Museum of Prisoner-of-War Camps in Żagań (Stalag Luft III)

On the night of 24–25 March 1944, 76 Allied airmen crawled through a tunnel more than a hundred metres long beneath the wire of Stalag Luft III in Żagań. The breakout went down in history as the Great Escape and inspired the 1963 Hollywood film. Today the former camp is home to the Museum of Prisoner-of-War Camps, where you can stand at the exit of tunnel “Harry” and step inside a replica of the hut where it all began.

History: a camp built to be escape-proof

The Luftwaffe opened Stalag Luft III in March 1942 for captured Allied airmen. The site was chosen deliberately: the sandy soil collapsed when dug, the huts stood on stilts so guards could see beneath the floors, and microphones were buried along the fence to pick up the sound of digging. At its peak the camp covered about 24 hectares and held almost 11,000 prisoners – British, American, Canadian and Australian airmen, as well as around a hundred Poles.

The mass escape was planned by Roger Bushell, known in the camp as “Big X”. Around 600 prisoners worked on it, forging documents, sewing civilian clothes and copying maps. Three tunnels were dug at the same time – “Tom”, “Dick” and “Harry”. The Germans found “Tom”, the exit of “Dick” ended up inside an extension of the camp, so “Harry”, which started under a stove in Hut 104, became the last chance.

The Great Escape and its price

The tunnel turned out to be too short and surfaced before the tree line, which slowed the breakout badly. Before a guard spotted the next man, 76 prisoners had got out, six of them Poles. Only three made it home: the Norwegians Peter Bergsland and Jens Müller and the Dutchman Bram van der Stok. On Hitler’s orders 50 recaptured airmen were shot. A new commandant later allowed the prisoners to build a memorial to them, and it still stands. Polish Lieutenant Włodzimierz Kolanowski helped lead the team that produced the escape maps.

What to see

• Replica of Hut 104 with a reconstructed prisoners’ room and exhibitions on tunnel “Dick”, the “Wooden Horse” escape, the Great Escape and the evacuation of the camp in the winter of 1945 (the Long March).
• A model of the escape tunnel and a reconstructed guard tower.
• The former camp site in the forest: hut foundations, remains of stoves and fire-water tanks. The line of tunnel “Harry” is marked with stone slabs, and a memorial boulder stands at its exit.

Did you know?

• The first successful escape took place in October 1943. The tunnel was dug from under a wooden vaulting horse while other prisoners exercised on it to cover the noise. The story became the film “The Wooden Horse” (1950).
• After the Great Escape the Germans found that about 4,000 bed boards were missing – they had been used to shore up the tunnels. Air was pumped in by a device built partly from powdered-milk tins from Red Cross parcels.
• The characters of the TV series “Masters of the Air” (2024) also end up in Stalag Luft III.

Tripto tip

The main museum building is currently closed for renovation, but the hut replica and the camp grounds remain open. The museum opens Tuesday to Friday 10:00–16:00 and at weekends 10:00–17:00 (until 16:00 from November to March); it is closed on Mondays. A standard ticket costs PLN 20, a reduced one PLN 10, and children under 7 go free. Allow 1.5–2 hours for the forest walk and the hut; to make sense of the camp layout, book a guide – tours in English are available. Every March, on the anniversary of the escape, the museum holds commemorations and a “Cross Uciekiniera” run. The visit combines well with the Ducal Palace in the centre of Żagań.