Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle

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The somewhat Monty Python-like atmosphere of Colditz Castle – with its prisoners and eccentric escape artists – clashes with the reality of nearby concentration camps, where the extermination of Jews, Sinti-Roma peoples, Slavs, disabled people, political dissidents and religious minorities was carried out through labor and starvation. “Nobody talked about this in Colditz. The German guards said it was an SS thing; the contrast between both kinds of camps was abysmal. It forces us to relativize the history of the castle and its prisoners.” The day of freedom is not set by judge or jury, but by events in a distant theater of conflict." During 1504, the servant Clemens the baker accidentally set Colditz afire, and the town hall, church, castle and a large part of the town was burned. During 1506, reconstruction began and new buildings were erected around the rear castle courtyard. During 1523, the castle park was converted into one of the largest zoos in Europe. During 1524, rebuilding of the upper floors of the castle began. The castle was reconstructed in a fashion that corresponded to the way it was divided-— into the cellar, the royal house and the banqueting hall building. There is nothing more to be seen of the original castle, where the present rear of the castle is located, but it is still possible to discern where the original divisions were (the Old or Lower House, the Upper House and the Great House).

The book isn’t just about the escape attempts, though. A closed community tends to have intensified social dynamics. On the positive side, the prisoners threw themselves into cultural pursuits, including putting on concerts, skits and plays. Hilariously, the British chaplain was appalled at prisoners dressing up as women for some of the plays and skits they acted out in the castle’s theater, thinking that even these ridiculously ersatz women would stir the men’s passions. Macintyre said that many ex-prisoners had a level of admiration for Eggers, judging that he had retained his humanity during the war.Colditz, a forbidding German castle fortress, was the destination for Allied officer POWs, and some other high-profile prisoners. It’s important to know that Colditz was different from POW Stalags for enlisted men run by the often brutal Gestapo and SS guards. Colditz was staffed by Wehrmacht (regular army) personnel who generally complied with the Geneva Convention. According to the Geneva Convention, captors were allowed to set their enlisted prisoners to work—but not officers. As a result, most of the prisoners at Colditz were at the leisure to go stir crazy, unless they thought of other ways to keep their minds busy—like dreaming up escape plans.

As it turns out, Reid’s bestselling memoir and movie were literally only the half of it (Reid escaped almost three years before the castle was liberated.) Macintyre’s new biography offers a more sober, but often no less ‘jaunty’ account, filled with stunning facts, moving accounts of daring-do and stoicism in the face of that enemy of enemies, the prime malady of the POW: boredom. The officers had a British “boarding school mentality.” They tried to recreate the traditions of Eton and other private schools coopting behaviors such as bullying, enslaving individuals on the lower rung of society, “goon-baiting” Germans, and diverse types of entertainment. Those who did not attend a boarding school were rarely included.Within the POW camp, there were social clubs that wouldn’t let you in if you hadn’t studied at Eton. There was also racism towards Indian officers, as well as antisemitism targeting a group of Jewish French officers, who were segregated by their compatriots in a kind of ghetto. Colditz, recalled Macintyre, was not a prison only for the British. At first, many nationalities lived together. Dutch officers in Colditz Castle, with one of the dolls they used to confuse German guards during counts. SBG gGmbH (SBG gGmbH) Contrary to popular belief, British officers had no specific duty to escape. Of the few who tried, most gave up after their first failed attempt. The tiny number who persisted were driven on by a variety of motives. 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 radio was produced so they could keep up-to-date with what was happening on the outside. Magazines of the front were pilfered from guards. This gave the POWs ideas on how others were trying to escape from their respective prisons.

A subset of the World War II movie was the 'escape' picture; and one of its crown jewels being The Colditz Story, based on the memoirs of former prisoner, Pat Reid, played by John Mills (who else) in the rousing film adaptation. Christopher Clayton Hutton's bizarre achievements prove that war is not solely a matter of bombs, bullets and battlefield bravery. They also serve who work out how to hide a compass inside a walnut." Food was used as a bartering chip, and they used some of the rations to make drinks. Alcohol production was made using the strangest of ingredients. One of them was a batch flavored with aftershave. It was said to have eaten a hole in the bottom of the plastic container it sat in overnight. Most officers could stomach this variety, but they succumbed to cataclysmic headaches, blurred vision, discolored teeth, and so on. It was not discouraged because it kept morale up, and any prisoner who was inebriated was easier to manage. As the end of the war approached, the danger facing the prisoners rose to a new level. No one knew what would happen to them. Would the guards flee and leave the prisoners abandoned to their fate? Would they all be taken out and shot by the SS? Would the Prominente be used as a human shield around a last-ditch defence by Nazi diehards? As the rule of law collapsed, so the level of peril facing the few hundred prisoners rose. The population was comprised of Americans, Dutch, French and Polish and the groups tried to keep each other informed of their escape plans and shared ideas. At one point they even constructed a glider but the camp was liberated before it could be used.

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Capt Charles Upham VC and bar, 20th Battalion, the only fighting soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice. Because ultimately, this is the story of captivity. I had to read it in small doses because reading about POWs’ imprisonment does not make for a happy subject. Sure, I was rooting for the guys who, few and far between, actually succeeded in escaping. But every prisoner is a bored, angry, sexually frustrated captive and additionally there was plenty of elitism and racism. Some chapters are short and filled with details on attempts of varying degrees, while others dig deep into those who had a great impact on their success in escaping. One of those heroic people was Mrs. Markowska.