Colditz Castle is quite possibly best known as a top security POW camp used by the Nazis for the duration of World War II to hold Allied prisoners of war who they thought of as "incorrigible". Having said that, the castle is more than 800 years old which means there is much more to its heritage than the six years when it was generally known as Oflag IV-C.
Work commenced in the mid 12th century on the imposing castle located on a hill overlooking Colditz in Saxony, Germany. Inside a few years, habitations started to appear in the vicinity of the castle and after close to 250 years, it was sold by the Lords of Coldtiz.
A big fire in the early 1500s resulted in significant sections of the castle needed to be rebuilt along with the city hall, church and large areas of the city. Over the years, renovation and rebuilding construction saw the shape of the castle transform and in the 19th century it was rebuilt yet again and made use of as a workhouse and later on a mental hospital till 1924.
In 1933, the Nazis took power and converted the castle to a prison for political pows. After the beginning of World War II in 1939, prisoners of war were detained here. It was used to hold high risk prisoners of war who were deemed dangerous and likely to try to escape. Although it was a maximum security pow camp, the nature of the inmates at Oflag IV-C (it's POW camp camp name), meant there were many innovative escape efforts. There was even one scheme where POWs intended to utilise a glider even though it was never attempted as the Allies recaptured the castle before the escape effort could be staged.
Colditz was a prison camp for officers and there were also several prominent inmates including the British air ace, Douglas Bader, Patrick Reid who published a number of publications on Colditz after the war, Airey Neave who was the first officer to escape from the POW camp and was also eventually elected to the British Parliament, Sir David Stirling who founded the Special Air Service and Charles Upham from New Zealand who was awarded the Victoria Cross and bar. One of the more notable of all was Giles Romilly who was the nephew of Winston Churchill's wife.
In more recent years, Colditz Castle has been refurbished and is open to visitors to see this historic building for themselves.
Work commenced in the mid 12th century on the imposing castle located on a hill overlooking Colditz in Saxony, Germany. Inside a few years, habitations started to appear in the vicinity of the castle and after close to 250 years, it was sold by the Lords of Coldtiz.
A big fire in the early 1500s resulted in significant sections of the castle needed to be rebuilt along with the city hall, church and large areas of the city. Over the years, renovation and rebuilding construction saw the shape of the castle transform and in the 19th century it was rebuilt yet again and made use of as a workhouse and later on a mental hospital till 1924.
In 1933, the Nazis took power and converted the castle to a prison for political pows. After the beginning of World War II in 1939, prisoners of war were detained here. It was used to hold high risk prisoners of war who were deemed dangerous and likely to try to escape. Although it was a maximum security pow camp, the nature of the inmates at Oflag IV-C (it's POW camp camp name), meant there were many innovative escape efforts. There was even one scheme where POWs intended to utilise a glider even though it was never attempted as the Allies recaptured the castle before the escape effort could be staged.
Colditz was a prison camp for officers and there were also several prominent inmates including the British air ace, Douglas Bader, Patrick Reid who published a number of publications on Colditz after the war, Airey Neave who was the first officer to escape from the POW camp and was also eventually elected to the British Parliament, Sir David Stirling who founded the Special Air Service and Charles Upham from New Zealand who was awarded the Victoria Cross and bar. One of the more notable of all was Giles Romilly who was the nephew of Winston Churchill's wife.
In more recent years, Colditz Castle has been refurbished and is open to visitors to see this historic building for themselves.
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The historic Colditz Castle provided some of the most inventive escape stories of the Second World War.
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