March of Millions

March of Millions, also titled Die Flucht (The Escape), is a German television war drama film. The film stars Maria Furtwängler in the role of Lena Gräfin von Mahlenberg, the leader of a small convoy of refugees from East Prussia (including French and Russian prisoners of war and forced labourers) fleeing the advancing Red Army in the winter of 1944–1945, and trying to survive uprooted in Bavaria in the aftermath of World War II. When first broadcast by ARD in two parts, on 4 and 5 March 2007, it drew 13.5 million viewers.[1]

The production was reported to have cost €9m and to have employed over 2,000 extras.[2]

The film was controversial for portraying German war-time suffering during the evacuation of East Prussia (although a number of German atrocities were also shown or mentioned), and led to adverse comments from Marek Cichocki, the foreign policy advisor to Polish President Lech Kaczyński at the time, fearful of potential German claims to lands or property in East Prussia lost after the World War II.[3] There have been multiple reactions from the Polish side on occasion of other films about the war.