Rolf Magener Rolf Magener ( 3 August 1910 – 5 May 2000 ) was the first German prisoner to escape successfully from India during World War II . His daring escape from a camp at Dehradun in 1944 with mountaineer Heinrich Harrer is documented in Megener ' s memoir , " Prisoner ' s Bluff " . After the war he became a successful business executive and chief financial officer for BASF , and held a senior level position with Mercedes - Benz . Early years . Rolf Magener was born in Odessa on 3 August 1910 to a German businessman father and a Russian mother . He grew up in Germany , but his family spent significant time on the French Riviera due to the health of the mother . After completing boarding school at Hermann Lietz - Schule , he went on to study business management , spending several semesters at Exeter in England , where he became fluent in English . Magener earned his doctorate from the University of Frankfurt in 1937 , writing his dissertation on industry liquidity in economic trends . He then travelled widely around southeast Asia . War years . By 1938 , Magener was working in Bombay for the German multi - national company IG Farben . At the start of World War II , he was interned in September 1939 by the British . By April 1944 , he found himself with 1500 other foreign nationals in a warehouse in Dehradun near the border of Nepal at the foot of the Himalayas . Magener and his friend , Heins von Have , were resolved to escape . They learned that several other prisoners were also planning to escape , among them , Heinrich Harrer , who was part of the four - man climbing team that first scaled the Eiger north face in Switzerland . On the afternoon of 29 April 1944 , seven internees made their escape , with Magener and von Have — both of whom spoke fluent English — disguised as British officers . After the escape , the group split up . Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter , both professional climbers , headed for Tibet . Harrer later recording his adventures and friendship with the Dalai Lama in " Seven Years in Tibet " ( 1953 ) . They were accompanied part of the way by Hans Kopp , who later wrote " Himalayan Shuttlecock " . Magener and von Have decided to make their way to Japan . They travelled 1500 miles southeast across India , still disguised as British soldiers , to the Japanese lines in Burma . Along the way , in an effort to maintain their disguise , they shared railway compartments and restaurant tables with actual British officers . On several occasions they were almost caught by military police . At Calcutta , the pair changed their disguises , now pretending to be Swiss businessmen , and continued on by train and river steamer to Chittagong , from where they took a sampan to Cox ' s Bazaar . They continued on foot through the jungle , fighting hunger and the approaching monsoon . After more than a month on the run they crossed the Naaf River into Burma , where they were captured and imprisoned by Japanese troops who were convinced they were spies . Following two months on starvation rations , they were transferred to a jail at Rangoon , where they were appalled by the conditions inflicted on Allied prisoners . In September 1944 , four months after their initial escape , news of their presence in Burma was released to the Press , and soon they were flown to Japan , where they waited out the war , working as honorary consuls at the German Embassy in Tokyo . Later years . In 1947 , Magener returned to Germany , where he was again imprisoned by the Americans at the reception camp at Ludwigsburg . He was eventually released , and in 1955 , he worked for the international chemical company BASF in their London office . In 1958 he became a financial director of the company and beginning in 1962 was a member of the board of directors . Magener retired in 1974 . In 1976 , he accepted a position on the supervisory board of BDO Germany , serving as its chairperson between 1983 and 1989 . During this time , a held a senior post with Mercedes - Benz in Germany . Magener remained an Anglophile throughout his life , regularly spending his winters in London , where he and his wife kept an apartment and collected English paintings and furniture . In 1954 , Magener published " Prisoner ' s Bluff " , an account of his wartime escape . Rolf Magener died in Heidelberg , Germany on 5 May 2000 at the age of 89 . He was survived by his wife Doris ( née von Behling ) , whom he married in Japan in 1947 .