World Prisons
All prisons

Germany

Oflag IV-C

High-securityLow
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit Oflag IV-C

Step-by-step guidance using the Germany system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit
Photograph of Oflag IV-C

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • AireyNeave (cropped).jpg

    Photo by Unknown photographer via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • AireyNeave.jpg

    Photo by Unknown photographer via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Allied Prisoners of War at Oflag Ivc, Colditz HU20265.jpg

    Photo by German official photographer via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Allied Prisoners of War at Oflag Ivc, Colditz HU20269.jpg

    Photo by German official photographer via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Allied Prisoners of War at Oflag Ivc, Colditz HU91465.jpg

    Photo by Unknown authorUnknown author via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Bild 5 Quelle Schloss Colditz li. Hälfte.jpg

    Photo by Unknown photographer via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Colditz cards .jpg

    Photo by Dominiclagan via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Colditz glider replica.jpg

    Photo by Unknown via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Background

Oflag IV-C, generally known as Colditz Castle, was a prominent German Army prisoner-of-war camp for captured Allied officers during World War II. Located in Colditz, Saxony, the camp operated within the medieval Colditz Castle, which overlooks the town. The word "Oflag" is an abbreviation of the German term Offizierslager, meaning "officers' camp". The camp held officers who were deemed escape risks or who had already attempted escape from other prison camps. Known for its seemingly impenetrable structure, Colditz Castle became a site of numerous escape attempts, some of which were successful, earning a reputation for the ingenuity and daring of its prisoners. The camp's history and the elaborate escape plans conceived there have been widely covered in postwar memoirs, books, and media.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

—

Current population

—

Occupancy

—

Year opened

—

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 29 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Operator

—

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

—

Region

—

Security level

High-security

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Notable inmates

  • Willem Romswinckel
    Willem Romswinckel
    1900–1965 · military officer
  • Louis Buisson
    1889–1955 · military personnel

    Louis Buisson (14 December 1889 – 5 December 1955) was a French Major General.

  • Martin Gilliat
    1913–1993 · politician

    Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Martin John Gilliat (8 February 1913 – 27 May 1993) was a British soldier and courtier who served as Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother for 37 years.

  • Evert Steenhouwer
    1900–1979 · military officer
  • Lorne Welch
    1916–1998 · glider pilot

    Patrick Palles Lorne Elphinstone Welch, (12 August 1916 – 15 May 1998), generally known as "Lorne Welch", was the son of Brig Gen Malcolm Hammond Edward Welch CB CMG, who was born in 1872 in Ahmednuggur, India, to Frederick Gibson Terell Welch and Mary Hawke.

  • Machiel van den Heuvel
    1900–1946 · military officer

    Machiel van den Heuvel (7 May 1900 in Haarlemmermeer – 29 June 1946 near Bandung) was a Dutch army officer.

  • George Haig, 2nd Earl Haig
    George Haig, 2nd Earl Haig
    1918–2009 · politician

    George Alexander Eugene Douglas Haig, 2nd Earl Haig, (15 March 1918 – 9 July 2009) was a Scottish artist and peer who succeeded to the earldom of Haig on 29 January 1928, at the age of nine upon the death of his father, Field Marshal the 1st Earl Haig.

  • Pete Tunstall
    1918–2013 · military personnel

    Peter David Tunstall (1 December 1918 – 27 July 2013) was a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and a prisoner of war (POW) held at Colditz Castle.

  • David Stirling
    David Stirling
    1915–1990 · military officer

    Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling (15 November 1915 – 4 November 1990) was a Scottish officer in the British Army and the founder and creator of the Special Air Service (SAS).

Showing 9 of 12. Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

—
Insufficient data
We don't have enough public data on this facility to score it. Have something to add? Send us a correction.

Related facilities

All in Germany →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Data completeness

24%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Oflag IV-C. Retrieved October 15, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/oflag-iv-c
Chicago
"Oflag IV-C." World Prisons. Accessed October 15, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/oflag-iv-c.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-oflag-iv-c,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Oflag IV-C},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/oflag-iv-c},
  urldate = {2026-10-15}
}