This was a disturbing and compelling read. Compelling because Ben McIntyre told one story of World War II: the prison camps, the treatment of prisoners, the attempts to get food supplies in by the Red Cross, the underground networks of resistance fighters in towns, villages and abroad. Disturbing because of the parallels I could see to any war zone, and specifically to today’s global troubles.
In October 1939, the German Army established OFlag IV C prisoner of war camp in Colditz Castle. It held the most recalcitrant and defiant Allied prisoners. The intent of most of the prisoners was escape. Ben McIntyre takes us inside Colditz to tell us all the ways and means that the men used to attempt to escape. Only a few were successful and one man was shot in his attempt to escape. This book is complete with photos of the men, maps of the inside of Colditz Castle, maps of Europe with the escape routes and the many hidden rooms, the various pieces of paper and wood used for the construction of identification cards and fake guns. Besides the escape attempts, there was a wide range of activities for entertainment: plays and lectures put on by the prisoners. Due to a lack of women, men were dressed and dolled up for parts that required a woman. Some prisoners, called the Prominente, were Allied soldiers of good parentage or stature believed to be ‘bargaining chips’. They were given their own tiny rooms, got marginally better food and were carefully protected from escape.
In 1945, the Allied prisoners traded places with their jailers as the war was coming to an end. The American troops, young men in their 20’s, were approaching the castle preparing an assault to overtake it, when they realized that the men in charge were the Allied prisoners. The German soldiers were turned over without a shot being fired to the arriving American troops.
The photo on the front of the book cover is of six of the men who did survive Colditz Castle. Their post war history is also included at the end of the book. Author Ben McIntyre’s writing held my attention and my interest. It was not all about escape but about the characteristics of the men on either side of the war.
“In the intimate confines of Colditz, that enemy was becoming ever more familiar. On a battlefield, the foe is anonymous.
In a prison, he has a face, a name and a personality.”
~ Ben McIntyre, Prisoners of the Castle,
An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz,
The Nazi’s Fortress Prison
Title: Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, The Nazi’s Fortress Prison
Author: Ben McIntyre
Copyright: 2022
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Format: Hard copy
Type: Historical non-fiction
ISBN: 978-0-7710- 0198-0
ebook ISBN: 978-0-7710- 0198-7
