I listened to the audiobook with Simon. They say that truth is stranger than fiction.... This is an amazing book full of incredible true stories of escape, or many attempted escapes of prisoners of war from the notorious castle prison of Colditz. I'm not sure that Colditz is as well know in the U.S.A. In the U.K. it was entrenched in our culture and truly inspired fear. It helps if you are familiar with many of the escape attempts as it helps you visualise what must of went on. There's not a huge amount of stuff left over from the wartime. There is the glider and a number of things to see in the museum. But other than that you need to use your imagination for each of the locations but that is helped by having a great tour guide explain lots of the escape attempts at each location. The larger outer court in front of the Kommandantur (commander's offices) had only two exits and housed a large German garrison. The prisoners lived in an adjacent courtyard in a 90ft (27m) tall building. Outside, the flat terraces which surrounded the prisoners' accommodation were watched constantly by armed sentries and surrounded by barbed wire. The prison was named Oflag IV-C (officer prison camp 4C) and was operated by the Wehrmacht. [3] You can then take a stroll up through the Square and into the Castle Courtyard. You can wonder around the courtyard free of charge. If you want to go inside to the Museum the cost is €4.

Thrilling narratives of escape from captivity during World War II are legion. The story of Colditz is one of the best known: an oft-recounted tale of jolly good chaps, all in it together, outwitting their doltish captors to pull off the impossible with polish and poise. The reality was far different, yet as Ben Macintyre writes in “Prisoners of the Castle,” the “myth” of Colditz “has stood unchanged and unchallenged for more than seventy years.” Colditz Castle was used as a Nazi prison for Allied POWs, but not just your run-of-the-mill soldiers. These were high ranking officers and troublesome escapees who were a thorn in the Reich’s side. “…if you put all the naughtiest boys in one class, they pool their resistance, egg one another on, and soon your classroom is on fire.” There were larger-than-life characters, daring escape attempts, plenty of contraband, and no shortage of misery. The [attempt] by the Frenchman – Pierre Mairesse-Lebrun – seems magnificent to me; he fled while being shot at and then asked for the clothes to be sent to him. I love it,” Macintyre joked. “The failed attempts are also very interesting. The costumes reveal the love that the British have for the theater.” Emil Boulé, disguised as a woman, in his attempt to escape from Colditz Castle. SBG gGmbH (SBG gGmbH) A remarkable cast of characters, previously hidden and lost in history emerges - prisoners and captors who lived in a thrilling and horrific game of cat and mouse. Eggers, Reinhold (1961). Gee, Howard (ed.). Colditz: The German Story. London: Robert Hale & Company. p.184. ISBN 0-7091-3643-9.Booker, Michael. Collecting Colditz and Its Secrets. London: Grub Street, 2005. ISBN 1-904943-08-X p.32 My advice is definitely book a guided tour. This way you get to learn the history of the castle, its WW2 and individual prisoners history, visit the important rooms, experience and see some of the escape routes and actual tunnels, escape glider room and much more. These are not open to non-guided visitors. There is a lot of walking and many steps so to really tour the castle you will need to be mobile. There are no restrictions on taking photos or videos As someone who takes a keen interest in WWII history, I’ve always been fascinated by Colditz and have always wanted to see the place with my own eyes, and glad I’m glad I now have. When the Nazis gained power during 1933, they converted the castle into a political prison for communists, homosexuals, Jews and other people they considered undesirable. Starting 1939, [1] allied prisoners were housed there. As an ex history and B.F.G. teacher who could not get to East Germany in the 1980s it was a visit I had always wanted to do.

Years ago, you could see a replica of a glider that was clandestinely built at Colditz Castle, on the top floor of the Imperial War Museum in London. Crazily enough, some of the officers attempted to escape by plane. “I’m not very convinced that they could have managed to fly.I think it had more to do with mythical escapism and imagination than with a real escape. It was a dream for the prisoner collective: to fly away to freedom,” said Macintyre. Another fine history . . . His unerring eye for the telling detail that can illuminate a greater story is apparent in Colditz Ronan McGreevy, The Irish Times During the Middle Ages, the castle was used as a lookout post for the German Emperors and was the hub of the Reich territories of the Pleissenland (anti- Meißen Pleiße-lands). During 1404, the nearly 250-year rule of the dynasty of the Lords of Colditz ended when Thimo VIII sold Colditz Castle for 15,000 silver marks to the Wettin ruler of the period in Saxony. Obviously, this is a war story so most of this is pretty bleak. However, there are plenty of moments of humor, touching humanism, and joy. I got legitimately choked up when the men starting building the glider, despite the extreme unlikeliness that it would work. "...It had more to do with mythical escapism and imagination than with a real escape. It was a dream for the prisoner collective: to fly away to freedom." After years of mostly failed escape attempts, increasing loss of hope as rations and other supplies dwindled, and deep fears that the prisoners might all be murdered if Germany was losing and the Allied powers reached the castle....imagine these defeated men pooling their ingenuity to build something so magnificent, such a beautiful dream of freedom. Ugh, it got to me.

There are two components that dominate Macintyre’s monograph; the replica of the British social class structure that dominated prison life, and the integration of an eclectic and diverse group of prisoners whether British, Dutch, French, Polish, or American. There are other themes that the author introduces that include the Nazi leadership that ran Colditz, the ebbs and flows of the war which prisoners were able to keep up with by building a surreptitious radio, the planning of escapes and what happened to the escapees, the plight of Prominente – a group of influential and famous prisoners whom the Nazis sought to maximize a return, and how Berlin reacted to what was occurring in the prison. If you're a history buff Colditz castle is well worth the trip. Easy parking right near the main gate.

Macintyre's genius has long been to excavate the nuance, subtlety and ambiguity beneath the myths he explores . . . remarkable Matthew D'Ancona, Tortoise Media With renovations largely completed, the castle now includes both a museum and guided tours showing some of the escape tunnels built by prisoners of the Oflag during the war. The chapel has been restored to its prewar decoration, with glass panels inserted to the flag stone flooring to reveal an escape tunnel dug by French escapees. The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.And much more,” added Macintyre, who has written widely about double agents and secret missions during the Nazi era. “I grew up, like most Britons, wrapped up in the Colditz myth. At the age of 14, I watched the 1972 BBC series with David McCallum. I played the board game, created by Pat Reid, [who was] one of the castle’s real escapees. Colditz’s heroes were part of my personal mythology: a story of brave Englishmen and courage. But, as often happens, the story turns out not to be so simple and not so uplifting.” This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. The Indian doctor Birendranath Mazumdar (right) was the only non-white British officer in Colditz. He was moved to a camp in France, from which he would escape. (Image by Staatliche Schlösser, Burgen und Gärten Sachsen gGmbH, Schloss Colditz) War stories are usually about what happened. The story of Colditz, by contrast, is largely a tale of inactivity, a long procession of duplicate days when little of note occurred, punctuated by moments of intense excitement.