Colditz Castle

So they were, they, they'd been, you know, in, in solitary confinement virtually this whole time.

Once they got to, to Colditz Castle in, in Germany, they were permitted during the daytime to interact with other prisoners, to talk to people.

At night, they were locked up again in their solitary cells.

But just the, the, just being able to get sunlight on their faces.

Yeah.

Well, so first they had to be restored to health.

So I, I, you know, I, I mentioned they, they were restored at Geneva Convention protections once they got to Colditz Castle.

But again, towards the end of the war, they and everybody else was starving, so the, the prison guards weren't eating.

At every camp, he planned and pushed and refused to accept that being a prisoner was a permanent condition.

He was so relentlessly, exhaustingly determined to get out that the Germans eventually sent him to Colditz Castle, Oflag Four Charlie, maximum security, the old fortress in Saxony where the Reich sent Allied officers who were simply too much trouble to hold anywhere else.

Bader settled in with the other inmates, and the planning continued.

April fifteenth, 1945.

Gulp, says John.

By coincidence, we were on our way to Colditz Castle.

And that was before they'd rumbled you for wasp swatting.

Do you remember Colditz?