AS a quarter of Brits say we’ll mark VE Day by watching an old movie we indulge in a bit of nostalgia by visiting the greatest war set of all, The Great Escape in Poland.
Now the good news is that you don’t even have to break in to pay pilgrimage to the most famous breakout of World War II.
The Cultural Experience, specialists in WWII vacations, are offering a real treat for war tourists… Stalag Luft III and The Great Escape.
Now sitting down to watch The Great Escape used to be an annual Christmas family ritual across the country.
Although I am still scarred at being sent upstairs at my bedtime hour and missing what happened after ‘Tom’ was found by the German guards.
And I only found out when I got older that Dickie Attenborough, Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson and David McCallum got out through the Harry tunnel.
Though only Claustrophobic Charlie made it back to Blighty, up the Thames on a boat if you don’t mind.
Cooler king
To delve deeper into The Great Escape The Cultural Experience provide tailor-made tours.
TCE advise we base ourselves in the Silesian town of Wroclaw, all right for us to catch up with our Polish buddies from Irish days.
They offer accommodation in good quality 4*, preferably historic, hotels where possible but also a billet that suits your budget.
TCE will organise flights too from London to Poland as well as all ground transportation throughout your stay.
And a local, English-speaking private driver guide to take us to all the sites we wish to visit.
And we promise to keep them busy on their three-day trip.
With Stalag Luft III naturally… and we’ll even bring our own Cooler King baseball.
Then there’s the POW Museum, Zagan Station and the Memorial to Murdered Prisoners.
While TCE offers a one or two extra day extension.
A pilgrimage to Auschwitz
To pay a pilgrimage to Auschwitz, poignant at any time but particularly so in this 80th anniversary of its liberation.
There are others too that TCE have helpfully set out for us in a Secrets of WW2 Tour.
Including the home of the Kreisau Circle in Kryzowa, Project Riese, Ksiaz Castle and the Gross Rosen Concentration camp Memorial.
The Kreisau Circle were a group of German dissidents who planned to depose Hitler.
And Kryzowa is now a site of common reconciliation between Poland and Germany.
Walim is the site of Project Riese, a subterranean complex in the mountains that acted as a secret headquarters for the German Military.
While Ksiaz Castle was another secret hideout and recently a Nazi gold train was found here.
And finally, Gross Rosen Concentration camp, where brutal forced labour in the nearby quarry was carried out by Jewish prisoners from all over Europe.
All of which reminds us that it is our good fortune and because of the sacrifices of those who came before us that we are able to enjoy The Great Escape in Poland.
