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Great Escape
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Program Overview
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NOVA tells the story of a group of Allied POWs who attempt to escape
a Nazi prison camp.
The program:
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shows archeologists excavating Stalag Luft 3, where in 1944
hundreds of prisoners attempted one of history's most daring
escapes, inspiring the 1963 film The Great Escape.
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describes German attempts to escape-proof the camp by building
prisoners' huts on stilts to deter them from tunneling through
the floor, and placing the fence so far from the huts that a
tunnel would have to be 90 meters long to reach it.
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details the prisoners' plan to build three tunnels—as a
safeguard, in case one or two were discovered—through the
building supports of the huts.
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explains how men dug with hand-made tools, used whatever wood
was available to support the tunnels, then passed the dug-up
sand to others who disposed of it by discreetly sprinkling it
out around the camp.
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describes two innovations—an air pump that delivered fresh
air to diggers as the tunnels grew longer and oxygen more
scarce, and a hand-powered "underground railroad" that allowed
diggers to move tons of sand more quickly.
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reveals how prisoners tapped into the camp's electrical system
to install tunnel lighting, and reports archeologists' discovery
of wiring in the tunnel the Germans never found.
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relives the night of March 24, 1944, when 76 of the 600
prisoners involved escaped before German guards spotted them.
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reveals that only three escaped POWs made it to
freedom—the remaining 73 were recaptured and 50 of them
executed, on Hitler's orders, by the Gestapo.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after the program
is taped off the air.
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