Newspaper Article 2003 – The escape that ended in death

The escape that ended in death

A Hawke’s Bay fighter pilot who took part in WW2’s Great Escape will be remembered in a memorial, reports Roger Moroney.

A Hastings airman’s part in the most audacious prison camp escape of WW2, and which resulted in his being murdered on Hitler’s orders, is to be acknowledged in a memorial to be built in Poland.

Arnold Christensen, born in Hastings in 1921, was a Flight Lieutenant flying Mustang fighters with 26 Squadron out of England, and was shot down in August 1942 and taken prisoner by the Germans. He was 21 years old.

It was nearly two years later he took part in what became immortalised as “The Great Escape” from Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Germany.

He was one of 50-men, mainly RAF officers, recaptured in late March of 1944, and executed.

A total of 79 actually escaped but only three managed to evade capture.

Flt Lt Christensen was one of three New Zealanders who were shot in the back, as if shot while escaping, on the express orders of Hitler.

His body was cremated and, with the others, interred at Poznan in Poland.

An international Great Escape committee has been set up in Europe and has planned to build memorials to the murdered airman to commemorate 60 years since the escape.

Several memorials are planned for the barren landscape of what is now Zagan in Poland (after the German occupation ended) as well as a chapel.

Fourteen of the 21 German officers responsible for the prisoners’ deaths were executed in 1948 after two trials. The others received prison terms between 10 years and life.