This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. The population was comprised of Americans, Dutch, French and Polish and the groups tried to keep each other informed of their escape plans and shared ideas. At one point they even constructed a glider but the camp was liberated before it could be used.

A subset of the World War II movie was the 'escape' picture; and one of its crown jewels being The Colditz Story, based on the memoirs of former prisoner, Pat Reid, played by John Mills (who else) in the rousing film adaptation. Macintyre shows how the mood in the castle prison changed as the war progressed. In 1942, there was hope that victory might be around the corner. By 1943, this had turned to despair that it might instead go on for years to come. Macintyre stressed that, in relation to the castle, we must forget – with a few exceptions – the stereotype of brutal Nazi German guards. In fact, the author describes them in his book as very patient with the constant taunting of the British prisoners and the escapes, some of which were truly ridiculous. One involved French Lieutenant Émile Boulé, who tried to walk out the door disguised as a woman. It was quite obvious at first that the flaw of Colditz was not in the architecture but in the humans that occupied it.

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But Macintyre also makes it clear that Colditz was unlike most POW camps. Firstly, its extraordinary location made escape appear impossible. And then there was the fact that everyone housed there was classed as deutschfeindlich, ‘German-unfriendly’, and had been sent there because they had tried to escape from other camps. It was like a school where all the bad boys had been gathered together under one roof. This is a comprehensive book about its subject. I can’t imagine any more details could be included. I have to give it 5 stars since it’s such a perfect book about Colditz. A half star off because even though it sometimes read like a thriller and was mostly interesting, at times it read slowly and was close to boring with all the minutiae. 4-1/2 stars The account is given (almost) chronologically and I think doing that was a good choice.

During 2006 and 2007, the castle underwent a significant amount of refurbishment and restoration which was paid for by the state of Saxony. The castle walls were repainted to recreate the appearance of the castle prior to World War II. Bader was shot down in August of 1941, captured and interned in various camps (from which he inevitably tried to escape), until he was sent to Colditz. “Bader was one of my childhood heroes, as he was for many British children. But although he set an example of tenacity and willpower and courage, he was also a bastard,” Macintyre noted. Macintyre’s attention to detail is a strength of the book. He delves into strategies developed and objects needed, i.e.; the “arse keeper,” a cylinder to hide money, small tools and other objects in one’s anatomy was most creative. The prisoners were geniuses in developing tactics to confuse their captors, and instruments that were used to make their escape attempts possible, including a glider that was completely built, but never used.. The author also includes how prisoners tried to keep themselves sane by developing their own entertainment. They set up theater performances, choirs, concerts, bands, jazz ensembles, plays etc. Sanity was a major issue and for those who remained at Colditz for years PTSD was definitely an issue. Flt Lt Josef Bryks, Czech pilot, participant of the Great Escape, before which tried to escape three times. Another of Colditz’s famous prisoners was David Stirling – known as “the ghost commander” – who was the famous creator of the Special Air Service (SAS): a special forces unit within the British Army. He described the castle as “the best-guarded pension (hotel) of the Third Reich.” Stirling was captured in one of his famous raids against the airfields and bases of the Afrika Korps in January of 1943. After several escape attempts from various POW camps, he ended up in Colditz. How did this bold, determined, slippery guy not manage escape? “The problem was that he was very tall,” Macintyre said.Although this has incredible accounts of those who tried to escape, often successfully, it is also the story of a very unique prisoner of war camp. It held many officers, who could not be forced to work for the Reich, and whom often imposed their own class rules and public school ways onto those inhabitants of the camp. There are theatre shows, tunnels, coded letters, M19, bizarre escape attempts and many wonderfully erratic and eccentric prisoners. Many are well known - such as Airey Neave, Pat Reid and Douglas Bader. I found the incredibly rude and rather unpleasant Bader curiously moving. When he was shot down, the Germans allowed the RAF to deliver a new leg, which seemed an incredible allowance during wartime. Once he had two prosthetics, he immediately hoisted himself out of a window and hobbled off - even the Germans, who he aimed endless venom at, seemed impressed. Coat of arms of Augustus of Saxony and his wife Anne of Denmark over the gate to the outer courtyard. The mannerist portal ( rhyolitic tuff) of the church house carved by Andreas Walther II during 1584. One of Macintyre’s myth-busting achievements is to blow the idea of the Colditz crew as a band of brothers, whose shared misfortune had erased pre-war divisions. The French officer contingent decided to ostracise their Jewish comrades who were forced to take their meals separately. Most of the British prisoners were public school chaps, but this did not mean a community of equals. The [attempt] by the Frenchman – Pierre Mairesse-Lebrun – seems magnificent to me; he fled while being shot at and then asked for the clothes to be sent to him. I love it,” Macintyre joked. “The failed attempts are also very interesting. The costumes reveal the love that the British have for the theater.” Emil Boulé, disguised as a woman, in his attempt to escape from Colditz Castle. SBG gGmbH (SBG gGmbH) Ben Macintyre is well known for his books on spies and espionage, like Agent Zigzag, Double Cross, and Philby. Earlier this year, one of his other works, Operation Mincemeat, was adapted into a hugely successful movie (see MHM June/July 2022).