6 Tragic Movies That Were More Horrifying In Real Life

Published November 28, 2017
Updated December 15, 2017

The Great Escape

Steve McQueen as Capt. Virgil Hilts in The Great Escape.

United ArtistsSteve McQueen as Capt. Virgil Hilts, the “Cooler King” in The Great Escape.

The Great Escape is a classic war film that shows the ill-fated escape of Allied POWs from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III in 1944. While the tragic movie is a relatively accurate portrayal of the real-life escape, it is nevertheless a story of exception to reality for most prisoners of war (POWs) incarcerated by the Nazis during WWII.

For the vast majority of allied prisoners of war, the reality of incarceration varied from very uncomfortable to incredibly brutal and the ability, or indeed even desire, to plan such an elaborate escape as shown in the film would have been very remote.

Prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III

Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesPrisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III was run by the Luftwaffe for captured airmen until its liberation on April 29, 1945.

Most prisoners were subject to varying degrees of torture as well as intentional neglect, and so their greatest complaint was lack of proper food. In fact, most prisoners of war that were incarcerated by the Nazis during WWII had to rely on Red Cross parcels to avoid starvation.

The most dreadful horror was that experienced by the 5.7 million Soviet POW’s captured during WWII, of whom over 3.3 million died in captivity which represents a death toll of 57 percent.

This incredibly high death rate was due to a policy of deliberate starvation and neglect by the Nazis towards Soviet POWs whom they considered to be sub-human and a waste of resources. The average food ration that a Soviet POW received was sometimes as low as 700 calories per day which would have made the digging of an escape tunnel seem ludicrous.

author
Laura Martisiute
author
Laura Martisiute is a freelance writer based in Tramore, Ireland. In her spare time, she likes to explore secret beaches, pet cats, and read.
editor
Laura Martisiute
editor
Laura Martisiute is a freelance writer based in Tramore, Ireland. In her spare time, she likes to explore secret beaches, pet cats, and read.