Stalag Luft I
Stalag Luft I was a German World War II prisoner-of-war (POW) camp near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany, for captured Allied airmen. The presence of the prison camp is said to have shielded the town of Barth from Allied bombing. About 9,000 airmen – 7,588 American and 1,351 British and Canadian – were imprisoned there when it was liberated on the night of 30 April 1945 by Russian troops. Camp history. The camp was opened in 1941 to hold British officers, but was closed in April 1942, when they were transferred to other camps. It was reopened in  October 1942, when 200 RAF NCOs from Stalag Luft III were moved there. From 1943, American POWs were sent to the camp. Stalag Luft I was composed of a West Compound and a North No. 1 Compound, separated by German quarters. Greening states, "Our barracks were rough, wood fram structures standing on small foundation posts about 8 to 10 inches off the ground. The Germans had dug a series of shallow trenches underneath the barracks to allow guard dogs to creep along and detect any tunnelers. Occasionally, the German guards themselves crawled into the trenches and listened to the conversations  of the prisoners in their rooms." North No. 1 Compound had a mess hall, where bread, potatoes, and vegetables provided by the Germans were supplemented with food parcels supplied by the Red Cross. According to Greening, "The parcels included tins and packets of such items as jam, cheese, powdered milk, meat, sardines, margarine, raisins, chocolate, coffee, sugar, and crackers." An escape committee composed of senior camp officers approved all submitted escape plans. According to Greening, "In all, 140 tunnels were dug at Stalag Luft 1." The camp held about 9000 men prisoners. Evacuation. On 30 April 1945, the prisoners were  ordered to evacuate the camp in the face of the advancing Soviet Red Army, but the Senior American Officer, Colonel Hubert Zemke, refused to give the order. After negotiations between Zemke and the commandant, it was agreed that to avoid useless bloodshed the guards would go, leaving the POWs behind. The next day, the first Soviet troops arrived. The Soviet troops treated German civilians in the area badly, but American and Commonwealth personnel were treated with respect (the liberated POWs were careful to wear armbands on which their nationality was written in Russian). The Russian soldiers replaced the Germans as  guards and locked the gates and refused the Allied soldiers to be evacuated, it wasn't until almost two weeks later that a US Colonel showed up and threatened to shoot the Soviet Commander if he didn't allow his "Allies" to be released. With the threat of being shot he ordered the gates opened and the prisoners to be evacuated. B-17 Bombers that had all of their armaments taken out were flown in and all remaining Allied prisoners were finally evacuated by air. Between 13–15 May, the camp was evacuated by American aircraft in "Operation Revival". The British POWs  were returned directly to Great Britain, while the Americans were sent to Camp Lucky Strike north-east of Le Havre, France, before being shipped back to the United States. In popular culture. The camp is the setting of the 2017 film "Instrument of War", featuring Jack Ashton as Clair Cline, a U.S. bomber pilot imprisoned at the camp from February 1944 to April 1945 who built a violin while a prisoner. The film also depicts the prisoners' refusal to evacuate and the negotiations between the Senior U.S. Officer and the "Kommandant".