30/11/92

Press Release

Eden Camp:

Press Release

SATURDAY 28TH APRIL 2001.
ESCAPERS & EVADERS BACK BEHIND BARBED WIRE

After 55 years, some of the Allied forces most heroic escapees and evaders will be back behind barbed wire in a PoW Camp, many of them accompanied by those that helped them escape all those years ago.

Following the success of the last years Evaders & Escapees weekend, Eden Camp will again be playing host to this unique group of individuals. The reunion takes place on Saturday 28th April 2000. It will be the largest gathering of those involved in the Escape Lines ever.

We expect over 200 to attend, including members of the Royal Air Force Escaping Society, Army PoW Escape Club (Retired), Monte San Martino Trust, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, (FANY) Special Operations Executive (SOE), Special Forces Club and MGB Association who will be travelling from all corners of Great Britain. We also have representatives traveling from the USA, South of France, Belgium, Denmark, Holland and Italy. A plaque dedicated to the Union National des Evades de Guerre will also be unveiled within the Eden Camp Chapel of Remembrance.

There will be a large number of highly decorated veterans attending. Those taking part in the reunion are expected to start arriving from 10.00am with a short service and wreath laying ceremony being held around our war memorial at approximately 12.00 noon. They will then be able to view exhibitions dedicated to the Escape Lines, the Great Escape, the Wooden Horse Escape and Colditz which are displayed in Huts 9 and 28. A new section, devoted to the roles played by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the different Resistance organisations will also be unveiled.

This will be the largest gathering of its kind in the world. It will be a unique event, and as those directly involved in the events of evasion and escape in the Second World War get older, it is difficult to envisage such an international gathering happening again.

The whole subject of escape, evasion and the work of the SOE has recently received a lot of media attention, with a number of TV documentaries having been made and broadcast over the last 12 months. We know that this event will prove extremely popular with the general public.

Please do not hesitate to contact Steve Jaques or Nick Hill if you require any further information.

admin@edencamp.co.uk