Oflag IV-C
| Oflag IV-C | |
|---|---|
| Colditz, Saxony | |
Colditz Castle
|
|
 Oflag IV-C
|
|
| Coordinates | 51°07′51″N 12°48′27″E / 51.13078°N 12.80748°E |
| Type | Prisoner-of-war camp |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by |
 Nazi Germany
|
| Site history | |
| In use | 1939-1945 |
| Garrison information | |
| Occupants | Allied officers |
Oflag IV-C, often referred to as Colditz Castle because of its location, was one of the most noted German Army prisoner-of-war camps for captured enemy officers during World War II; Oflag is a shortening of Offizierslager, meaning "officers camp". It was located in Colditz Castle situated on a cliff overlooking the town of Colditz in Saxony.
This thousand year old fortress was in the heart of Hitler's Reich, four hundred miles (650 km) from any frontier not under Nazi control. Its outer walls were seven feet (two meters) thick and the cliff on which it was built had a sheer drop of two hundred and fifty feet (75 meters) to the River Mulde below.
Among the more notable inmates were British fighter ace Douglas Bader; Pat Reid, the man who brought Colditz to public attention with his post war books; Airey Neave, the first British officer to escape from Colditz and later a British Member of Parliament; New Zealand Army Captain Charles Upham, the only combat soldier ever to receive the Victoria Cross twice; and Sir David Stirling, founder of the wartime Special Air Service.
There were also prisoners called Prominente (German for 'celebrities'), relatives of Allied VIPs. The first one was Giles Romilly, a civilian journalist who was captured in Narvik, Norway who was also a nephew of Winston Churchill's wife. Adolf Hitler himself specified that Romilly was to be treated with the utmost care and that:
When the end of the war approached, the number of Prominente increased. Eventually there were Viscount George Lascelles and John Alexander Elphinstone, 17th Lord Elphinstone, nephews of British King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; Captain George Haig, son of World War I field marshal Douglas Haig; Charles Hope, son of Victor Hope, the Viceroy of India; Lieutenant John Winant Jr., son of John Gilbert Winant, US ambassador to Britain; Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, commander of Armia Krajowa and the Warsaw Uprising; and five other Polish generals.British Commando Michael Alexander claimed to be a nephew of field marshal Harold Alexander in order to escape execution, but was merely a distant cousin.
...
Wikipedia