Stalag 17

American airmen held in a German POW camp suspect there is an informant among them after escape plans repeatedly fail. Suspicion falls on a cynical, black-market-trading sergeant who must clear his name while uncovering the real traitor.

Stalag Luft camps held captured Allied airmen under the administration of the German Luftwaffe, subject to Geneva Convention protections generally more favorable than other POW facilities. The film draws on a real Broadway play informed by the authors' own POW experiences.

The plot and characters are fictional, though camp conditions and prisoner dynamics reflect authentic wartime experiences.

Directed by Billy Wilder

Cast: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss

Positioned at Winter 1943–44 within the American POWs in German captivity phase of the war, as part of the POW camp life. This is entry 105 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• POW camp
• Stalag Luft
• Billy Wilder
• informant
• classic film

• 

  Twelve O'Clock High

  1942–1943

• 

  Masters of the Air

  1943–1945

• 

  Hart's War

  Winter 1944-1945

• 

  Days of Glory

  1943–1944

• 

  The Dam Busters

  16–17 May 1943

• 

  Memphis Belle

  17 May 1943