Stalag 17 Quotes
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Source: Stalag 17
Speaker: Oberst Von Scherbach
"Nobody has ever escaped from Stalag 17. Not alive, anyway."
I understand we are minus two men this morning. I am surprised at you, gentlemen. Here I am trying to be your friend and you do these embarrassing things to me. Don't you know this could get me into hot water with the High Command? They would court-martial me, after all these years of a perfect record! Now you wouldn't want that to happen to me, would you? Fortunately, those two men […] As I was saying: fortunately those two men did not get very far. They had the good sense to rejoin us again, so my record would stand unblemished. Nobody has ever escaped from Stalag 17. Not alive, anyway.
Context
This line is spoken by Oberst Von Scherbach, played by Otto Preminger, in the film Stalag 17, directed by Billy Wilder (1953).
Stalag 17 is all about a group of American airmen being held prisoner in a German detainment camp during World War II. Did we mention it's a comedy? Oh yeah, nothing's funnier than being a POW.
But Stalag 17 is actually a pretty great American movie (and, to be fair, it's a comedy-drama). In the scene where you hear this line, two of the prisoners have tried to escape, but it hasn't gone so well. The German colonel that oversees the camp gathers the remaining prisoners to scold them for trying to escape. Do they want to ruin his perfect record? And don't they know that no one has ever escaped from Stalag 17? Well, he tells them as his minions pull back a blanket to reveal the bodies of the two would-be-escapees, no one has ever gotten out alive anyway.
Yikes.
It's a moment of really, really dark humor and you just know that in the end someone is gonna escape from Stalag 17 alive. Fingers crossed!
Where you've heard it
Hopefully you've never been held against your will while being told that no one has ever escaped from your detention facility alive. But, if you have, we sure hope you proved those naysayers wrong. Freedom!
Additional Notable References:
- Hogan's Heroes took place in the fictional Stalag 13, where escaping from the clutches of incompetent German jailers was very, very easy.
- Stalag 17 is also a band. You're definitely free to leave their concerts alive though.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
Channeling a Nazi is not usually a good look for most people. Plus, once you say that no one has ever escaped from Stalag 17, you know someone is just gonna go and prove you wrong.