The human desire for freedom knows no nationality. Fill in the blanks:

...prisoners preparing to escape were governed by an internal "Escape Committee." This powerful committee had to approve all plans and carefully study all preparations made by the prisoners. It determined if the men had the proper supplies, information, money, and other items before they were allowed to leave, and in case of failure, the committee made a thorough review of the entire effort. The wide spectrum of specialists in the prison community enabled the committee to draw upon a variety of talents. Tailors manufactured such articles as civilian suits; carpenters built tunnel shoring and trap doors; and tinsmiths, chemists, cartographers, photographers, and linguists provided the many details required for a successful escape. Former architects and artists were responsible for counterfeiting the documents that would enable escaped prisoners to move easily in ___________ society. [identification] cards, military orders, drivers' licenses, letters of identification were often ingeniously forged with little more than an engraved plate carved on a piece of linoleum, India ink, salvaged cardboard, and an intricate "rubber stamp" carved from a raw potato. Yet, desplite the apparent crudeness of these makeshift items, hundreds of escaped prisoners had little or no difficulty in crossing the ___________ on trains and buses...

In this case, "American" and "United States" will do.

Although there were no mass escapes, the ambition to escape, their legal obligation to do so, and the ingenious methods used by German POWs in North America rivalled those of Allied POWs in Europe:

The third and final obstacle to escape was the realization by the incoming prisoners that there was simply no place to go. The most elemental grasp of geography indicated the very limited number of options: north or south would bring the escapee to the well-scrutinized borders of Canada or Mexico, and east or west would bring him only as far as the beaches of the Atlantic or Pacific oceans.

In a "Memorandum Addressed to German Soldiers," which was provided to all POWs as guaranteed by their rights under the Geneva Convention, German captives were reminded to keep physically strong, to make themselves fully familiar with their rights, and to take every opportunity to escape.

By the following year, in November, 1943, there were 171,484 prisoners in the United States, and the number of escapes had risen to 81. A year later, with 360,455 enemy captives in American camps, attempted escapes had reached 1,028, and from the midsummer of 1944 to the midsummer of 1945, German prisoners of war were escaping at the rate of about 100 per month or slightly more than three escapes per day.

The prisoners cut wire fences, passed through the camp gates in makeshift American uniforms, smuggled themselves out of camps aboard commercial delivery trucks, jumped over the compound fences from barrack rooftops, climbed out of hospital windows, and tunneled like moles.

...the POW community understood the significance of the guards' responsibility as well as the numerous variations of the word "Halt" which they might encounter. Nonetheless, by the end of the war, 56 German prisoners had risked the odds in their attempt to escape and had been shot to death.

Equally rare, though highly publicized, were the several instances in which the prisoners escaped or remained at large with the help of American citizens.

There were no mass escapes on the scale of Stalag Luft III, however, but one:

...escape occurred on December 24, 1944, from Papago Park Camp not far from Phoenix, Arizona. While the guards were preoccupied with controlling a volatile POW demonstration with tear gas and clubs, 25 German prisoners, mostly submarine officers, escaped through a 200-foot tunnel which had been bored through rocky soil.

All were recaptured.

Another, sadder mass breakout occured in Australia, where over 400 Japanese prisoners broke out of Cowra camp

"During the ensuing nine days 334 prisoners were retaken. In all, 234 Japanese POW's were killed and 108 wounded. One Australian Officer was killed along with three of other ranks, while four others were wounded. Privates B.G. Hardy and R. Jones, who were killed while attempting to thwart the escape, were awarded the George Cross. ".