"Their crude camera was smuggled into the camp in sausages and carefully hidden away in a hollowed out dictionary. The precious 8mm film stored in the soles of their home made shoes. Had they been discovered it would have likely meant a firing squad. But for a group of daring French World War Two prisoners incarcerated in a German POW camp in 1940, it was a risk worth taking. And not only did they use the secret device to film daily life around the Oflag 17a camp in Austria, but they even went so far as to film the digging of a tunnel used for their own great escape. The 30 minutes of footage they captured entitled Sous Le Manteau (Under The Cloak) now serves as a unique historical record giving a fascinating glimpse into what life was really life in the Nazi-run prison camps. The incredible story of the French prisoners' secret camera is being celebrated in Paris this week after the only living prisoner who managed to escape the camp and make it back to France celebrated his 100th birthday, the BBC reports. Lt Jean Cuene-Grandidier was among 5,000 officers marched to Oflag 17a situated close to the Czechoslovakian border following their defeat in the battle of France. Originally built for German troops it was a sprawling camp composed of 40 barracks and surrounded by two lines of barbed wire with lookout towers and floodlights guarding the perimeter. Life was bleak and monotonous and with little food many of the prisoners were left on the brink of starvation. But they refused to allow their spirits to be broken. Realising that when the German soldiers checked food deliveries they only cut down the middle, the prisoners arranged for camera parts to be brought in smuggled in the ends of sausages. Once assembled a hollowed out dictionary from the camp library served as the perfect hiding place with the spine of the book opening up like a shutter." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2382096/Incredible-footage-reveals-French-World-War-Two-prisoners-secretly-filmed-life-POW-camp-tiny-camera-hidden-hollowed-dictionary.html#ixzz2ag0ePPqR
