The National Archives – Great Escapes Exhibition

‘Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives’ is a major new exhibition from The National Archives exploring the human spirit in times of captivity during the Second World War. Revealing stories of prisoners of war and civilian internees the exhibition explores ways men, women and children sought to cope with captivity through ‘escape’ – from successfully breaking out of camps to finding solace in setting up theatre performances, writing to loved ones, secretly producing artworks and even falling in love.

From famous escape attempts such as the escape from Stalag Luft III (that we know as “the Great Escape”) and British officer Airey Neave’s escape from Colditz Castle dressed as a German soldier, to remarkable stories of individuals seeking escape in more unexpected ways. The free to visit exhibition offers glimpses of the courage and ingenuity that is possible in desperately hard times.

Starting with an impressive entrance tunnel the exhibition is then divided into three key areas.

AV is a key part of the exhibition with seven projectors + video players, a touch screen and an audiobox. Projections are used throughout the exhibition to provide context to the wider story with key background information.

In the first area of the exhibition this projector helps visitors discover when and where POWs and civilian internees were captured and interned around the world and the events that led to those moments.

This projector, situated alongside an original document, helps to explain the key points relating to the Geneva Convention of 1929 that offered international protection to POW’s but not to civilian internees.

The 22″ freestanding touchscreen kiosk utilises our Lightbox 3 Collections software to present powerful first-hand accounts from captives that feature in the exhibition highlighting what life was like for them during that time.

An important part of the AV experience in Great Escapes is the ‘projection event’ which harnesses every projector – provided by Blackbox-av – in the exhibition simultaneously. The event highlights that millions of people were in captivity during the Second World War, not just those that we feature in the exhibition. 

Field Studio, in collaboration with The National Archives designed the exhibition while blackbox-av were commissioned to supply and install many of the elements that brought it to life.

Exhibition, spatial, graphic and AV design by Field and Peter L. Dixon. Photography by Hewitt & Walker