Colditz

[Spitfire]

Just started re-watching the BBC TV series COLDITZ. For a flick actually made in the early seventies, it still holds up.
Great story, good casting - and good to see that all germans are not shown as stupid robots or ice-cold nazis.
(You can find both seasons on YouTube)

 

[Stearmen]

Just started re-watching the BBC TV series COLDITZ. For a flick actually made in the early seventies, it still holds up.
Great story, good casting - and good to see that all germans are not shown as stupid robots or ice-cold nazis.
(You can find both seasons on YouTube)

Thanks Spitfire, I will watch it! Although, it is still amazing how the POWs had a fairly complex radio station and of course were almost done building a full size two man glider when the war ended. Right under Jerry's nose! Just recently they found a tunnel the POWs were working on.

 

[Two Types]

I visited Colditz a few years back. It's a fascinating place.

 

[Ghost Rider]

I've also been there a couple of times. What always surprises me is that most Germans have never heard of the place or it's history.

 

[Foxer55]

Ghost Rider,

What always surprises me is that most Germans have never heard of the place or it's history.

Or so they say.

 

[Fastuni]

What always surprises me is that most Germans have never heard of the place or it's history.

As opposed to the majority of the British or American public?

Colditz is one of those things about WW2 that is known by the somewhat more historically interested - not the general public.
It is also a rather minute detail as opposed to places like Auschwitz or the other major death/concentration camps.

A lack of awareness about the latter (which sadly is increasingly the case) is much more worrying.

 

[Ghost Rider]

Ghost Rider,

Or so they say.

No, there's generally a lack of knowledge about the place.

As opposed to the majority of the British or American public?

Colditz is one of those things about WW2 that is known by the somewhat more historically interested - not the general public.
It is also a rather minute detail as opposed to places like Auschwitz or the other major death/concentration camps.

A lack of awareness about the latter (which sadly is increasingly the case) is much more worrying.

Many Brits and Americans know about Colditz due to films such as "The Great Escape". Likewise, when I was young, there was a Television series entitled "Escape from Colditz", which was incredibly popular. Most of my friends even had the "Escape from Colditz" board game, which we used to Play often.

To your last point, Colditz was never a concentration camp, but a prison for people who either had a previous history of escaping from other POW camps or were seen as political prisoners (e.g. Churchill's nephew).

 

[the hairy bloke]

A former friend of mine had a German mother. His uncle used to deliver vegetables to Colditz, as a boy.

He came back one day saying "You won't believe this but there is a prisoner up there, with no legs".


They didn't.

It was, of course, Douglas Bader.

 

[Fastuni]

To your last point, Colditz was never a concentration camp

Where did I say that Colditz was a concentration camp?

My point was that a lack of awareness among the general public about places like Colditz is something I wouldn't worry about too much.
(Also in reference to Foxer55's insinuation that Germans feign ignorance about Colditz for some - probably sinister - motive.)

BTW how many Germans/British/Americans could name any of the places where millions of captured Soviet soldiers perished?

Many Brits and Americans know about Colditz due to films such as "The Great Escape" [etc.].

I have little doubt that a survey among the general British/American public about "Colditz" will show that the great majority has no idea.

 

[Smithy]

Colditz is one of those things about WW2 that is known by the somewhat more historically interested - not the general public.

It was certainly widely known by my generation of NZers due to Charles Upham being a guest there and his subsequent decision upon liberation not to be evacuated out but to "do his own thing".

I think it's also fairly well known with Brits of my generation and older due to Bader having been there. He was rather a famous fellow back in the day amongst everyday Britons.

 

[Ghost Rider]

Where did I say that Colditz was a concentration camp?

Sorry, after rereading your original post, I think I misinterpreted your original sentiment.

BTW how many Germans/British/Americans could name any of the places where millions of captured Soviet soldiers perished?

Very few, I would imagine

I have little doubt that a survey among the general British/American public about "Colditz" will show that the great majority has no idea.

I think this is generation dependent. Certainly within my generation, Colditz has something of a legendary status, due to the films, game etc. that I mentioned earlier.

 

[Edward]

A former friend of mine had a German mother. His uncle used to deliver vegetables to Colditz, as a boy.

He came back one day saying "You won't believe this but there is a prisoner up there, with no legs".


They didn't.

It was, of course, Douglas Bader.

Must have been after the third (I think) escape attempt - that's when, as I recall, they confiscated his artificial legs.

 

[Two Types]

BTW how many Germans/British/Americans could name any of the places where millions of captured Soviet soldiers perished?

Not many. But I'm a WW2 historian and if I was asked that question I wouldn't be able to specify one place. Instead, I would have to answer: 'They died in almost every POW camp and arbeitslager across Germany and eastern Europe. They died in mines, fields, factories, oil refineries and bombed cities. And on all the roads and railways between Germany and the eastern front. And in the Soviet Union after repatriation.'
I think that covers it.

 

[Fastuni]

That answer certainly covers it.
What I tried to convey was that the terrible ordeal and death of millions of Soviet POWs - most already in the first seven months after "Barbarossa" (certainly rightly described as one of the "most concentrated mass killings in history") is largely overlooked altogether or at least paid much less attention than other aspects of the POW experience in WW2.

 

[Two Types]

The British POWs I have interviewed all noted how awful it was for them to watch the Red Army POWs slowly starving and being worked to death. One told me how he was beaten for daring to feed them. Another told me that, when the war ended, the British POWs stood aside and watched as the Russian POWs threw the German guards down the shaft of the Silesian mine they worked at. Stories of Soviet POWs turning to cannibalism in order to survive are common.