Our reason for staying
in the area was to visit Colditz Castle, used in WWII as a POW camp
for prisoners of many nationalities who were either very important
(e.g. related to Winston Churchill or the Queen) or most commonly
were officer rank POWs who had been involved in escape attempts from
other POW camps. As a child, I obtained a copy of the book Colditz by
Pat Reid and it caught my imagination as it did with many other
children, especially boys, of my generation. The tales of escapes and
attempted escapes were quite incredible and I really wanted to see
the castle for myself. This feeling was reinforced by the film and
television series that came later. Some friends, Tim and Mary,
visited Colditz earlier this year and Tim especially sung its praises
and he also lent me another Colditz book. By coincidence, the digital
television channel Yesterday recently screened all of the Colditz
television series and a documentary. We watched a couple of these at
home and I brought the others with us on DVD. Given that Berlin was
definitely on our itinerary and Colditz is only a little way south,
we decided that we had to see it.
Driving the short
distance to Colditz, we parked in the Lidl's car park and walked up
to the castle. Entry was only €3 but we knew that the
hour-and-a-half guided tour at €7 would be well the extra money. It
was before 11:00 but we were told that the next guided tour would not
be until 13:00. We set off to find the railway station, in view of
the castle and a very important part of many escape attempts.
Although we had crossed the railway line at a level crossing on the
way, it was obvious that the station had been closed for some time
and saplings were growing well between the train tracks. We
subsequently found out that the line had been closed for 10 years.
Back to Lidl's for some shopping and a quick bite of lunch before we
set off again for the castle.
There we met another
English couple, living on a boat in Northern France, and these were
the only other people on our exclusive guided tour. The guide was
excellent, explaining the history of the castle and then taking us
around the outside and inside of parts of the castle to show us where
and how famous escape attempts were made. He had a good sense of
humour and was happy to answer questions. One of the highlights was
seeing the French tunnel from the chapel to the wine cellar and being
told that the British officers drank most of the Colditz fine wines
kept in the cellar. They replaced the bottles after they had drunk
the contents, replacing the contents with “something
unmentionable”. Another highlight was seeing the area where they
kept the V.I.P. prisoners and being told the story of Michael
Alexander. He was in a special unit and was captured behind German
lines whilst wearing civilian clothes and, considered a spy, he was
told that he would be shot. He told the Germans that they shouldn't
shoot him because he was a nephew of Field Marshall Alexander. He
spent the rest of the war as a V.I.P. prisoner but was actually no
relation of the Field Marshall.
The museum was very
good, holding many original items from the escape attempts such as
forged documents, home-made sewing machines and cartridge cases, gun
holsters and even a rifle made from cardboard. It also explained the
role of MI9 who sent much escape material such as money, maps and
documents hidden in books and records in Red Cross parcels. MI9 even
sent plans of Colditz Castle that they discovered in the British
Library and these were shared with the French to help them with their
tunnelling.
I could go on for hours
about Colditz, I haven't even mentioned the glider that they built,
but it would be much better if you could go yourselves – start
planning now!
We woke this morning to
pouring rain that drowned out (sic) the radio alarm but we managed to
avoid the rain in Colditz until we walked back to Henrietta. It was
only a short walk of less than 10 minutes but it started to pour down
and then to hail. We got rather wet!
We were planning to go
to Dresden tonight but time was getting on and we decided to aim for
a stellplatz at Zschaitz-Ottewig.
Our Stellplatz book showed this as being on a small lake and given
that it was only 45 minutes from Dresden, it would be a more pleasant
and cheaper place to stay. As you will see from the photograph, it
was indeed very pleasant.
Photos: Colditz Castle
dominates the town; These photographs were taken by the Germans after
the attempted escape by a Frenchman (left) disguised as a German
worker (right). The escape attempt failed only because, unknown to
the POWs, the Germans had changed the colour of the passes the day
before; The French tunnel in the wine cellar; The radio room hidden
in the attic. It was built by the French from parts smuggled into
Colditz and was handed over to the British when the French were
transferred from Colditz. It was never discovered by the Germans; A typical room for two
officer POWs; After the rain at the Zschaitz-Ottewig
stellplatz.
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