Colditz was truly an international escapers camp. Not just during it’s period of being a Straflager, which saw Dutch, French, Belgians, Polish etc, but also when it was a Sonderager with the continued presence of British, New Zealander’s, Canadians, Australians, South Africans etc.
Below is a brief description of the history of the nationalities:
End October 1940 Spangenberg 3 Canadian RAF.
Keith Milne Don Middleton ’Hank’ Wardle
November 1940 Laufen 6 British Army.
Left to right: Harry Elliot, Rupert Barry, Pat Reid, Dick Howe, Peter Allan & Kenneth Lockwood.
By Christmas 1940 there were 60 Polish officers, 12 Belgians, 50 French, and 30 British, a total of no more than 200 with their orderlies.
The Poles outside the Chapel.
In February 1941, 200 French officers arrived. A number of the French demanded that French Jewish officers be segregated from them and the camp commandant obliged; they were moved to the attics.
The French.
On July 24, 1941, 68 Dutch officers arrived, members of the Dutch East Indies Army, who had refused to sign a declaration that they would take no part in the war against Germany.
Some of the Dutch.
By the end of July 1941, there were more than 500 officers: over 250 French, 150 Polish, 50 British and Commonwealth, 2 Yugoslavian and the 68 Dutch officers.
In May 1943, the Wehrmacht High Command decided that Colditz should house only Americans and British, so in June the Dutch were moved out, followed shortly thereafter by the Poles, the Belgians, and the French; with the final French group leaving July 12, 1943. By the end of July there were a few Free French officers, and 228 British officers, with a contingent consisting of Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Irish, and one Indian.
On August 23, 1944 Colditz received its first Americans: 49-year-old Colonel Florimund Duke — the oldest American paratrooper of the war, Captain Guy Nunn, and Alfred Suarez. They were all counter-intelligence operatives parachuted into Hungary to prevent it joining forces with Germany. Population was approximately 254 at the start of the early winter that year.