Was Von Luger sent to the Eastern Front or shot for allowing the escapes to happen?
shareIn the movie after the Von Lugar is taken away we don't know of his fate. In real life the Kommandant VonLeinder(sp)? was arrested but not shot. He eventually went to England.
shareThanks for this update! I was sure they must have shot him. And who can blame him for going to England? You could tell -- in the movie, anyway -- he knew he was working for the wrong side.
shareHis real name was Colonel Von Lindeiner. He managed to evade a German court martial but was arrested by the British after the war to be questioned as a possible war criminal. He was held in a place called the "London Cage" which was not that pleasant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm_von_Lindeiner-Wildau
Several of the British former POWs testified in his behalf and he was later released back to Germany. He died just before the release of The Great Escape.
He got no cake or ice cream for the duration of the war.
shareThe Germans wern't crazy. The idea of killing someone who was not doing his job well enough probably isn't likely. He would likely be court martialed.
shareDepends entirely on who you talk to. There are a shocking number of people, who want you to believe that EVERYONE living in Germany during the Nazi Era, were die-hard Nazis, absolute inhuman, comic book style MONSTERS.
When the truth is, that just like most countries in the grip of dictatorship, the majority of the citizenry, even most of the military, are just people. Just people trying to get by, to survive, and hopefully be left alone. There were tons of very decent, or even good, Germans during WWII, including in the army. They were just too scared to go against the system, or else they or their families would come under fire. They instead went along to get along, as human beings throughout history so often do.