Stalag Luft I was a German World War II prisoner-of-war (POW) camp near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany, for captured Allied airmen. The presence of the prison camp is said to have shielded the town of Barth from Allied bombing.[1] About 9,000 airmen – 7,588 American and 1,351 British and Canadian – were imprisoned there[2] when it was liberated on the night of 30 April 1945 by Russian troops.[3]