Reinhold Eggers Reinhold Eggers ( 1890 – 1974 ) was the security officer at Oflag IV - C from November 1940 until April 1945 , promoted to chief of security in 1944 . The Nova television programme " Nazi Prison Escape " , a shortened cut of a British documentary series , was based on his books about Colditz . He spent 10 years in Russian ordered imprisonment following the war , and was released in 1955 . Pre - World War II . In March 1913 , Eggers was called up for military service and was , on his request , posted to the 2nd Battalion of marine infantry ( " Seebataillon " ) at Wilhelmshaven . His Battalion commander was the famed Paul Emil von Lettow - Vorbeck , who after six months personally promoted Eggers to " Gefreiter " . Eggers completed his training on 31 March 1914 and was promoted to the rank of " Unteroffizier " . After the outbreak of World War I he was ordered to join the First Regiment of Marine Infantry at Kiel . He was subsequently posted on the western front where he won the Iron Cross Second Class on 8 May 1915 , the Iron Cross First Class and the Hesse Medal for bravery on the Somme in December 1915 . To cope with the Weimar Republic ' s hyperinflation in the 1920s he had to sell his whole fortune which amounted to little more than 10 , 000 marks . Eggers and his wife bought an acre and a half of land at Reideburg . When conditions had somewhat stabilised he decided to start studying to regain his post as a teacher . In his years as a high school teacher in the 1930s he promoted international relations and visited Britain and France with his students . He failed to anticipate the untrustworthiness of his fellow teachers , however , and in 1933 he was denounced by six of his colleagues to the Nazis who accused him of being a left - winger and an internationalist . He was consequently only allowed to teach at elementary school . In 1934 he received his PhD from Halle University . World War II & Colditz . In 1939 he was recalled to the army as a reserve lieutenant . Because of his language skills he was sent to Oflag IV - A Hohnstein as a translator . The POWs at Hohnstein were mostly French officers including 28 generals and an additional seven Dutch and 27 Polish generals . Eggers felt his experiences at this camp were a very poor preparation for his time at Colditz . POWs and guards treated each other with respect and there were no real problems or friction . On 22 November 1940 , Eggers received his orders to report to Oflag IV - C , Colditz . He started as LO3 ( Lager offizier 3 or duty officer ) and was faced with rebellious , anti - German POWs from Poland , France and the UK , who took every opportunity to harass their captors . Later these were joined by Belgian , Dutch and American officers . Eggers tended to treat his opponents as difficult schoolboys and always tried to retain his calm and dignity even when provoked to the utmost . On one occasion his cap was stolen by a POW ( to be measured and copied for an escape ) . He calmly waited for a guard to get a new one before he left the building . British and Dutch officers agreed that Eggers always treated them correctly . Lieutenant Damiaen J . van Doorninck , a former Dutch POW , wrote in his foreword for Eggers ' s book that : " This man was our opponent , but nevertheless he earned our respect by his correct attitude , self - control and total lack of rancour despite all the harassment we gave him . " On 1 June 1941 , Eggers was promoted to " Hauptmann " . In February 1944 , he became the Security Officer for the camp , a post he retained until the camp was liberated by the U . S . Army in April 1945 . After Colditz . After the liberation of Colditz Castle by the U . S . Army , Eggers retired from active service and returned to his post as a teacher in Halle , Saxony - Anhalt , as he was able to prove that he had never joined the Nazi Party . He became a headmaster , and then a lecturer at Halle University . In September 1946 , as he was in the Soviet Occupied Zone , he was arrested by the Russians and questioned about Gestapo agents in Colditz . Charged with crimes against humanity , spying and supporting a fascist regime , he was sentenced to ten years labour . This was spent in Sachsenhausen and then Torgau Prison . During the years after this Eggers was active in meeting with former Colditz inmates and writing his memoirs . He retired to live by Lake Constance , where he died in 1974 , aged 84 .