we had complete air superiority and anything that moved was fair game for our fighter aircraft [Music] the Allies saw no better target than a moving train and so they would descend on it and strafing the train would stop the prisoners when they're exhausted state would have to run out and try and hide what irony for the Germans if American or British or Canadian pilots killed their own fliers February 4th medically my luck is holding proof of which is the absence of any diarrhea since I clambered onto this wretched car the Train squealed to a stop in tarm stead at 4:00 p.m. we were in a fit mood to return to the routine of prison camp existence eight days after evacuating Stalag Luft 3 robert Buckham and the other POWs once again find themselves behind Nazi barbed wire anticipating liberation now hope comes from the West his days past the Buda Buse anxiously follow reports the rapid Allied advance we couldn't understand why it took so long I mean that was the odd thing you know you you'd be convinced that the you were going to be released the following day all the prisoners they were just lying on straw mattresses bare Springs hoping against hope to survive they knew then the front was not far away they knew there could be rescue and after a while they started hearing the thunder of guns Montgomery's army the second army was approaching from the West liberation was almost at hand or with the forced march go on elsewhere March 29th the enervating atmosphere of prison camp is all pervading it penetrates into thoughts into the spoken word and into visions and its palate is great the group commander has denied rumors of another March but nevertheless new packs and a variety of wheeled carts are being produced by March 1945 the Third Reich is crumbling the war will soon be over Montgomery's troops pressed forward from the West Patton's Third Army advances from the south and Stalin's red army marches relentlessly from the east yet as the days turned to weeks there is still no sign of Allied forces outside the prison gates [Music] [Music] continuing that live in the Germany armor of the fourth Canadian dev overruns the strong point at three Boyka April 1945 the war reaches endgame two months after the evacuation of Stalag the three the Allied prisoners of war are scattered across Germany the POWs are inundated daily the stories of liberating armies sweeping across Europe anxiously they await their own freedom but despite the rapid disintegration of the once mighty Nazi regime the POWs are now more than ever in harm's way here was by now the only asset the Third Reich had left there was nothing left Heinrich Himmler head of the SS and others were not above bargaining their lives for prisoners lives and so the whole point of the march was to keep control of these people to let the Allies know we have about 10,000 pawns and as the British Army approached the camp at arm's debt the Germans gave the orders to march out of camp head north away from the Brits toward the Danish border April 9th 7:30 p.m. we are waiting to leave camp the British are only seven miles from Bremen and group commander ray is attempting to delay the March as a single day could be vitally important to our liberation the spring March is almost a victory parade for the POWs with each day freedom draws closer it was a nice walk it was a hundred miles but it was far easier than that winter March we get trade for food along the line Germany was losing the war then people were getting friendlier by the day yeah that's our guards stowing away his equipment getting rid of that darn helmet they were yeah they were I say we at least felt there was hope at the end of the tunnel they had all they could see was that they knew the war was over and they'd lost it April 14th the guards were in a relaxed mood in trading with the farmhouses enroute was widespread eggs for breakfast has become a point of pride with us an edible symbol of our state of semi freedom April 22nd we've heard the news of street fighting in Berlin Churchill says the war is almost over our guards have already surrendered in spirit if not in fact with a German surrender looming only one question remains for the guards of the prisoners of war where to wait for the inevitable someone remembered that there was a wonderful old manorial estate owned by the German Tobacco King Philip Prince m'a called Trent Horst they arrived at this farm almost unguarded they moved into the barns they set up shop mercifully a last shipment of Red Cross boxes came down from Lubich so they were replenished here we're all kept in this big estate enjoying life as much as we could and they had some trout ponds they were full of fish and we tried to catch them on a makeshift hook in Lima - once he's successful until some someone had the bright idea they'd bribed a guard and got a couple of hand grenades we threw those in the pond and of course we had fish come to the top it was terrific fresh trout for breakfast liberation is still days away for the Canadians and British sequestered in the north for American captives to the south and moose burg freedom will come only after a fight between their liberators and the fanatic SS as the Russians were putting an iron circle around Berlin the absolute leading lights of the SS the highest leaders as they called them decided they would not prefer to be captured by the Red Army they split into two groups each four to five hundred one group went south another group decided to head for the Danish border the ring was closing from all sides they were settling accounts at this time with fellow Germans with people they didn't like they were murdering their own people left and right standing them up against the wall and shooting them the SS would not give up now they the Luftwaffe they moved all their people out but major and a few guards to take care of us and turn us over to the American authorities they got there well the SS didn't want any of that matter of fact they shot one of the majors of the Luftwaffe while we were there because he wouldn't come out and get on this railroad embankment and help defend from Pattin pathetic part of it is what batten attacked and we could hear the bullies coming through some of the guys and unfortunately some of the people have been in the prison 40 years earlier or you guys don't like the three that just could not resist raising up to see and they want I know they wanted to got shot all those years of prisoner and within a few seconds I'm being liberated got shot by their own forces because they didn't stay down I stay down we heard the fire fight they'd be due closer it was like thunder in the springtime in Kansas you know coming closer and closer American soldiers - to a prison camp is the gate locked shoot it out they're eager to liberate American comrades knowing how brutally prisoners of war have been treated they're an armored unit and are they welcome this is the hour of the prisoners have been dreaming of they received with hugs and kisses [Applause] almost immediately the American troops were there and right at the front of the America - for a patent I'm telling you it was a great-looking guy you know so I climbed up on that truck with those big steel panels revolvers and him big already and he started talking to us then you apologize for being late getting there to deliberate it it was it was a great day tremendous tremendous day of my life because it's freedom [Music] as patent continues his liberation through the German heartland Montgomery's army sweeps across North Germany until it finally reaches the Canadian and British POWs at the Trent orestes date May 2nd 1945 we are free the morning brought rumors that the 11th division of Montgomery 2nd army was in Lubec at 5:20 an armored tank appeared on the road clattering and the smoke approached the cabinet the Germans were falling back and we had one lock come through and we we asked me you know where our troops and he said Tommy come Tommy coming well the blue came this is a little reconnaissance car like a jeep or that officer and I sold you're driving it I mean he couldn't liberate anything but it was an advanced own reconnaissance vehicle small reconnaissance vehicle and the champ was a mobbed British officer steps out and said well you chaps he said we've been looking for you just sit tight and we'll be along to pick up with some lorries and the German coming down went through the formality of handing in all their arms and that was the end of it a roar of cheers crudely made flags waving laughter and tears mingling men climbing the wire to run to the tanks men embracing each other shouting incoherently men kneeling to pray men staring vacantly [Music] thousands of men in a state of hysterical blessed release and I have a drawing which I did just at that moment just a scratch I was doing but it was a way of expressing my feelings at the time I couldn't have done anything more detailed than that I was too excited everyone else was crying a lot of them are crying I was crying myself as I was drawing it was if you want emotion it's it's kidding there and it says it's right near the surface right now today long live the cause of freedom god save the king [Music] this March is one of the great untold stories of the Second World War miraculously only a few of the 10,000 POWs died during those three turbulent months in 1945 for the men thrust into a winter hell what could have been a march towards certain death instead became a march to freedom [Music] may 9th yesterday Eisenhower and Montgomery were somewhere in the area signing a peace treaty we found a magnificent party at the local airfield the CEO greeted us by tossing a bottle of champagne to each the party finally exhausted itself in the smoke from a huge swastika flag burning on the floor this morning we embarked on a dc-3 for the flight to England we landed at Guildford just in time for tea I was guided into a tent where donut was placed in one hand and a cup of tea in the other a motherly woman appeared before me how are you lad I stared at her mutely but I was smiling [Music] you you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 733,148

Keywords: Documentary, the march, History, Documentary Movies - Topic, world war two, 2017 documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Channel 4 documentary, Full length Documentaries, documentary history, PoW, WW1, WW2, Full Documentary, history documentary, world war 1, prisoner of war, world war 2, stories, real, BBC documentary, world war one, Documentaries

Id: ojwK23XVjIM

Length: 70min 3sec (4203 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 06 2017