The Great Escape (with spoilers)

I just watched The Great Escape and enjoyed it very much. I wonder about the German Luftwaffe general (n.b.: I know nothing about the naming of officers in the military, much less the German military, so for all I know he could be a lieutenant or a chimney-sweep, but out of a need to have something to say, I'm calling him a general) in charge of the prison compound. He seems like a really stand-up guy, an honorable and worthy enemy. He is contrasted starkly with representatives of the Gestapo and the SS, who are brutish and vile, and unworthy enemies. The Luftwaffe general, however, is unable to deter the POWs from attempting to escape, while the brutish, villainous SS make at least some headway by slaughtering 50 of the captured officers with an anti-aircraft gun as they stretch their legs on their way back to prison camp. It makes me wonder about the dictum, "All's fair in ... war." Is it true? The allied officers have sworn to attempt to escape, but their attempts are predicated upon the universally held assumption that a civilized people does not slaughter its enemies captured on the field of battle. Thus, though putting themselves at risk in their escape attempts, they can reasonably expect, when captured, to simply be locked up again, not executed. In other words, nothing the German's have done while following the rules of civilized warfare has been able to deter these men's attempts to escape, and it seems likely that nothing will. Thus, the SS stoop to the slaughter of the POWs, to make an example of them. If you attempt to escape .... The question thus arises, is it better to lose a war than to use all means, whether they be "civilized" or not, to win? Loss means total subjection to the whims of the conqueror, which in times past in the battles between the moors and the Christians meant raping and pillaging. It's these kind of dilemmas the devil loves to trap us in, where we feel as if we have no choice but to sin. Of course, that trap is a false one. Sin is never necessary to achieve the good. This brings me back to the Luftwaffe general. Although in one sense he is the villain in the movie, I think in a more profound sense he is the tragic hero. At the end, when he is removed from his command, the implication that he is being sent to the Russian front, and thus to his likely death, is very strong. His suffering is the direct result of his being unwilling to use the methods of the Gestapo and SS. Many times he is seen treating his prisoners with respect, and though he is strict, he is not cruel and sadistic. His fall from grace is the direct effect of his refusal to sell his soul to keep the POWs behind the barbed wire. He is flawed, principally, I think, in lacking imagination. He could do a better job than he does in running the camp so that the POWs' movements are not so hidden. But the principle motivation, it seems to me, in his actions is that he knows that these men are officers, albeit of his enemy, and therefore worthy of dignified treatment. He loses his job, and perhaps his life, but he saves his soul.