Colditz Castle
Colditz Castle is located in the town of Colditz in Saxony, Germany. For more than 100 years, it was used as a workhouse and a mental institution but gained its notoriety as the Allied POW camp Oflag IV-C. Usually referred to as Colditz, Oflag IV-C was a POW camp for officers and the Germans sent prisoners here from other camps who had made repeated attempts to escape.
The first British prisoners arrived in 1940 and by Christmas 1940, there were POWs from Poland, Belgium, France and Britain. A French officer became the first POW to escape in April 1941. Prisoners from various countries continued to arrived until May 1943 when the Germans decided that Colditz would be exclusively for American and British/Commonwealth POWs. However, as the war continued, more and more prisoners were moved to Colditz. Oflag IV-C, Colditz Castle was liberated by the US Army on 16th April 1945.
There were a number of famous inmates of Colditz as well as relatives of VIPs who the Germans referred to “Prominente” (German for ‘celebrities’). British fighter ace Douglas Bader (pictured), future MP Airey Neave, Charles Upham who won the Victoria Cross twice and Sir David Stirling, founder of the SAS. The Prominente included Giles Romilly, a journalist who was also nephew to Winston Churchill’s wife. George Haig was the son of WWI Field Marshall Haig, Viscount George Lascelles was a nephew of King George VI. However, not all VIPs were given the status “Prominente”. Lord John Arundell, the 16th Baron Arundell of Wardour was an aristocrat held at Colditz but he was not awarded “Prominente” status. On 13th April 1945 as the Allies advanced to the area, the “Prominente” were moved. Fellow prisoners were concerned that the SS would use them as bargaining chips or even kill them out of spite. The prisoners persuaded the leader of the guards, Obergruppenfuhrer Gottlob Berger to surrender (in secret to avoid SS vengence). In the end and despite Hitler’s orders, Berger refused to kill the “Prominente” and in 1951, his 25 year sentence handed down at the Nuremberg War Trials was reduced to 10 years.
Given the history of it’s inmates, it is hardly a surprise that Colditz became synonymous with inventive escape attempts. Field Marshall Herman Goering even declared Colditz “escape proof”. Duplicate keys and maps, false documents and escape tools were all acquired. Prisoners used items from their Red Cross parcels to trade with guards and townsfolk. Douglas Bader was permitted to visit the town by guards. One of the more outrageous escape ideas came from Lt Tony Rolt who came up with the idea of building a glider which he intended to launch from the roof and fly across the River Mulde below. Colditz was liberated before the glider was completed. In total 32 men escaped from Colditz and of those, 15 made it home.
Escorted Tours
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