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The rope of bedsheets used by Surmanowicz
and Schmiel.
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Escaping Colditz
3: Mid-May 1941
Polish Lieuts. Niki Surmanowicz and Mietek Schmiel, doing time
in solitary confinement, somehow managed to get out of their locked cells and
into the prison yard. Friends in the Polish quarters in floors above lowered a
rope, which the pair used to get into the adjacent guardroom's attic. Putting
the same rope out the attic window on the castle's western side, they began
sliding down, but the nails in Schmiel's boots scraped on the wall, giving them
away.
Previous escape |
Next escape |
See the map
- First escape
April 12, 1941
- Straw mattresses
May 8, 1941
- Locked cells
Mid-May 1941
- Canteen tunnel
May 1941
- German woman
June 1941
- Air-raid shelter
June 1941
- Hacksaw
June 1941
- Over the wall
July 2, 1941
- Air shaft
July 28, 1941
|
- Lavatory
July 31, 1941
- Manhole
Late summer, 1941
- Dummies
December 1941
- German officers
December 1941
- Main gate
January 6, 1942
- Town dump
March 1942
- Wooden crate
September 7, 1942
- Mussolini's office
September 9, 1942
- Headquarters building
October 15, 1942
|
- Willi the electrician
December 1942
- "Maddest attempt"
May 11, 1943
- Franz Josef
September 2, 1943
- Cellar house
January 19, 1944
- Rubbish heap
May 2, 1944
- Greatest escaper
September 25, 1944
- Glider
April 1945
|
Escaping Colditz |
The Jailor's Story |
Great Escapes |
The Colditz Glider
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