Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by susieseeker
Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison by Ben Macintyre
5.0
I found this to be a fabulous read.
While we have heard lots of The Great Escape, both the movie and the book, as the author says, not many of us have heard of Colditz - the Nazi prison used to house Allied officers captured in WW2. I certainly had not.
I'm also not familiar with military hierarchy, so I hadn't realized the implications and consequences to officers who were captured vs non-officers. And Colditz held officers who were deemed "anti-German" because of previous escape attempts or other actions.
This book is simply amazingly well researched. The author pulls from diaries, records, declassified archives and private papers to weave the narrative. As one review says "Colditz, then, is a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of snobbery, class conflict, hidden sexuality, bullying, espionage, boredom, insanity, and farce."
I've read a number of Macintyre's books and have loved all of them. This one is also superb.
While we have heard lots of The Great Escape, both the movie and the book, as the author says, not many of us have heard of Colditz - the Nazi prison used to house Allied officers captured in WW2. I certainly had not.
I'm also not familiar with military hierarchy, so I hadn't realized the implications and consequences to officers who were captured vs non-officers. And Colditz held officers who were deemed "anti-German" because of previous escape attempts or other actions.
This book is simply amazingly well researched. The author pulls from diaries, records, declassified archives and private papers to weave the narrative. As one review says "Colditz, then, is a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of snobbery, class conflict, hidden sexuality, bullying, espionage, boredom, insanity, and farce."
I've read a number of Macintyre's books and have loved all of them. This one is also superb.