Colditz: The Full Story
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Major Pat Reid brings together the many dramatic discoveries resulting from research that has covered the five continents. From Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, German and Polish prisoners, as well as those from the British Commonwealth and USA were incarcerated in suffocating intimacy for five years in an alien and hostile land. Under these conditions they proved that men could live together and that loyalty and generosity could thrive, transcending the natural prejudices of race, creed, language and intellectual diversity.
here were more than 300 escape attempts at Colditz and in this fascinating portrayal, Major Pat Reid vividly describes this unique period in Second World War history. Colditz is a true story, which nonetheless possess the mythical qualities that cause a legend to live forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Supposedly escape-proof, Germany's Colditz Castle turned out to be notoriously porous. Halfway through WW II, Allied prisoners already had launched 44 escape attempts, with 16 "home runs'' from the castle. Reid here expands his war classic, The Colditz Story, with interviews and diaries (including a particularly revealng one kept by the German security officer there). The preparations of escape committees are described along with accounts of the more dare-devil escapes. The high spirits and resourcefulness of the men throughout their incarceration are astounding. Reid relates in hilarious detail how the prisoners never missed an opportunity to bait their captors (at one point a British officer convincingly impersonated Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria). The final scene is most affecting: the reception accorded Pfc. Alan M. Murphy of New York, the first Allied soldier to enter Colditz on the day of liberation. Photos.
