The prisoners created numerous committees to regulate prisoner life and tried to produce a sense of normality.

The Red Cross parcels ceased to arrive, but the inmates still fared better than their guards, who had no extra supplies to add to their now-miserable diet. The Jews and other "undesirables" sent to concentration camps like Auschwitz had it much, much worse than the prisoners of Colditz.Checko Chalovpka, a Czech pilot whose affair with Irmgard Wernicke, a dental assistant in town who was a spy who fed information provoked awe. Mazumdar suffered the most terrible racism at Colditz, not really from the Germans but from the British. Captain Pat Reid, a gregarious member of the British Royal Service Corps who shared his plans and was involved in many escape attempts.

What strikes me here, as in a previous book on, Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War, is his refusal to whitewash or sugarcoat anything. With access to an astonishing range of material, Macintyre reveals a remarkable cast of characters of multiple nationalities hitherto hidden from history, with captors and prisoners living for years cheek-by-jowl in a thrilling game of cat and mouse. Eggers is extremely important in that he maintained a written history of the camp that Macintyre had access to. They were the most difficult prisoners: people who had demonstrated, in other camps, that they were going to try to escape, and going to make trouble. The ways in which they frequently worked in unison - in lieu of diversities and any misgivings - provides many lighthearted and inspiring moments for the listener/reader.Macintyre has already made a name for himself through World War II histories such as “Operation Mincemeat” and “Double Cross,” as well as BBC documentaries. The author reminds readers that POW camps were run by the Wehrmacht, which mostly abided by the dictates of the Geneva Conventions.

One of the most demystifying cases that appears in the book is that of Douglas Bader, one of the most legendary pilots of World War II. As a result of family dynastic politics, the town of Colditz was incorporated into the Margraviate of Meissen. BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed are published by Immediate Media Company Limited under licence from BBC Studios Distribution. During 1083, Henry IV urged Margrave Wiprecht of Groitzsch to develop the castle site, which Colditz accepted.For many years after the war, forgotten hiding places and tunnels were found by repairmen, including a radio room established by the French POWs, which was then "lost" again only to be rediscovered some twenty years later. The Germans, of course, saw this as a propaganda opportunity and immediately herded the French-Jewish prisoners – of whom there were about 60 or 70 – into a special barrack in the attics. In 2012, Channel 4 commissioned a team of engineers and carpenters to build another full-sized replica of the glider at Colditz Castle, and launch it (unmanned) from the same roof as had been planned for the original.

He went on hunger strike and insisted he be moved to an all-Indian prison, of which there were very few. Another is about a British officer named Airey Neave who attempted to escape by disguising himself as a German officer, in a poorly-made uniform. Birendranath Mazumdar, an Indian doctor and an officer who was treated poorly by his British “allies” reflecting the racist attitudes of British officers.They organized and created an "escape committee" which arranged the details of each escape, including who would produce or procure money, tools, maps, disguises or any other required materials.