My grandfather whom died before I was born was a B17 ball turret gunner who was shotdown and was a POW for about 14 months at Stalag 17. I never met him before but my father told me many things about him. He told me that at the end the Germans made him go on a “death march”. I was wondering what this specific march entailed and what happened? Also cool fact my father told me during this march my grandfather took an actual dump on the porch of Hitlers birth home, I have no idea how thats possible but I believe it.
Stalag 17 (actually XVII B) was one of the largest POW Camps in then Nazi Germany, today Waldviertel in Austria, close to the village of Gneixendorf. The largest in Austria actually.
The largest 'population' it ever had were about 66,000 POWs, mostly French, Belgians, Serbs, Poles, Brits, Italiens and Soviets.
In October 1943 a special new "Teillager der Luftwaffe" (~'Part of camp for the Luftwaffe') for about 4,300 US Airmen First Class was added. It was here where the stage play 'Stalag 17', the source for the Billy Wilder movie of the same name, was written.
In April 1945, when the Soviet Army was approaching, all POWs still able to walk were sent in groups of 500 on a march to a new reception camp 300 km (186 miles) away. They marched organized by nationality, the americans went off 8. April.
The march took 18 days, and while it certainly wasn't a death march like they were practiced with the survivors of many concentration camps, given the circumstances many POWs, especially Soviets, will have died for sure. Food was scarce, even for americans just sporadic, and there were no accomodations for the daily halts.
They marched through the Wachau, past Mauthausen to Linz and on over Eferding and Altheim.
The new reception camp was the Weilhartsforst, near Überackern, 4 km (2.5 miles) north of Braunau/Inn, the town where Hitler indeed was born. So it's not out of the question, that your grandfather did what your father told you.
Edit: 15,000 POWs were liberated 3. May 1945 by soldiers of 13. US Armored Division.
http://www.geheimprojekte.at/lager_gneixendorf.html
http://www.unser-gneixendorf.at/historischesstalag-xvii-b/
Stelzl-Marx, Barbara Zwischen Fiktion und Zeitzeugenschaft: Amerikanische und sowjetische Kriegsgefangene in Stalag XVII B Krems-Gneixendorf (Between Fiction and Being Contemporary Witness: American and soviet POWs in Stalag XVII B Krems-Gneixendorf)