Hollywood travesty as courage of Colditz is rewritten

BY DAVID SMITH

IT was one of the finest of Britain's finest hours. But ask moviegoing children of the future who were the heroes of the Colditz Castle prison camp and they are likely to talk of good old-fashioned American pluck.

The Colditz Story, one of the most famous tales of British courage and fortitude, is to get a Hollywood make-over and become another audacious hymn to how the United States won the Second World War.

After The Great Escape and Saving Private Ryan, this is the latest challenge to the old maxim that the victors of war get to write history as they like it. For "victors", claim the critics, now read tinseltown screenwriters.

The number one film at the American box office over Easter weekend was U-571, which effectively credits the US Navy with one of the most pivotal moments of the war -- when it was in fact Britain which captured the Enigma cipher machine from a Nazi submarine, enabling us to break the German codes.

But the hijacking of Colditz by the Americans is perhaps even more galling, since it has always ranked among the most glorious of British Boys' Own stories.

To the dismay of many who recall stiff upper-lipped Englishman John Mills in the the 1954 version, the revisionist remake of The Colditz Story is set to star all-American actors Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, playing US prisoners attempting heroic escapes from the fortress prison.

The reality is that no American servicemen took part in a Colditz escape attempt -- and were not even at the camp when the daring efforts took place. Eight Americans arrived at the end of the war, but by then Colditz was virtually escape-proof, and attempts were discouraged because with the Allies closing in, Hitler had ordered that anyone caught would be executed.

But that has not deterred movie studio Miramax, which acquired the rights to the books by Pat Reid, who broke out of the camp, near Leipzig, in 1942 and later wrote three best-sellers about his experiences.

Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein said: "I have spoken to Tom, Matt and Ben and they are up for it, and very interested." The prospect of Americans ransacking history at Britain's expense brought scorn from war veterans and researchers devoted to preserving the story accurately for future generations.

Kenneth Lockwood, 88, ex-PoW and secretary of the Colditz Association, said: "I wish they wouldn't do it. I'd like to see the script before the film is made but there's not much we can do about it.

"If they show Americans leading the escape from Colditz I'm inclined to laugh. When I saw the old film where Errol Flynn won the war in Burma I hooted -- how ridiculous can you get? In this instance, if they're not careful, they'll get laughed at." Mr Lockwood, imprisoned in Colditz for four years and five months, added: "I disapprove strongly of rewriting history. Usually they've got a good story in its own right and it doesn't need any dressing up because the facts are far more interesting and exciting than fiction.

"The 1954 version got the atmosphere absolutely right. The opening of Saving Private Ryan was quite brilliant, as close to reality as I think they could get, but I'm not too sure about the rest of the story factually.

"One is prepared to accept a few errors and poetic licence but the Americans just don't give credit. The problem is, some people very easily confuse films with history."

David Ray, secretary of the Colditz Society, which aims to protect the memory of events there, said: "It will probably be a smashing film but I'm afraid it could be a travesty of history.

"Colditz was unique because it had all the services -- Army, Navy, RAF -- and lots of different nationalities, but Americans were only there for the last few weeks. What concerns me is it will portrayed as an American camp with a few Britons in the background.

"It will be Hollywood winning the war and not Britons escaping a prison camp. If so, it won't be the first time and will be of little interest to us as a historical society. The black and white movie was actually very accurate, but it's these blockbusters which seem to take on the form of truth. Even people old enough to remember the war talk about the Americans in The Great Escape.

"Ninety per cent of these Western films come from America. If they see a market they'll pounce. It's a little sad we get this distorted view but I think it's inevitable and if I was in their shoes I would do the same."

Barry Norman, Sky TV film critic, said: "Colditz is like Dunkirk, one of the great backs-to-the-wall British stories about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat."It's extremely irritating when the Americans muscle in on everybody else's glory. Where's it going to end? Did the Americans win everything in the war?" Mr Weinstein promises British actors will be involved in the updated Colditz Story. But the major studios insist that casting Americans in lead roles is essential for box office success, and some leeway should be allowed.

David Irving comments:

INTERESTINGLY, the Pat Reid book reproduces a map of Colditz castle, complete with a "gas chamber" which was, as the map acknowledges, a fumigation chamber for clothing. I included the map in my Discovery of documents before the Lipstadt trial; totalling failing to grasp or understand the point, the judge (Master Trench) accepted the Lipstadt defence counsel's plea that the document should be struck out of my bundle.