Colditz castle

Colditz castle is a castle near Leipzig, Saxony in Germany. It became notorious as a prisoner of war camp for Allied officers during the Second World War.

The castle was built in 1014 as a hunting lodge for the king of Saxony. In 1800 it became a prison and in 1828 a mental hospital.

After the outbreak of the Second World War it was initially used as a transit camp for the defeated Poles. In November 1940 a small group of British RAF officers arrived. They were soon joined by a handful British Army officers, and by French, Belgian, and Dutch officers.

Among its more famous inmates were, Douglas Bader, Airey Neave(the first British officer to escape from Colditz), Charles Upham (double Victoria Cross winner) and David Stirling

Colditz castle was liberated on April 16 1945.

A number of books have been written on the subject of Colditz as prisoner of war camp, the most famous being Pat Reid's Colditz: The Full Story and Escape From Colditz on which the BBC's dramatised television series was based. An interesting German perspective on the camp and its detainees is Reinhold Egger's Colditz: The German Story.