Why Escape? Their conditions weren't that bad!

Yeah, You saw a vanilla version created by HOLLYWOOD. What a DOLT!

Can we hear from someone that isn't a turd?

Conditions were better for officers than for enlisted men (this Stalag was an officers' camp). But it is a Hollywood version of life in this film. Things like the July 4 alcoholic celebration never happened. Even for officers, conditions could be harsh in Axis captivity - a British officer who was a prisoner of the Italians after being captured in North Africa drew caricatures of British officers half-fainting in what he called the "hunger swoon" because they were not getting enough to eat, or carefully going through their inadequate rice ration to remove maggots etc. Both officers and other ranks were dependent on Red Cross parcels because ordinary prison rations were not adequate, although the guards sometimes confiscated and misappropriated these parcels.
It was not so much about conditions - officers were considered to have a duty to escape, other ranks like sergeants and privates were not considered to have such a duty and relatively few tried to escape, although their conditions could be even worse than the officers'.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."

OK - you've all given me some things to think about, and there are some good arguments here. Thank you!

You should've paid more attention while watching the film. The reason for attempting to escape was given in the film itself!

At the beginning of the film, Ramsey tells the German officer, "Colonel von Luger, it is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape. If they cannot escape, then it is their sworn duty to cause the enemy to use an inordinate number of troops to guard them, and their sworn duty to harass the enemy to the best of their ability."

So, they just did what was their duty as officers: either to get away so that they'd be able to return to fight, or at least keep as much as possible of the enemy personnel occupied with their escape attempts (including trying to capture the escaped POWs) so that the Allies would have it at least a bit easier to fight, with more enemies tied up with keeping the POWs from escaping, and fewer enemies able to participate in the actual war effort. Following one's duty during a war is very important. Neglecting one's duty during a war is a very serious offence that may have serious consequences for the offending soldier/officer, and even the war effort as a whole. (And the latter part, causing harm to the war effort is exactly the reason why neglecting one's duty during a war is such a serious offence.)

--
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

It had nothing to do with conditions of the camp. As this film explains early on they felt it was their duty to make the enemy use as much man power as possible to keep POWs interred thus taking away resources from the frontlines.

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You should read the book, but I thought it was in the movie as well,
or at least for the British. Their jobs as prisoners were the disrupt and
try to escape, to try to get the enemy to divert resources from the war
effort to guarding them. I guess the Allied prisoners had it good in
Germany compared perhaps the prisoners in the Pacific. The Japanese
were barbaric at this time to their subjects and to their prisoners.

If the conditions were as they were depicted in the film, I would have just chilled until the war ended. They all appeared well-fed and clothed, and they had showers, books, gardening, singing, ornithology, and moonshine. Good enough.