Colditz Castle is possibly most widely known as a top security prison camp used by the Nazis throughout World War II to hold Allied prisoners who were considered to be “incorrigible”. Yet, the castle is around 800 years old hence there is more to its background than the six years when it was referred to as Oflag IV-C.
Building work began in the mid 1100s on the imposing castle located on a hill overlooking Colditz in Saxony, Germany. In just a few years, settlements appeared in the area of the castle and after about 250 years, it was sold by the Lords of Coldtiz.
A significant blaze in the early 1500s resulted in significant parts of the castle needed to be reconstructed as well as the city hall, church and significant areas of the city. Over the centuries, redevelopment and rebuilding construction saw the shape of the castle change and in the 19th century it was rebuilt yet again and made use of as a workhouse and afterwards a mental facility right up until 1924.
In 1933, the Nazis took power and modified the castle to a prison camp for political prisoners of war. Just after the beginning of World War II in 1939, prisoners were detained here. It was used to detain high risk POWs who were thought to be dangerous and very likely to make an attempt to get away. Although it was a high security prison camp, the nature of the inmates at Oflag IV-C (it’s prisoner of war camp camp name), meant there were various innovative escape attempts. There was even one scheme where prisoners of war plotted to operate a glider even though it was not used as the Allies recaptured the castle before the escape attempt could be staged.
Colditz was a prison camp for officers and there were also a few well known inmates including the British fighter ace, Douglas Bader, Patrick Reid who authored various books on Colditz after the war, Airey Neave who was the first officer to escape from the prison 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.
