About ELMS

Registered Charity No: 1148116 · 2024 Winner of the European Award for Citizenship, Security and Defence

The WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society is dedicated to the helpers, escapers and evaders who organised or relied upon escape lines across mainland Europe during the Second World War. Members include former helpers, veterans, their families, historians, researchers and supporters who share the same commitment to remembrance.

Our aim is to preserve and commemorate the memory of those helpers—individuals and families who risked everything to guide Allied servicemen home. Without them, countless airmen and soldiers stranded behind enemy lines would not have returned to continue the fight for freedom.

Helpers aided Allies of many nationalities by sheltering, feeding, nursing and guiding them—often at great cost to themselves and their families. Many paid with their lives for their acts of humanity toward strangers.

ELMS is a non-sectarian, non-political and non-nationalistic society. We are UK-based but work with friends and representatives worldwide. We actively seek contact with former helpers, escapers, evaders, their families and descendants. Please help us keep their stories alive.

Objectives

• ‘Helpers’ - We aim to maintain contact with former ‘helpers’ and to assist and support, where possible, those who risked their lives in order to give aid to allied service personnel in the common cause of freedom.
• Historical Archive & Research - We carry out research to try to build up an historic information archive on all Escape Lines. ELMS. has developed amongst its members a collective and accurate archive of escape line history, which it continues to update in order to provide an authentic historical and educational resource.
• Education - We work to educate and inspire future generations throughout Europe on the role of Escape Lines in WW2. Through contact with schools, the military and other organisations, we aim to inform and educate younger generations of the important role played by the ‘helpers’ and the escape lines
• Trails - Our walking trails are ‘Commemorative Walking Memorials’ following researched former escape line routes, taking in specific points of historical interest, and meeting and sharing history with veteran ‘helpers’, escapers, evaders and their families. The Society will support historically accurate Freedom Trail routes, assist in the way-marking of routes, support memorials and small voluntary Escape Lines museums in former safe-house villages and mountain areas.