Colditz Castle is probably most commonly known as a top security POW camp used by the Nazis during World War II to contain Allied prisoners who they thought of as “incorrigible”. Nevertheless, the castle is over 800 years old which means there is much more to its background than the six years when it was also known as Oflag IV-C.
Building work began in the middle of the 1100s on the imposing castle built on a hill looking over Colditz in Saxony, Germany. Within a few years, habitations started to appear in the general vicinity of the castle and after nearly 250 years, it was sold by the Lords of Coldtiz.
A huge blaze in the early 16th century resulted in substantial parts of the castle needed to be reconstructed not to mention the city hall, church and substantial sections of the city. Over the ages, redevelopment and rebuilding building work saw the shape of the castle transform and in the 1800s it was rebuilt yet again and used as a workhouse and later on a mental facility until 1924.
In 1933, the Nazis took power and transformed the castle to a prisoner of war camp for political prisoners. Right after the beginning of World War II in 1939, prisoners were imprisoned here. It was used to hold top risk POWs who were regarded as dangerous and more likely to attempt to escape. Even though it was a top security prison camp, the nature of the inmates at Oflag IV-C (it’s prison camp camp name), ensured there were numerous imaginative escape endeavours. There was even one plan where prisoners intended to utilise a glider but it was not used as the Allies recaptured the castle before the escape effort could be staged.
Colditz was a prisoner of war camp for officers and there were also quite a few famous inmates including the British fighter ace, Douglas Bader, Patrick Reid who wrote numerous 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 SAS and Charles Upham from New Zealand who was awarded the Victoria Cross and bar. One of the most notable of all was Giles Romilly who was the nephew of Winston Churchill’s wife.
In recent times, Colditz Castle has been renovated and is open to visitors to see this historic building for themselves.
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