Real Escapes Trivia Quiz

Answer: World War II

The movie "The Great Escape" is the dramatized version of a personal account of the same name. This book, written by Australian journalist Paul Brickhill, was a first-hand account of the mass escape of 76 Allied soldiers from the Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp located near the town of Sagan, Poland.

The movie, however, is a different matter ... Of the 76 who escaped from the camp, 73 were recaptured. The scale of the escape was such that it was reported to Hitler, who responded by ordering all the 73 recaptured prisoners be shot.

In the end the number was reduced to 50. The matter of these illegal executions was raised at Nuremberg as a serious war crime.

Answer: Using a glider

A glider had already been built when the war ended. Tests have shown that this method would have most likely succeeded. The castle was located on a high rocky outcrop that overlooked the frigid Mulde river. The idea was to glide over the river and past the town.

This high security camp was used for those who had attempted escape before and for other prisoners of high repute. In spite of all the precautions, it had one of the highest rates of escapes during the war. British Captain Patrick R. Reid escaped from Colditz in 1942 and went on to write two books about his experiences and the escapes that occurred at the old castle.

Answer: False

This is false. Henri Charriere was a Frenchman sent to Devil's Island, of the coast of French Guiana after he was convicted of murder. His novel "Papillon" is a semi-autobiographical account of life on this desolate island and his many escape attempts.

He was not a soldier nor was he in a POW camp. Rather, he was a common criminal sent to prison for his crimes. I will acknowledge that the conditions on Devil's Island were in many ways as bad as some of the POW camps.

Answer: Australia

The Cowra breakout occurred on August 5th, 1944 from the Cowra prison of war camp in New South Wales, Australia. While the camp held prisoners from both Italy and Germany, it was the Japanese prisoners who planned and carried out this plan. What was unusual was the over 200 of these Japanese POWs committed suicide when they realized that their escape was not going to be successful or that recapture was imminent. All those who were still alive were recaptured within 10 days.

At the location there is now a Japanese style garden and a Japanese cemetery to honor those who died.

Answer: He tried to climb Mount Kenya

"No Picnic on Mount Kenya" (1946) was the first hand account by Felice Benuzzi of how he and two others broke out of Camp 354 by attempting to go over Mount Kenya. They spent 18 days on the mountain using improvised equipment. When it became evident that the attempt was not going to be successful they broke back into the camp, for which they each received 1 month of solitary confinement.

As they had no weapons, many people feel that some of the most exciting moments in this story occur when the prisoners ran into the African native wildlife.

The movie "The Ascent" filmed in 1994 was based on this book.

Answer: Pamplona, Spain

Fort San Cristobal was built on top of and into Mount Cristobal near Pamplona Spain. Due to poor design it was used as a prisoner of war camp. On May 22, 1938 almost 800 men attempted to flee the prison. Records show that 585 men were rearrested, and over 200 died during the attempt. Only three men are known to have made it to the French border. To honor the Republican prisoners who died in this attempt a sculpture was erected in 1988.

Answer: He was the only soldier to escape from Britain during either World War

On July 4, 1915, Gunther Pluschow successfully escaped from the POW camp at Donington Hall in Leicestershire, England. With this feat he became the only successful escapee from Britain during World War I or World War II. This escape had actually started in China, where after his plane went down he attempted to walk to Germany.

His escape included the uses of planes, trains. automobiles, boats and rickshaws. He was captured by the British at Gibraltar when the ship he was on was forced to dock because of bad weather.

He was then taken to Donnington Hall where he continued his efforts to get home. He wrote a book about his escape "The Adventures of the Aviator from Tsingtau" in 1915. He died in 1931 when his plane crashed during an aerial expedition over Patagonia.

Answer: Escape from Sobibor

Hauer won a Golden Globe award for his portrayal of Alexander Pechersky, the chief leader of the actual escape from the Sobibor extermination camp, from which the movie got its name. The 550 Jewish prisoners at the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland were members of the 'Sonderkommando', which was a special squad assigned to assist the SS with disposing of the corpses and with sorting the victims belongings. Of these prisoners one quarter chose not to be involved in the escape. About 80 were killed by machine gun fire or while running through the mine fields that surrounded the camp. About 170 men were recaptured by the Nazis and all of these men, plus those who stayed behind, were executed.

Pechersky was a POW, who had been transferred there from an a camp for Soviet POWs when it emerged that he was Jewish. The other key planner was Leon Feldhendler, who survived until April 1945, when he was murdered by Polish antisemites. It is known that 53 Sobibor prisoners escaped successfully and survived the war. The incident was so embarrassing to the Germans that the camp was shut down and trees planted over it as if it had never been there. One of the camp survivors served as a technical consultant for the movie in an attempt to portray the event as factually as possible.

Answer: False

There are over 800 documented attempts to escape from Auschwitz, but only 144 people are known to have been successful. The fate of 300 of the original 800 people is not known. Upon the successful escape of any prisoner, 10 people were randomly selected from the escapee's block and were starved to death. This same punishment was meted out to any escapees who were recovered.

Answer: The American Civil War

The Libby Prison escape, is possibly the best known prison breakout of the American Civil War. One hundred and nine Union soldiers escaped from the Libby Prison located near Richmond, Virginia. Of these men 48 were recaptured and two drowned in the James River. The other men were successful in their attempt for freedom. This escape was carried out by extensive tunneling.