G R I F F E N 2 0 2 3 | 5 COLDITZ PRISONERS OF THE CASTLE In this highly readable book, Ben has yet again applied his considerable investigative research skills and his talent for storytelling to one of the most iconic and cherished stories of the Second World War. BEN MACINTYRE (1981) e convincingly demonstrates that the heroic and upbeat version of life in Colditz, established in the 1950s by Pat Reid, a former Colditz prisoner, and which has dominated the popular imagination ever since, ‘contains only a part of the truth.’ Brave and ingenious escape attempts there were, some even successful and vividly described in the book, but life in the grim castle during the course of the war presented a far more complicated picture. Ben reveals how issues of class and race, of politics and ideology, and of sexuality, divided this otherwise closely knit community of officers from half a dozen countries. Ben traces the evolving conditions within the castle from 1940 to 1945, and the fluctuating state of the prisoners’ attitudes, morale and health. He brings to life many memorable individuals, such as the irrepressible but ultimately tragic Michael Sinclair, the principled Bengali doctor Birendranath Mazumdar unfairly suspected of treachery, or the selfeffacing Julius Green, a Jewish dentist from Glasgow, who became a secret agent for British intelligence within the prison – not to mention the better-known Douglas Bader or Airey Neave. He also does justice to the active role played by the Polish, French, Czech, Dutch, Belgian and American officers held in Colditz. A fascinating aspect of the story is the clandestine link established between the prisoners and anti-Nazi elements in the local population. Nor does Ben ignore the German staff who ran the prison. The Anglophile schoolmaster turned main warder, Hauptman Reinhold Eggers, stands out here. While determined to prevent all escapes, Eggers showed a degree of humanity and a respect for the Geneva Convention which stood in sharp contrast to the sinister schemes of the Nazi leadership for dealing with the most prominent of the prisoners, who were only saved by the dogged interventions of the Swiss diplomat Rudolf Denzler. Altogether it’s a remarkable and gripping story, beautifully told. H Review by Hubert Zawadzki (aka Dr Z), Common Room 1976–2006
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