Colditz Castle

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by stolpi, Apr 28, 2019.

  1. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    Made a bicycle tour through eastern Germany last summer and visited Colditz:

    thumbnail_20180727_125156.jpg

    thumbnail_20180727_124706.jpg

    tada duuuh ... tadadaah … tadaduh .. ta .. dadadaah … :cool:
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2019
  2. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    thumbnail_20180727_125914.jpg

    thumbnail_20180727_135436.jpg

    thumbnail_20180727_135620.jpg

    thumbnail_20180727_135711.jpg
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2019
  3. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    The castle has a nice little museum:
    thumbnail_20180727_142044.jpg
    thumbnail_20180727_140418.jpg
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2019
    CL1 likes this.
  4. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    Some statistics: Of the 187 attempts to escape from the castle only 32 were successful (note that the Belgians statistically were the most successful with a 100% score, followed by the French with 50%).

    thumbnail_20180727_140409.jpg
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2019
    JimHerriot and CL1 like this.
  5. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

  6. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    thumbnail_20180727_141721.jpg

    thumbnail_20180727_141726.jpg
     
    JimHerriot and dbf like this.
  7. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    A number of successful escapes were made from the park just outside the Castle:

    thumbnail_20180727_140714.jpg
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2019
    JimHerriot and CL1 like this.
  8. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Thanks for posting.....remembering the gallant Mike Sinclair.

    Always intended to visit the place after the wall came down and it could be visited but missed the chance.

    Apparently the Colditz POWs led by Jack Best constructed a glider ready to launch from the castle attic and clear the area but the war ending intervened from having to put the escape into practice.

    (The photograph of the dummy reminds me of the fictitious account of an escape film where a dummy was used...the dummy was referred to as "Albert RN".)

    However at Colditz there were two dummies,made up by Dutch officers "Max" and "Moritz" made from plaster,full size and in colour. "Max" and "Moritz" were used in the escape of two Dutch officers,Lieut Oscar L Drijber and Major Giebel who escaped on 21 September 1941 and made their way to Switzerland....an exciting journey which they had a number of anxious times on their way to freedom.

    There a very good account on the goings on at Colditz by the former Chief Security Officer,Hauptmann Reinhold Eggers in his publication,"Escape from Colditz 16 First Hand Accounts".Eggers wrote the account with the aid of previous inmates ...Dutch,Polish,
    French and British POWs. As he records some,naturally politely refused.

    The publication first appeared in English as "Colditz Recaptured" in 1973 . Eggers also penned "Colditz The German Story"

    "Max" and "Moritz" met their end in the park,where leisure activities were intended as a distraction from the Germans, on 12 December 1941.Two Dutch officers were planned to escape from hiding under leaves.A zealous counting officer,irritated by previous attempts to deceive him,recounted his prisoners with the utmost care and discovered the two dummies.
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2019
    JimHerriot, Lindele and stolpi like this.
  9. Markyboy

    Markyboy Member

    Hi,

    I believe the dummy rouse was actually used successfully from the naval camp Milag Nord. From memory (like all my posts as I'm at work!), it's recounted in Prisoners Progress by David James.

    Albert RN is a great film, deserves better recognition.

    Cracking pictures of Colditz above, I definitely need to schedule a visit at some stage.
     
    JimHerriot likes this.
  10. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

    Harry,
    Which one would you rate No. 1,2,3 of the various escapes from: Laufen, Colditz, Biberach, kirchain, Warburg, STALAG Luft III (2) ?

    Stefan.
     
  11. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    Lieut. A. M. Sinclair, extract from "DETOUR - THE STORY OF OFLAG IVC" published 1946.

    I think it is a sign of the esteem in which he was held that the colour plate of him appears ahead of the books title page, before any acknowledgements, introduction, or other contents.
     

    Attached Files:

    Harry Ree likes this.
  12. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    A good few years old now, more Colditz related. Interesting photo of Mike Sinclair within, and also other photos (one of which is Reinhold Eggers who was mentioned earlier in this thread).

    Hope this stuff is worthy of inclusion, and of interest.
     

    Attached Files:

    Harry Ree and stolpi like this.
  13. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Liberated 75 years ago today.
     
    stolpi, JimHerriot and Guy Hudson like this.
  14. bexley84

    bexley84 Well-Known Member

    Last edited: Apr 16, 2020
    canuck, Harry Ree, JimHerriot and 2 others like this.
  15. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Of course Corran Purdon could also give a good account of the happenings at St Nazaire in the Combined Operations raid on the Normandie Dock where he was captured.

    .He was in Colditz because he had previous record of escaping and being on the run for over a week.

    Maj Gen Corran Purdon obituary
     
    JimHerriot, canuck and bexley84 like this.
  16. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    For Harry Ree in particular, and of course all you other good folks who frequent WW2 Talk.

    The last days of The Cognoscenti, form the horses mouth (so to speak).

    Kind regards, always,

    Jim.

    DETOUR Title Page.jpg

    Elphinstone001.jpg

    Elphinstone002.jpg

    Elphinstone003.jpg

    Elphinstone004.jpg
     
  17. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    That's first class Jim.

    It gives a good insight to the experience of deemed important officer POWs at the death throes of the Third Reich.They were intended along with detained foreign politicians of note and leading anti Nazi German personalities of the aristocracy to be the Prominente,a body that Himmler had ready as a bargaining tool which he thought he could gain some advantage with his envisaged talks with the Allies.Himmler at this stage of the war, even with his background and role in a murderous organisation.he thought himself as a future statesman in postwar Germany.Apparently he wished to have an audience with Eisenhower where his agenda was to save European civilisation from the Bolsheviks by volunteering German forces.

    Berger was fortunate as one of Himmler's henchmen to die in his bed and not on the scaffold.He ran Rosenberg's department and published in 1941 on the invasion of Russia, an instructional pamphlet,The Subhuman which referred to Russian citizens as "the afterbirth of humanity existing spiritually on a lower level than animals" As others of his ilk,he believed in the peace of the graveyard.He was tried at Nuremberg for wartime murder of Jews in April 1949 and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment but with 7 years he was released.Strange that these "upper crust"SS individuals always thought themselves as gentlemen.

    Gottlob Berger - Wikipedia
     
    JimHerriot likes this.

Share This Page