Kriegies
The Australian Airmen of Stalag Luft III

By Kristen Alexander

Published by Ad Astra Press
RRP $30.00 in paperback
ISBN 9780645792515

Kristen Alexander has received high praise from many quarters for this book, which began life as her PhD thesis a decade or so ago.

The Kriegies of the title derives its name from the German word Kriegsgefangener meaning ‘war prisoner’. Three hundred and fifty-one Australian airmen were interned at Stalag Luft III during the war.

For Alexander, what started out as an interest in the Australian airmen who participated in the famous ‘Great Escape’ from the POW camp in March 1944 morphed into a more complete and detailed examination of how the airmen POWs coped with the trials of their incarceration.

Humour helped relieve the monotony of camp life as did their varied entertainment and educational activities.

A clear sense of altruism helped keep relationships strained by close living in check. Sharing meagre resources equitably was an unwritten code.

Alexander uses the POW’s own words recorded in diaries, memoirs and interviews to enhance the story she tells of how the men survived to be released. But release from captivity, unsurprisingly, did not end the war for many.

Alexander quotes a figure of two-thirds for whom the war never ended, for whom the mental scars were lifelong. But that is ‘another story’, writes Alexander, who has once again excelled herself in her mission to tell the otherwise forgotten stories of a war almost beyond human memory now.