Colditz Castle in Saxony, Germany, sits high on a precipitous cliff face that towers above a tributary of the river Mulde. First built in the 11th century, the forbidding castle was variously used as a lunatic asylum, a sanatorium for the wealthy, and, through the 1930s, as a prison for enemies of Nazi Germany. In 1939, the castle took on its most famous role: a camp for Allied prisoners of war who had repeatedly attempted to escape from less secure camps. Considered escape-proof by the German army authorities who ran it, the prisoners at Colditz had other ideas, some of which were ludicrous failures, but many others were audacious successes.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original content at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2791/escaping-colditz/.