COLDITZ: Prisoners of the Castle

Probably The First Recounted History Of Colditz Where All The Players Are Now Dead

This is a good book for anyone interested in history. Ben Macintyre is probably the first writer to cover exploits at Colditz beyond the years of living memory. Ben is “the master storyteller of real-life espionage”. He examines World War Two's most notorious prison at the town of Colditz with its “rich cast of colourful characters who attempted to break free from its walls”. It is a special book about special prisoners gleaned now from written sources.

Colditz is described as “a forbidding Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany”, where “an unlikely band of British officers spent the Second World War plotting daring escapes from their Nazi captors”. That is the original storyline of Colditz which has remained, unchallenged, during living memory for those who suffered. But that story then offered only part of the truth because Ben discloses subject matter that the prisoners (members of the armed forces) at that time would be most unlikely to discuss themselves. The question really is do we need to know about this. The answer is probably yes for the benefit of historians and for critics of the armed forces and war generally.

Yet, it is an “astonishing inside story”, revealed for the first time by Ben, who describes his book “as a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of class conflict, homosexuality, espionage, insanity, and farce”. I have been privileged over my long life to have met some of the people mentioned and would think most would be quite horrified at what he has written. And, also, probably quietly pleased, in some cases. Or at least their relatives may be.

Through what is “an astonishing range of material” studiously researched, Ben compiles a remarkable list of characters, “wider than previously seen and hitherto hidden from history”, as he puts it. He describes “prisoners and captors… living cheek-by-jowl in a thrilling game of cat and mouse”.

The story covers that of the Indian doctor whose hunger strike and eventual escape from another camp “reads like a thriller”. He describes America's oldest paratrooper and “least successful secret agent”, and, rather more poignantly, “the soldier-prisoners of Colditz who were astonishingly imaginative in their escape attempts”.

Many other ways to survive in the castle whilst their fate remained unknown and in the balance are described now as history. Carefully researched and “full of incredible colour”, this is a definitive historical statement on one of the great war stories of 20th century now retold when everyone is dead. Thank you, Ben. If you as the reader ever visit Lower Saxony, do visit the castle and the museum which has been considerably smartened up since the 1940s.

The date of publication of this new hardback edition is cited as 15th September 2022.