My great grandfather was there during the war and he escaped ! He wrote a book about it later and I’m reading it at the moment ! It’s called the Colditz story and whoever reads this comment should read the book !

Very interesting video. I always wanted to visit this castle as my father was a Polish prisoner there in 1942. He was the camp barber.

My breathtaking friend shared this video with me and i thank her very much. She's so important to me.

Just stumbled upon this - thanks Nick, great job. I visited in 2016 trying to find proof my grandfather was in Colditz because we have a portrait of him painted in there and the wonderful Steffi could only verify the stamps on the back as being Colditz and SS censorship stamps. This still wasnt proof for Australian War Records Unfortunately but it was a step closer than we had achieved in 50 years. Thanks to renewed interest and brilliant british research and journalism the final proof came out and Frank was recognised as a Colditz POW. A shame his own country considered a mere private (also a very talented escape artist) not worthy of finding out about so I am very thankful to see Britain stepped up a couple of years later. Thanks again

I knew Commander W L Stephens who escaped from Colditz and made a 'home run " and after the war he married a woman who helped him during his time on the run during his escape -he died in the South of France some years ago

I visited the castle 29 years ago. Found it fascinating. Read the books, saw the film and TV series. Ingenious escape attempts. Brave men.

Great video, m8. Enjoyed it. I love the tv series. Bernard Hepton et al.👍😀

a great video, thanks for posting. i just watched last night the final episode of the tv series called liberation. for some reason i have always thought the castle was much further from the town.

Have never lost my fascination with the story of this marvelous building during its use as a POW camp in world war 2 - thanks so much for posting this.

Thanks! I was here in June '15. I agree, a fantastic place. I was very lucky when I was there. The 2 hour tour was on the Monday but I went on the Sunday thinking I'd go back on the Monday anyway. I was desperate to see it above the town as I approached by car. I went inside. I decided to book on to the 1 hour tour departing in 20 mins or so. It was very warm that afternoon so I sat outside the souvenir shop eating an icecream. It was where the tour would start. After about 10 minutes a guy appeared and asked, 'Should I wait until you've finished?' He was the head guide and he said I was the only person on the tour and (more importantly) 'I've got the keys!' Needless to say they were all used!! We went everywhere...... He was great. He pointed out features etc to remember when we were (often) underground. I am sure you'd have visited one of the solitary confinement cells? There's one which overlooks the town. Apparently POWs' deprivations were helped by seeing citizens in the town below going about their lives. I had pointed out to me where Ch 4 launched a replica glider. It was above the loft where it was constructed. It flew! And very capably. It crossed the river and landed a fair way away. Later one was constructed in England and tested. The pilot was amazed by its capabilities. They effectively proved it would have worked! Both clips were on KZfaq. I understood that the glider wasn't used as the POWs knew the war would end and lives were not to be risked...... How frustrating must that have felt! Did you see the document showing 'home runs'? The British had a few but ten-fold the number of attempts of other nations! Glad you recorded your visit so interestingly.

I have always been fascinated by WW2 POW stories. I watch the TV series Colditz as a youth. This caught my imagination. I got to visit the castle in 1998. The inmates were a rare breed of men, the like of which we'll never see again.

IMDB - Internet Movie Data Base - states the film was made on location - Filming Locations - Colditz Castle, Saxony, Germany and Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK Great video. Thank you. Job well done.

Nice work there.We did the full tour and worth every penny .That's Steffi the fantastic guide in the picture.We stayed the night .Very reasonable .Big modern room.Good food.Loved every minute of it .All very nostalgic.The Kestrel is still flying around too by the way. 10 out of 10.

Thank you for this, most interesting, didn’t see the 1954 film but was a keen viewer of the 1974 TV series which was, as I understand, filmed at Stirling Castle.

Prisoner of War game on PC - who remembers it

Frikken awesome video, everyone should watch it! I grew up on Paul Brickhill reading Reach for the sky, The Wooden Horse etc with a special facination for Coldtitz. Thanks for the effort and thanks for sharing. 🇿🇦👍

A very well made video. Mixing the old pictures with the locations was a great touch. I only wish more people would go that extra effort when showing us their visits. Thank you for posting.

I visited here perhaps a little before you did. I went on the Sunday/weekend tour. I was the only one that day and the head guide came up to me and said I've got the keys and where do you want to go? Needless to say all was visited. We went to the solitary confinement rooms and one overlooked the town. He said it gave the inmate a view of the town unlike the norm so perhaps wasn't as punishing as you might think. I noticed in the museum a chart of home runs etc by nationality. The British attempts dwarfed the others by a factor of hundreds! The guide told me that many German visitors go there as it's famous for its zoo etc and are surprised by its WW2 history.

Thanks for taking the effort to put this together.Very interesting!

great video, I visited the castle in July and you have covered all the key information. Its also worthy to note that there is a memorial to those killed by SS in the castle prior to it becoming a POW camp. Also one British Solider is buried near the castle, I dont recall his name

Very well done. I’ve just watched a video on Douglas Bader, the English pilot who was an inmate at Colditz, so watched your tour with interest.

thankyou sir, that was wonderful.

Fascinating to see this! We were able to visit in May 2007 but a lot of the internal areas of the PoW part were not safe to visit, the guide said that the floors were rotten, but we were told to come back 10 years later! I see that the 'main entrance' in your video is the exit to the Park - favoured escape route for the Dutch.

The two cutout figures at 4:40 are of two of the prisoners in the disguises they used in their escapes. In front is the British officer Airey Neave as a German Corporal and behind it is the French officer Lieutenant Boulle dressed as a woman. Airey Neave later became a Member of Parliament and was killed by an IRA car bomb in 1979.

I would love to. Visit. There

When the wall first fell, I drove into East Germany in my camper, we visited Colditz, parked below the castle and walked up the access to the castle, A guy was talking to two French people, He invited us to join him, he explained it was still a mental hospital, but he could go in with a small group, we entered the prisoner compound and went into the chapel. Later after the French had left we went to his house, where he had a bedroom containing most of the Colditz escape museum, His father had hidden it during the years of Russian occupation. I bought a Bottle of Colditz lager in the little beer shop mentioned in Dogulas Baders book, I still have it sitting on my book case

A very interesting video, thanks for uploading it 👍🏻

Excellent Nick. Just be re-watching the tv series on U tube. Thanks for the video :)

Excellent video, very informative; shot with a steady hand and well narrated. I’m am visiting this legendary place next year, pandemic pending! Thanks for the video.

Thanks, hoping to visit in the coming years

Great video. Thank you!!

Went there in 2011, something I'd dreamed about doing since I was a boy - and it far exceeded my expectations. You had the same tour guide as I did. I think her name was Steffi? My thanks to Rolf for putting us up at such short notice.

Ahhh commandos 2 memories

Nick, Thanks for this great guide to Colditz- reminded me of my own visit there in 2004. I can recall the sheer size of the place and the sights overlooking the town below. I saw the French tunnel and also the museum which contained a copy of the Colditz board game(which I had not seen since boyhood). A really well-done documentary-thanks again.

Great video mate. Thanks. Very interesting

Brilliant thank you !

Brilliant. Very well done.

Thanks Nick, very informative. :)

Nice to see out side castel

Thanks for uploading and sharing.

Watching colitz series these days

Very Interesting, thanks for the upload. x

I watched the film again on the telly in 2019 and then thought : go on KZfaq and see how it looks today : and you said it was a castle from Scotland in the film not the one from Colditz in Germany the original but it looks the same ( fascinating)

Ah, yes, Sterling Castle in Scotland. Is that the one that’s made entirely of silver? There’s a Stirling Castle‘s about twenty miles from where I live but I’ve never heard of or come across a Sterling Castle. The one at Stirling was the castle which was the strategic aim of the English army which got clobbered by Robert the Bruce and his chums at Bannockburn in 1314. As an Englishman living in Scotland I can tell you that not being able to correctly spell the name of one of Scotland’s most important castles does not go down too well in these parts. It just feeds the Scots’ sense that the English have no understanding of Scotland. They can spell Colditz but not Stirling. As for the video itself it is very informative. I always find it helpful to see something like this before visiting somewhere as you can get so much more out of a visit when you know what you are looking for. I have visited Colditz twice, in 1989 and in 2013. Our tour guide in 2013 was the same lady you see in this video.

I .have just revisited this video the glass case you can see at 10:46 was in the chapel when we visited just after the wall fell, the guy told us the contents came from the tunnel that came up into one corner.

How interesting. I can’t imagine wanting to stay there. What vibes it would have. Horrific.

Great vid, well done.

do you have to be a member of the youth hostel association to stay there? im thinking of going there in the spring .

Bravo!

Found this very interesting.

Watching now as I try to escape from Covid Castle....thank you very interesting.

Who's here because of Commandos 2 video game

Gameplay... Commandos 2 Men Of Courage...👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Where they really shoot colitz series

Thank you for sharing this video. A visit to Colditz has been on my bucket list for years and, hopefully. will come to fruition in 2017 now that I've got a decent camper. The picture of the market place makes it look quite a way uphill to the castle from the town, how close is the nearest car park?

Cool

hello i have watched the film about colditz i have a tv series to where can i get a copy of the book

코만도스게임에 나온 콜디츠성하고 거의 비슷하네 고증 잘 만든듯

can you stay at the Colditz Castle hotel?

It's Stirling Castle not Sterling Castle!.

Nơi này tôi đã sống và làm việc tại nhà máy sành sứ pozlanw

The worst the German officers, did was to put the most intellectual Pilots in billet s together!!

Museum completely empty lol

Very well done. I’ve just watched a video on Douglas Bader, the English pilot who was an inmate, so watched your tour with interest.

Brilliant. Very well done.