Collecting Colditz and Its Secrets

Fully illustrated with photographs and historical artifacts, this detailed history reveals what life was like inside the infamous Nazi POW camp.

During the Second World War, the centuries-old Colditz castle took on an infamous new purpose. It became the site of Oflag IV-C, a prisoner of war camp designated for Allied officers who had escaped from other camps, including such famous names as Douglas Bader, Lorne Welch and Jack Best. This authoritative history reveals the secrets of the Sonderlager—or “Special Camp.”

Historian Michael Booker draws on forty years of research into the subject, including interviews with former prisoners, as well as the German commandant Gerhard Prawitt and the head of security Captain Reinhold Eggers. He relates stories of British, Polish, and French prisoners, and their many and varied attempts to escape. These narratives are supported throughout with rare wartime photographs as well as a priceless collection of artifacts and memorabilia from the castle, some of which have never been seen before.