Some of the more historically interesting items in the collection of the Evansville Museum are the Wartime Log and other material of Charles C. Huppert (1918-2010)—a prisoner of war (POW) at Stalag Luft III in German occupied territory during World War II. In the Log, an initially blank book provided to POWs by the Y. M. C. A, Huppert created drawings and notations reflecting his experiences. Huppert’s experiences are all the more memorable as he helped with part of the fabled Great Escape from the camp in 1944.
Born in Dale, Indiana, Huppert graduated from Arsenal Tech High School in Indianapolis in 1936. He left home so as not to be a financial burden to his family during the Great Depression. He went to California where he worked at a movie studio during the day as a juicer—one who supplies electrical power to a film’s set—and attended UCLA in the evening.
It was in Los Angeles that Huppert met his wife, Betty. The two married in the period after he joined the U. S. Army Air Forces in February of 1942 while he was in training prior to his overseas deployment. On April 26, 1943, his B-25 bomber was shot down over Tunisia in North Africa, and he was captured by the Germans and remained a prisoner of war for two years.
Following interrogation by the Gestapo and two weeks of solitary confinement, he was sent to Stalag Luft III in what is today western Poland—a camp run by the Luftwaffe to confine western Allied airmen. It was here that Huppert participated in the POWs attempts to continue their war from inside the camp by disrupting the operations of their captors, including escapes to occupy German forces, and what would be known as the Great Escape.
Huppert helped manufacture mechanical items including hand cranked bellows for ventilating escape tunnels as the Allied flyers began working on escape tunnels codenamed “Tom”, “Dick”, and “Harry” in 1943. Following the discovery of “Tom” in September of 1943, American flyers were sent to a separate South camp as the other POWs continued work toward a mass escape from the North camp. On Friday, March 24, 76 POWs began their escape attempt—three made it to freedom, 73 were captured, and 50 were executed by order of Adolph Hitler. In the South camp, Huppert and his fellow Americans knew the fate of the escapees as they found clandestine ways to communicate with those in the North camp.
In February of 1945, with troops of the USSR nearing, the prisoners of Stalag Luft III were forced to march to Stalag Luft 7a just north of Munich, Germany, a distance of over 350 miles. In harsh weather, many POWs and their German captors died along the route in bitterly cold conditions with only enough rations for subsistence.
American troops liberated Stalag Luft 7a on April 29, 1945. During his captivity, the six-foot tall Huppert lost a significant amount of weight and weighed only 100 pounds upon gaining his freedom. Following his release, he rehabilitated and then made his way home via Paris and New York City. Upon returning home, Huppert reunited with his wife, Betty, and had the first opportunity to meet his son who was conceived prior to his deployment.
Following the war, he and Betty founded and owned Merchants Alarm Service in Evansville, though the experiences of his captivity continued to impact his life. For several years, he had nightmares of being caught by the Gestapo and trying to escape, and, for the rest of his life, the first thing he looked for upon entering a room was whether there was another exit.
The Great Escape was dramatized in the 1963 movie of the same title. The movie is based on the autobiographical account of the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III by Paul Brickhill.
Fictionalized, the characters in the movie were composites of the servicemen who participated in the escape. Charles Huppert’s role is reflected in the character of Louis Sedgwick, “The Manufacturer”, played by James Coburn.
In 2004, Charles Huppert and two other Stalag Luft III survivors, were featured in the episode Great Escape on the PBS series NOVA. Huppert joined the crew of NOVA as they unearthed the remains of the tunnel “Dick” in what is now Poland. For more information, visit PBS Nova's Great Escape.
