Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle

Product Information

For some time after the war the glider was regarded as either a myth or tall story, as there was no solid proof that the glider had existed and Colditz was then in the Soviet Occupation Zone. And as the first few inmates arrived back in Paris and London, they looked at a sort of fairy-tale world that had somehow survived while they had been locked up for years, isolated, bored, fearful, and frustrated. Biography: Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Colditz, Agent Sonya, SAS: Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. During 2006 and 2007, the castle underwent a significant amount of refurbishment and restoration which was paid for by the state of Saxony. During 1864, a new hospital building was erected in the Gothic Revival style, on the ground where the stables and working quarters had been previously located.

Ben reveals for the first time a tale of the indomitable human spirit and one of class conflict, homosexuality, espionage, insanity and farce. In Macintyre’s telling, Colditz’s most famous names—like the indomitable Pat Reid—share glory with lesser known but equally remarkable characters like Indian doctor Birendranath Mazumdar whose ill treatment, hunger strike, and eventual escape read like fiction; Florimond Duke, America’s oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent; and Christopher Clayton Hutton, the brilliant inventor employed by British intelligence to manufacture covert escape aids for POWs. Having sworn allegiance to the British Crown when joining the RAMC Mazumdar refused to break his oath and escape his imprisonment by changing sides despite every inducement offered him by Bose and the Nazis. MI9 did not dismiss out of hand a suggestion that an attempt to rescue him from the castle by landing a plane on a nearby Autobahn.

The average life expectancy in that camp in ‘normal’ times was three-and-a-half months from arrival. The underlying theme being the huge number of attempted escapes from the castle, involving mainly British, French and Polish officers.

His books are frequently made into films and television series, including Operation Mincemeat and SAS: Rogue Heroes in 2022. While there is marginal mention of life prior to the arrival of the first British POWs in 1940, there were already French, Belgian and Polish POWs in Colditz.Although it was considered a high security prison, it had one of the greatest records of successful escape attempts. 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.

Names are omitted that are identified elsewhere; like the majority of the tunnels under the place, leads are opened that end up nowhere or just simply dead-ended. This slim yet insightful and entertaining volume documents the many instances where wine drinkers did not get what they paid for, sometimes with deadly consequences.Perennials PERENNIALS constant friends A selection of novels, memoirs and more by some of our favourite authors. There does not seem to be much evidence of brutality or thuggery: instead there seems to be adherence of the Geneva Convention which was quite a surprise, given what was going on in other camps. Capt Charles Upham VC and bar, 20th Battalion, the only fighting soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice. Soon thereafter the castle became an administrative office for the Office of Colditz and a hunting lodge. The most important German character in the book is Reinhold Eggers, the senior security officer and the longest serving member of the garrison.