Squadron Leader Bartlett (Richard Attenborough), after three months in the hands of the Gestapo and SS, is returned to the care of the Luftwaffe, in a new camp under the command of Colonel von Luger (Hannes Messemer). It is very clear that the Colonel, a distinguished veteran and stickler for the rules of war, does not have a lot of time for the SS or the Gestapo, or anyone who mistreats his prisoners. Based on the real commander of Stalag III, who also had no stomach for brutal Nazi tactics, von Luger goes to show that not everyone in the Third Reich was a total bastard.

PS - some quick movie trivia... the SS officer in this scene later played another rather nasty Nazi in "The Guns of Navarone". Seems Messemer wasn't the only one to be routinely typecast.

"The Great Escape"
Released 1963

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