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  1. #1
    DF Admin 4me2's Avatar
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    Attention Colditz seeks to tempt tourists

    <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=629 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>Colditz seeks to tempt tourists

    </TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=416><!-- S BO --><!-- S IBYL --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=416 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=bottom>By Steve Rosenberg
    BBC Berlin correspondent
    </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

    <!-- E IBYL -->
    <!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> Mr Heinrich is one of the few former Colditz guards still alive

    </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->Sitting on the sofa in his tiny apartment, 86-year-old Alfred Heinrich shows me his wartime snaps: old portraits of himself as a dashing young soldier in the Wehrmacht.
    Mr Heinrich was lucky to survive World War II. He lost an eye and received a serious leg wound on the Russian Front.
    His combat days over, in 1942 Mr Heinrich began work as a guard at a prisoner-of-war camp for captured Allied officers. The camp was called 'Oflag 4C' - it is better known as Colditz.
    "At Colditz it was always like cat and mouse," recalled Mr Heinrich, who is one of the few Colditz guards still alive.
    He went on: "Prisoners kept escaping and we had to keep catching them. I remember one day I heard a kind of knocking noise. It was coming from a manhole. Together with my superior, we lifted up the manhole cover and there in the sewers were two English prisoners who'd been trying to escape!"
    <!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> Colditz, in the heart of Hitler's Reich, became the stuff of legend

    </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->It is a 10-minute drive from Alfred's flat to Colditz Castle - once home to the Nazis' most secure PoW camp. Colditz was supposed to have been escape-proof.

    But Allied officers made hundreds of attempts to break out. Some went through tunnels while others escaped by dressing up as women or as German officers. Most attempts failed, but 32 POWs got out and made it home.
    Castle makeover
    Colditz became a legend in Britain. Few Germans, though, have ever heard of the place. During the Cold War, this town was part of communist East Germany and the castle's wartime past was papered over.
    "We knew about the concentration camps where people were killed," explained Renate Lippmann from the castle museum.
    <!-- S IBOX --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=208 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5></TD><TD class=sibtbg> I believe that we should keep all the shafts and tunnels from the war


    Renate Lippmann, Colditz Castle Museum

    </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IBOX -->
    She added: "But I myself never knew there were prisoner-of-war (POW) camps where prisoners were treated fairly well, according to the Geneva Convention."
    Today, though, Colditz Castle is trying to get itself noticed. With tourism the priority, it is encouraging more Germans - as well as holidaymakers from abroad - to escape to Colditz.
    To bring in the tourists, the castle is carrying out a serious spring clean. Grey prison walls have been painted white, while solitary confinement cells have been turned into offices and toilets.
    As for the camp commandant's quarters, they have now been transformed into an international youth hostel, with special family rooms. Amazing as it may seem, Colditz Castle is now being marketed as a holiday destination.
    Critics believe the face-lift is going too far.
    <!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> The transformation of Colditz has sparked controversy

    </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->
    "We estimate that in three years, everything from the Colditz prison camp time will be gone through the restoration," claimed Ralf Gorny, local hotel owner and member of the Colditz Appreciation Society.
    He added: "The state of Saxony would like to create a fairy tale castle. But most of the overseas guests want to see the Colditz Camp time - the tunnels, the solitary cells. Colditz doesn't need a fairy tale castle."
    Colditz, though, does not only want to be remembered as a prison. It has a colourful 500-year history. During that time it has been a poor house, a hospital, a mental institution - and, in the 17th Century, the hunting lodge of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony - a man so virile, he is said to have had 365 children.
    Ms Lippmann confirmed that the renovations would reflect all periods of the castle's history. But she is confident that the owner, the state of Saxony, will preserve the main features of the prison camp.
    'Too sanitised'
    "I believe that we should keep all the shafts and tunnels from the war. We have told the owner to do it and the owner has now understood," she said.
    At the end of my visit, I enjoy a piano recital in the castle's concert hall - once the POWs' sick bay. As the Beethoven sonata echoes around the thick stone walls, the evening sunshine streams through the leaded windows, bathing the pianist and audience in red and gold. This may not be the Colditz we remember from the stories, books and war films. It may at times seem a little too bright, too sanitised, too shiny. But for the town of Colditz it must surely be good that life is finally returning to their castle, which for so many years sat abandoned and forgotten.
    </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6922956.stm

  2. #2
    DF VIP Member BBK's Avatar
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    Default Re: Colditz seeks to tempt tourists

    IMO this place should remain as a tourist attraction, but in its original state. For me, the name Colditz is almost more synoymous with POW camps than Auschwitz, maybe because of the BBC TV series from when I was a kid, but all the same, its an important part of history, and shouldn't be glammed up.

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    DF VIP Member stevie2001's Avatar
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    Default Re: Colditz seeks to tempt tourists

    Quote Originally Posted by BBK View Post
    IMO this place should remain as a tourist attraction, but in its original state. For me, the name Colditz is almost more synoymous with POW camps than Auschwitz, maybe because of the BBC TV series from when I was a kid, but all the same, its an important part of history, and shouldn't be glammed up.
    Whilst I do agree with what you`re saying, in reality, I doubt leaving the whole place as was wouldn`t make economic sense, I`d suspect the owners would like visitors to stay in the Castle as Paying Guests. Maybe they`d be a possibility for Guests to enjoy a Night as a POW, theres many possibilities to encourage visitors, but its down to the imagination of the owners.

    I`d hope that some parts were left as was, if only for Historical reasons, with parafarnalia from the the time to allow visitors to better understand what went on at the time.

    I know over in the UK we have many places that are recreated to allow visitors to savour the time & atmosphere of what it was really like... Maybe the owners could have a consultation with the UK?

    I, like you remember the TV series, although I`m sure it wasn`t quite what happened, however the Film was very much like the book (well worth watching & reading) if only to
    appreciate what the POW`s went through & the Ingenious things they did with what they had.

    Many of those from that time (WW2) are sadly not with us now & the world as we know it, is a better place for their sacrifice IMO.

    Some of those alive (youngsters) today have no idea of why we have the freedom we have & what happened many years ago to give them that freedom. Perhaps if we had more insight & education as to what went on all those years ago they might just have a little more respect for their elders? Then again perhaps not?

    Just my opinion.

    Steve

  4. #4
    DF VIP Member Lee Macro's Avatar
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    Default Re: Colditz seeks to tempt tourists

    Quote Originally Posted by BBK View Post
    For me, the name Colditz is almost more synoymous with POW camps than Auschwitz, maybe because of the BBC TV series from when I was a kid,
    Wonder if they'll do the same with Tenko??

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