The Not So Great Escape

“The Not So Great Escape” is a true story based on the Japanese American Shitara Sisters who were in the Amache internment camp in Colorado during World War II. They were part of an agriculture crew picking vegetables on a farm near Trinidad Colorado, where they met two German prisoners who were also picking vegetables. They became lovers and the women were prosecuted for “Treason” and “Conspiracy to Commit Treason” when they helped the two German prisoners to escape.

By the end of World War II there were 400,000 German prisoners in the United States including 3,000 prisoners in a prison camp in Trinidad, Colorado. Known as the “Fritz Ritz,” because of how good the prisoners had it, they were used as labor for area farms to pick potatoes and onions. They had a 150-foot tunnel that led out of the Trinidad prison. However, the tunnel was not used for a mass escape but was used so the prisoners could hook up at night with their American girlfriends and farmer’s daughters they met picking vegetables. The guards looked the other way in the “Fritz Ritz,” as long as the German prisoners were back in the prison by the time they took the count.

“The Not So Great Escape” is a romantic comedy about this love affair between two Japanese American Shitara sisters and two German prisoners named Heinrich Haider and Hermann Loescher. Worried about their families in Germany, after learning from new prisoners who told them about the toll the war was taking on German civilians, they decided to escape to Mexico and then try to get back to Germany to connect with other Germans who were trying to assassinate Hitler. They enlisted their lovers to help them by giving them money, buying them civilian clothes, and driving them to New Mexico so they could catch a train. The car broke down during their escape, and the German prisoners had to hitch hike the rest of the way which delayed their journey. They were caught at the train station in New Mexico and searched by the FBI. During the search the FBI discovered some photographs of the prisoners in a romantic embrace with two Japanese American women. They published the photos on the front cover of the Denver Post, and the FBI were able to find the women, who at this point, were back living in the Amache internment camp in Granada, Colorado. They arrested the Shitara sister and put them in a federal Jail in Denver.

Three of the Shitara sisters were arrested for “Treason” and “Conspiracy to Commit Treason.” If they were found guilty of treason they would have been put to death in an electric chair. The trial was the most scandalous trial in Denver history. The courtroom was crowded with 400 spectators who wanted to hear the salacious details of the Shitara sister’s adulterous relationship. The women refused to testify, but both Hermann Loescher and Heinrich Haider took the stand to defend their lovers. They explained that the women were only guilty of falling in love and their actions were not treasonous. All three women were found guilty of “Conspiracy to Commit Treason” and spent two years in a federal prison.