Prisoners of the Castle has plenty of such tales that make anything Ian Fleming wrote seem tame in contrast. During the 19th century, the church space was rebuilt in the neo-classic architectural style, but its condition was allowed to deteriorate. A much more sobering passage, in the Besieged section recounting the liberation of the castle by the advancing Allied forces, tells of systematic murder of Jews held in a slave labour camp on the outskirts of Colditz. 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. In 1046, Henry III of the Holy Roman Empire gave the burghers of Colditz permission to build the first documented settlement at the site.

This could be owing to the general nature of the prisoners that were sent there; most of them had attempted escape previously from other prisons and were transferred to Colditz, because the Germans had thought the castle escape-proof. I have not yet fully read the book, but one other key factor that stands out is the general behaviour by the German guards towards their captives. You may have heard about the prisoners and their daring and desperate attempts to escape, but that’s only part of the real story. Macintyre details the famous escapes, but, just as importantly, gives a vivid picture of everyday life in what became Germany’s most elite prison. Much of this was because the planning of escapes and generally trying to outwit and annoy the German guards was one of the best ways of keeping occupied and amused.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. 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. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. There should be more given the amount of material available now, including taped archives, official archives, private papers, published and unpublished memoirs and reminiscences. During 1999, a full-sized replica of the glider was commissioned by Channel 4 Television in the UK and was built by Southdown Aviation Ltd.

We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. 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. This retelling of the Colditz story is very satisfying, replete with potted history of the Castle, an appendix listing a very useful code (never broken), some brief bios and generally loose ends tied up. We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from.Earlier this year, one of his other works, Operation Mincemeat, was adapted into a hugely successful movie (see MHM June/July 2022).

Uncover the incredible inside story of Colditz, the notorious castle prison at the heart of Nazi Germany, famed as the site of daring escape plots. Colditz was the last stop for Allied prisoners who had been caught escaping from other, less secure camps around Germany. 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. Macintyre's genius has long been to excavate the nuance, subtlety and ambiguity beneath the myths he explores . The bestselling historian with the real story of WW2's "inescapable" Nazi prisonIn a forbidding Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany, an unlikely band of British officers spent the Second World War plotting daring escapes from their German captors.It was a version of the story largely created by the 1952 book written by Major Pat Reid MBE MC (a Colditz escaper) upon which the 1955 film was based and for which he was the consultant.