A excerpt from "History of Center Compound, Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany"

23 January 1945

            Less than 500 meters from the relative peace and quiet of the compounds a most dramatic scene was unfolding daily.  The temperature made a sharp drop and hovered near zero degree.  On all sides of the prison camp at Sagan the roads were conjested (sic) with evacuees from the Breslau area.  The problem of maintaining discipline was turned over to the military and thousands of old men, women and children were shunted through the threatened area without a stopover at Sagan for food or warmth.  Endless lines of boxcars and flat-tops were conjested (sic) with humanity.  Many of the flat-tops, offering no protection from the wind and bitter cold, were loaded with as many as 50 women – practically all carrying babies.  The Luftwaffe men who were on duty at the marshalling yard said that the trains cleared through Sagan at a very slow pace and no one seemed to know where to send them.  Berlin was overcrowded with evacuees; food was very scarce and housing facilities were out of the question.  The same applied for Leipzig, Dresden and other large towns reached by the Sagan rail line.  The sights were pathetic.  The people were hungry and as they pulled into the station they were forced to stay on the train.  Mothers held infants who had succumbed from the cold, and the more hearty ones looked bewildered at the conjestion. (sic)  There was no crying.  Discipline was good.  The liberation of Silesia by the Russians was dreaded by all – except the prisoners.  The whole picture was very incongruous.  Germany was on her knees, the people were licked, her armies were in full retreat, tanks, trucks, push-carts, and heavily overladen (sic) baby carriages carrying supplies and personal effects, added to the traffic confusion.  Thousands of prisoners, evacuated from camps to the East of Sagan, joined in the procession.  Dead horses, cows and livestock littered the road ditches where they dropped from starvation and exposure."

...Four days later, along with 1,700 other young American POWs, David Wolter would embark on a grueling winter trek across war-torn Germany, from Sagan, Germany (now Poland) down to Moosburg - near Munich.  Referred to as "The Death March," David has quipped that it got this title because one old German guard died of a coronary.  The original history of Center Compound suggests otherwise...