Colditz: The Untold Story of World War II's Great Escapes

A thorough research work plus the gift of gab and prose plus a fascinating subject from World War II. That's five star material !

Henry Chancellor has written a book about the bad boys of Colditz - the true Houdini escape artists! Although they weren't as successful as Houdini, they showed absolute brillance in devising ways to escape out of Colditz. And the British agents in England were just as devious with respect to smuggling in contraband. Chancellor deftly writes about the many escape attempts by the French, the Poles, the Brits and others. He captures a "you are there" feel as he describes their fears, their boredoms, and for some, there escape into lunacy. If you have read other books about escape attempts from the German Stalags, then you are in for a treat with this book. Chancellor also describes how each side (German and Allied) held mutual respect for one another except toward the end of the war when things began to turn nasty for the Germans. An excellent book and worthy of anyone's library.

The book is well written and in many ways even humourous. It is a story of the "Cat & Mouse" games played out by both protagonists under extreme conditions of WW II. The allied Prisoner's of war were obliged to attempt escaping, and conversly, the Germans were determined to thwart any escapes. The Castle of Colditz was formidable and was used to confine the most notorious of the P.O.W.'s who had been somewhat succesful in finding their way out of other P.O.W. camps. The ingenuity of the inmates makes for a facinating story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the read even though I had neither seen the companion documentary nor am a serious student of the subject matter. After reading this book, I do very much want to see the documentary and hope that PBS repeats it in the near future. The book is an engrossing, informative and quick read that paints a vivid portrait of life in this unique prisoner of war camp. It wasn't "Hogan's Heros", but it did have its lighter moments, and apparently the men here were treated reasonably well by their German captors who scrupulously adhered to the rules of the Geneva Convention. It was, however, a prisoner of war camp with all its incumbent privations and limitations, so the planning and executing of escapes was the rule of the day. What I particularly appreciate about the book is that it goes into almost scholarly detail on some of the more elaborate escape attempts without getting so esoteric as to lose the more casual reader's attention. Chancellor proves himself to be a deft writer with a light touch who really did his homework here. What emerges is a detailed account of some truly ingenious methodology developed within very severe limitations. MacGyver had nothing on these guys. It was also gratifying to see that the Germans were also treated even handedly in the book. In many cases, they appeared to show amazing and, if we are to believe the stereotypes, uncharacteristic restraint. In fact, I am so interested in finding out what was going on in their minds, I just ordered, "Colditz: The German Story" by Reinhold Eggers who was head of security there.

"Colditz", by Henry Chancellor, sub-titled "The Untold Story of World War II's Great Escapes". William Morrow, 2001.This is a lengthy and well-documented book, telling the story of the "recalcitrant" Allied prisoners who were remanded to Colditz Castle in eastern Germany during World War II. The purpose of using Colditz castle as a prison camp was, as is well known, to provide a camp from which no prisoner could escape. As a last resort, "recalcitrant" prisoners, who had already shown a strong inclination to escape from other camps of the Nazis, were transferred to Colditz, deep in the eastern reaches of the Reich. The theory was that the prisoners could not get out of the high castle and, even if they did, they had great distances between them and freedom. Of course, all these efforts did not work, and Henry Chancellor spins 391 pages of the tales of the many different escape schemes. He devotes an Appendix, of eleven pages, to listing the names of he prisoners who attempted to escape , their methods, and the results. Overall, Mr. Chancellor lists "...316 officers involved in 174 attempts"... with 32 successful escapes, i.e. reaching freedom in neutral or Allied countries. Perhaps the most unbelievable scheme was the actual construction of a glider in the chapel attic, for escape by using the winds caused by the castle's location in the mountains. Chancellor documents this effort with photographs of the actual glider.The book is an even-handed treatment of all nationalities involved; the author even-goes so far as to interviewing the German guards who served at Colditz. Polish POWs were first imprisoned at Colditz castle, and then, along with the fortunes of war, came French and British officers. Much of the story is about these three groups. Years ago, as a young boy, I had read Paul Brickhill's "The Great Escape", and I was later surprised by the (artistic license)changes made in the picture of the same name. In this book, however, Americans are noted, but Americans played a minor role as they arrived too late in the war for any escape attempts. Since this book is based upon a television documentary, there are three batches of interesting photos. Overall, the book is well written and interesting.