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Marquise's Reviews > Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison
Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison
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Marquise's review
bookshelves: non-fiction, history-biography-and-memoirs, world-war-ii, have-reviewed
Jun 04, 2024
bookshelves: non-fiction, history-biography-and-memoirs, world-war-ii, have-reviewed
I initially wondered if this would be about the famous escape by Allied prisoners from Stalag Luft III that was told by Paul Brickhill in his memoir, and later fictionalised for the film "The Great Escape." But no, this is about a similar situation in a different POW camp, Oflag IV-C, commonly known as Colditz Castle.
I'm not sure why the author assumes this camp and its escapee POWs are famous like the other camp, though. Outside of historians and WWII connoisseurs, I'd be surprised if anyone has a clear memory of Colditz, whereas Stalag Luft III is pop culture by this point, thanks to Hollywood. Neither are the prisoners at Colditz as interesting, or their experiences as riveting or engrossing, compared to the others. This may be an issue with the storytelling, because for what it aims to tell, this was a very tedious book about rather self-aggrandising officers and the anecdotes nowhere as colourful as the bar set up by Brickhill's book. So very disappointing!
I'm not sure why the author assumes this camp and its escapee POWs are famous like the other camp, though. Outside of historians and WWII connoisseurs, I'd be surprised if anyone has a clear memory of Colditz, whereas Stalag Luft III is pop culture by this point, thanks to Hollywood. Neither are the prisoners at Colditz as interesting, or their experiences as riveting or engrossing, compared to the others. This may be an issue with the storytelling, because for what it aims to tell, this was a very tedious book about rather self-aggrandising officers and the anecdotes nowhere as colourful as the bar set up by Brickhill's book. So very disappointing!
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Reading Progress
May 21, 2024
– Shelved as:
to-read
May 21, 2024
– Shelved
May 31, 2024
–
Started Reading
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
non-fiction
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
history-biography-and-memoirs
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
world-war-ii
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
have-reviewed
June 4, 2024
–
Finished Reading
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Michelle
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Jun 04, 2024 07:41PM
Oh no! This sounded like it would be a good one, too.
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Michelle wrote: "Oh no! This sounded like it would be a good one, too."Yeah, I'm a bit sad, I was expecting a great read about escape from a Nazi camp. Paul Brickhill's book is one of my fave memories from my youth, one of the books that got me into WWII history.
Was it the style or the story itself that didn't work?
Michelle wrote: "Was it the style or the story itself that didn't work?"Both.
I'll have to check out Brickhill's book!!
Elevetha wrote: "I'll have to check out Brickhill's book!!"Wooohooo! I convinced Elevethsy of reading something, that's a victory. 😄
I loved it! My current rating on GR is from a reread, it lost one star then. 😄 The film is also fun, with Steve McQueen and all, but the book is what had me enthralled and taught me WWII history can and is fun to read! Not everything is the Holocaust and bleakness, there's heroism and resilience and even humour.
Imme wrote: "Very interesting review, Marquise!❤️"Thank you, dear Imme. ❤️
I've heard about Colditz but there's not much more I can say about it. I have to admit though, this is a period in time I really don't know a lot about. Good review, Marquise. Hope the next book you read will be more to your taste :)
Thibault wrote: "I've heard about Colditz but there's not much more I can say about it."Yeah, it's a name that appears on history textbooks here and there, but for what exactly is where people usually can't put their finger on.
Thank you, Thibu! ❤️
I imagine it's hard when you've spent so much time researching something to not expect everyone else to know about it too (actually I don't have to imagine that, I'm guilty of doing it!). Fair review, Marquise!
Colditz was actually really well known when I was young. There was a disarmingly sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking memoir by one of the inmates, which sparked a BBC tv show in the seventies. Really interesting was the memoir written by the castle's commandant, especially his account of the weird hours and days right when the war ended. Macintyre's is pretty much a cash-in, unfortunately.
A wrote: "I imagine it's hard when you've spent so much time researching something to not expect everyone else to know about it too (actually I don't have to imagine that, I'm guilty of doing it!)."Hehe, thank you, Mac! It might have been far more known in the past than it is nowadays, and the author ran with that.
Sherwood wrote: "Colditz was actually really well known when I was young. There was a disarmingly sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking memoir by one of the inmates, which sparked a BBC tv show in the seventies."Yeah, McIntyre does mention that show and memoir by Pat Reid, he's the one I referred to when I said self-aggrandising officers. 😄
I imagine it was far more known in your time, the 50s-70s were the high point of WWII memoirs and films, but few have stayed in the popular memory beyond their time. "The Great Escape" did, but Colditz? Not sure, not nowadays and in my generation at least.
Sherwood wrote: "This is true."Pity, it really had potential for today's audiences. Who doesn't like stories about outfoxing Nazis? 😄
This def doesn't sound like a good book.
Persephone's Pomegranate wrote: "This def doesn't sound like a good book."For me, it wasn't. But then, my expectations for WWII non-fic aren't exactly average... 😂
