In honor of Memorial Day, I convinced my teenage sons to watch the classic 1963 film, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, and a slew of other stars of the time. A great movie, but watching it also pointed out some other sad and dangerous truths that we should remember not only on this Memorial Day as we remember America’s fallen soldiers, but at all times during the challenging days in which we live.
For those who are not aware of this film, it is based on the true story of a group of Allied escape artist–type prisoners of war who are all put in an “escape-proof” camp by the Germans. The camp, Stalag Luft III, is managed by the Luftwaffe (not the Gestapo or SS, but the German air force), and the prisoners, mostly British, were composed of Western Allied air personnel. The film details the prisoners’ attempt at the largest prisoner escape in history, striving to free 250 prisoners all at once. Ultimately, 76 escaped at one time, 73 were recaptured, and over 50 were executed. The first half of the film is a lot of fun and comedy, while the second half is thrilling and filled with action.
But watching it now in 2026, with the horrors of October 7 and the last 32 months of heinous crimes by Islamic forces and regimes vividly in my consciousness, I sadly saw the story in a very different light.
The movie shows a lot about the relationship between the Allied prisoners and their German captors. There is a mutual respect between them, as shown in the film. Officers from either side salute their enemy officers. Prisoners, although at times punished by being sent to “the cooler” (solitary confinement), are treated with the basic respect that should be given to any human being. They have bunks, showers, food, exercise, and all of the standards demanded by the Geneva Convention of 1929. Yes, they are in prison, but as codified in the Geneva Convention, they “may not be used as human shields,” “denied food as a punishment,” and “adequate clothing should be provided; and sanitary services in camps should be more than sufficient to prevent epidemics.” (It should be noted that while Israel signed the Geneva Conventions in 1949 and ratified them in 1951, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and numerous other Muslim states have still never adopted the Geneva Conventions.) All of this is shown in the film, which had technical advisors that included Wally Floody, an actual survivor of Stalag Luft III, and Donald Donald Pleasance, who was a member of the RAF and had spent time in a German POW camp.
In watching the film, it struck me how inaccurate it is to call Muslim terrorists “Islamo-Nazis.” These Islamic terrorists are much, much worse than the Nazis ever were. At the end of the day, the Germans and Allied Forces had more in common than it may seem. They all were from Judeo-Christian backgrounds, steeped in Christian values. Whether they believed and lived them or not, all of the participants on both sides had been ingrained with the higher ethical values found in the Bible: respect for humanity; a belief in a Supreme Being that manifests love; a love for life; and the values of the Ten Commandments. The participants on both sides of World War II treasured life over death and sought peace and prosperity, even if that still meant the Nazis targeted and murdered minorities such as Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals. Yes, a Nazi committed horrific evils and might want to kill a Jew, but he would not sacrifice his own life to do so.
The Muslims that we are all currently at war with both in the Middle East and domestically, with their attempts to conquer the country through creating Sharia law communities, have a value system that is both different and significantly more dangerous than anything the Nazis could conceive of.
Islam is based on the commands in the Quran that demand the creation of worldwide caliphate based on Sharia law. A martyr's death, which is antithetical to Nazi philosophy, is preferable in the Islamic world to allowing the “infidel” to live. Nazis did horrible things, including killing children. But they did not use children as human shields to defend themselves. While the Nazis performed some of the most horrific crimes in human history through their tortures and experimentations, very few of them actually took joy in the evil they performed. Some of them even recanted and showed remorse in later years. Conversely, Hamas demonstrated true evil as they performed the heinous crimes of October 7, celebrating the evil actions of rape, murder, torture, and more on innocent civilians. Hundreds of Hamas terrorists committed the evils, but all of Gaza, Iran, and pro-palestinians worldwide celebrated them.
Watching The Great Escape, I could not help but think of how the hostages were treated for over two years. The film accurately depicts the history of prisoners of war during World War II. They had food, sunlight, exercise, clothes, showers, and the basic needs of any human being, all of which were denied by Hamas.
Alan Dershowitz said that there is no such thing as pro-palestinian, only anti-Israel. Israel creates; “palestinians” only want to destroy. The Nazis, despite their evils, were part of Western Civilization, although manifestations of the darkest part. They committed horrible crimes, but they also shared the values of the West, even though they ignored those values so often. The Muslims, who in their minds have been fighting a 1400-year war to achieve world domination, have qualitatively different values and goals. They worship death over life and conquest over peace. The threat of “mutually assured destruction” is not a threat to them; it is a glorious and hoped for promise.
On this Memorial Day, as we remember all of the men and women who sacrificed their lives for the United States and for the preservation of Western Civilization, let us also remember the enemy that is at our doorstep. An enemy that is a death cult obsessed not with peace, but with domination.
And let us honor the ultimate sacrifice that so many men and women performed by exposing the evil that is even worse than the Nazis.
https://pjmedia.com/rabbi-michael-barclay/2026/05/25/the-great-escape-and-islam-n4953217?utm_source=pjmediavip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm
