Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH the Niess-Gain Professor of Surgery and director of the Public Health Sciences Division in the Department of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St has been awarded the Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in Population Science the Brinker Awards are among the highest honors bestowed by Susan G a nonprofit organization that funds breast cancer research Honorees are recognized for their contributions to basic science Read more on the WashU Medicine website Notables Cancer Research Medicine & Health Read more stories from School of Medicine Visit School of Medicine Child tuition benefit webinar offered Flags lowered in memory of Pope Francis WashU moves training to Workday Learning Biology students win annual awards McKelvey Engineering honors 2025 distinguished alumni Student Life wins best newspaper honor at Missouri College Media awards Brad Warner, professor of pediatric surgery, 66 Julian Fleischman, associate professor emeritus, 91 William D. Owens, MD, professor emeritus of anesthesiology, 85 Understanding genetic factors behind a pediatric brain tumor Study examines overlap in causes of cancer, neurodevelopmental disorders Pollina honored for innovations in neuroscience 05.05.25 04.28.25 04.14.25 Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo Jhan Carlos Salazar Juliane Bubeck Wardenburg Who Knew WashU? 1.27.21 Who Knew WashU? 1.13.21 Who Knew WashU? 12.9.20 Trail: Colditz CoveStarting Point: Colditz Cove State Natural Area (Northrup Falls Road • 36.35736 -84,86888)Distance: 1.7 milesElevation Gain: 350 feetDifficulty: Easy Tucked away just outside of Allardt is a state natural area that’s been around for more than half a century yet is still relatively little known even among those who have lived on the northern Cumberland Plateau all their lives it is one of the most scenic state natural areas in all of Tennessee Named for the brothers Colditz who once lived and owned businesses in Oneida — Arnold and Rudy — Colditz Cove is a 165-acre pocket of northern plateau beauty with all of the geographical features that make this area unique Its crown jewel is Northrup Falls — the 60-ft waterfall that is named for the family that once lived and operated a grist mill above the falls in the 1800s and it is the subject of Hike #6 of the Winter Hiking Challenge 1.7-mile hike that combines a section of out-and-back trail and a section of loop trail it isn’t the easiest hike in this area; there are muddy stretches and rocks that require climbing over but it is so short — easily the shortest hike of the hiking challenge — that it grades out as an easy hike and is a great example of a family-friendly hike that even the youngest of kids can handle you should try this hike even if you aren’t completing the rest of the hiking challenge This trail will likely become one of your favorites It is an absolutely beautiful hike that pairs a ton of scenic beauty with a very educational experience The trailhead is located on Northrup Falls Road 52 out of Scott County and you reach the “great pumpkin” water tower in Allardt you’ve gone too far and should’ve turned left just a few hundred feet before you reach the water tower you can’t miss the parking lot at the trailhead which is located on the right side of the road Mile 0.00: The trail departs the parking lot on its south side or the left side of the parking lot if you’re looking into the forest from the road There is a signboard at the beginning of the trail with some history and information about Colditz Cove Mile 0.07: Some mountain laurel begins to show up along the trail The features of Colditz Cove are much the same as any landscape in the nearby Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area which until now has been the destination for all the hikes of the Winter Hiking Challenge Mountain laurel is one of several evergreen shrubs found on the northern plateau and grows best in well-drained soils on top of the plateau The laurel’s foliage isn’t known for its beauty and the plant can be a beast if you find yourself off-trail and having to wade through it the laurel will bloom and be absolutely spectacular with white and pink showy flowers Mile 0.13: The hiking trail crosses the first of several foot bridges This one is over a tiny tributary of Big Branch the main stream that flows through Colditz Cove and contains water only during rainy weather Mile 0.20: The hiking trail descends back towards the unnamed tributary that it crossed earlier The hemlock is the predominate tree that you’ll find in the forest that lines either side of the gorge through which Big Branch flows The hemlock is important to the landscapes of the northern Cumberland Plateau and is currently under attack by a pest known as the hemlock woolly adelgid there is a signboard with information about the woolly adelgid and what botanists are doing to combat it at Colditz Cove Mile 0.29: The trail reaches the edge of the gorge and splits and it is best hiked in a counter-clockwise direction by turning right at the intersection Along the edge of the trail is a towering bluff line; use caution here with small children This is also where you get your first glimpse of Northrup Falls which you’ve been hearing for a couple of minutes as you hiked through the hemlocks As soon as you’ve turned right at the trail intersection But the left split is merely a short foot path along the edge of the bluff to a better vantage point of the falls Mile 0.37: The trail crosses Big Branch via a wooden foot bridge Just downstream is the top of Northrup Falls Notice how Big Branch is different from most Cumberland Plateau streams: the streambed is solid rock You can imagine that the Northrup children who once lived here enjoyed wading in this stream during the summer months Mile 0.48: As the trail continues through a dense hemlock forest This evergreen is an important understory tree in some of this region’s gorge areas providing food from both their berries and leaves (the berries are poisonous to humans Mile 0.55: The trail begins its descent from the plateau top to beneath the bluff line and into the gorge that encases Big Branch below the waterfall notice how rhododendron appears for the first time A cousin to the mountain laurel that appeared earlier in the hike rhododendron grows in dense stands in moist and shaded soils across the northern plateau Because of their sun and drainage preferences mountain laurel is usually found near the rim of the gorges and rhododendron is often found within the gorges at the base of the cliff lines or along streams rhododendron blooms during the summer months Mile 0.63: Notice the huge hemlock tree trunk on the left side of the trail When the Hiking Challenge first visited Colditz Cove several years ago and several hundred Scott Countians took part in the hike this tree was our “Look For” feature on this particular trail It is one of the largest hemlock trees found anywhere on the northern plateau Notice the wood litter scattered at its base as thunderstorm winds have brought down many of the tree’s dead limbs Soon the trunk will either fall or have to be removed for safety reasons There are some hemlocks in the Big South Fork NRRA that can compare in size to this one the trail goes through an enchanting rhododendron tunnel and across a narrow footbridge Mile 0.76: Much of the Colditz Cove trail is a bit muddy But notice how the soil beneath your feet has suddenly become very dry The trail has entered a shallow rock shelter These rock shelters were used by woodland Indians some 3,000 years ago as they hunted the forests of the Cumberland Plateau This marks the final approach to the waterfall as the trail hugs the rock wall the rest of the way in Mile 0.87: The trail arrives at Northrup Falls but nothing can prepare you for how massive this waterfall truly is when you see it up close and personal There are few waterfalls on the northern Cumberland Plateau that can compare to the sheer beauty of this one but it is particularly stunning during the wet season This section of trail is perpetually muddy and will require a brief scramble up the far side of the falls But once you’ve reached the top of the hill you’ll find the perfect vantage point for taking pictures Professional and semiprofessional photographers usually set up their equipment here to take pictures of the waterfall The spray of the waterfall supports a lush plant environment though some of them are dormant during the winter months and won’t return until later this spring Some of the plants found here include ferns Mile 1.06: Once you’ve left Northrup Falls the trail will hug the cliff line for much of the rest of the way through the gorge area You’ll need to duck at times to avoid hitting your head on the rock overhang If you’re hiking after a recent heavy rain you’ll be treated to a nice secondary waterfall at the end of this section This is the result of the unnamed tributary that the hiking trail followed from the parking lot to the trail intersection on the way in Mile 1.20: A piece of the rock wall has broken away from the main bluff on the left side of the trail This is a tempting “fat man’s squeeze” type of feature but you’ll probably be discouraged from trying it once you realize that you couldn’t do it without getting soaked by falling water inside the crack it’s too narrow for most normal-sized people; you’d almost have to be a lizard or a mouse to squeeze through did you know that Colditz Cove is home to the Black Mountain dusky salamander and the woodland jumping mouse They’re both considered to be rare animals Other rare animals that live here include several species of shrew — a mole-like critter that are similar to mice the pygmy shrew and the southeastern shrew Mile 1.31: The trail reaches the end of the gorge section A series of switchbacks lead to the plateau top the hemlock forest becomes dominant once more with a shrub layer of holly and laurel in the understory It’s interesting to look just beyond the hemlocks and notice where the hemlock forest ends and the mixed oak-hickory forest begins just a few dozen feet from the edge of the gorge You could almost draw a line between the two forest types Mile 1.48: The trail crosses another wooden footbridge This is the unnamed tributary that leads to the secondary waterfall you were just standing beneath at the base of the bluff below Mile 1.50: The trail returns to the intersection Turn right and enjoy the easy stroll back to the trailhead Contact the Independent Herald at newsroom@ihoneida.com the Independent Herald is the voice of Scott County and Big South Fork Country the Dallas-based agency which specialises in creating cultural resonance for brands announced two key staffing changes within its Strategy Department: He was most recently head of strategy at FitzCo in Atlanta; taking the lead on scaling and expanding the agency’s proprietary Cultural Resonance Score™ (CRS) across the agency and Omnicom Advertising Group “Strategy is essential to all of our work—whether it’s content experience or partnership—and a key to our success,” said Trina Roffino we have found someone with an exceptional ability to understand the need for consumer truths that resonate deeply with culture His broad perspective has been formed through diverse experience in planning David’s approach is to take the time to diagnose the client’s problem rather than treat their symptoms He consistently orients the work to measurable outcomes.” “Kathleen is one of the architects behind our Cultural Resonance Score™ which has demonstrated how brands with a higher CRS can grow their business faster than their competitors She’ll work with key account leads to introduce their clients to CRS and help them leverage it for client success No one is more qualified or capable to lead that effort than Kathleen I’m excited to see her taking CRS to the next level.”  David Matathia brings more than 20 years marketing experience to his new role at TMA helping to crack the code for brands like French’s he led strategy for key accounts at GSD&M  Kathleen has been part of TMA’s strategic success for 15 years she helped TMA level up to take on lead creative duties for clients like State Farm and Six Flags she served as one of the principal architects behind the agency’s Cultural Resonance Score™ (CRS).  Now in its second year CRS has proven that brands which resonate with culture – and which go beyond the transactional of simply being relevant – can grow their business as much as 25% more than their direct competitors.  focused on the spirits category given the importance of spirits sales at this time of year Whether you are part of our community or are interested in joining us we welcome you to Washington University School of Medicine WashU Medicine expert recognized for his ‘pivotal advances’ in population science who is also deputy director of the Institute for Public Health at WashU and associate director of prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine 11 during the San Antonio (Texas) Breast Cancer Symposium Komen recognized him for his “pivotal advances in implementation science and evidence-based interventions to enhance breast cancer outcomes.” Read more on the Siteman website Could help determine which patients are likely to benefit from new Alzheimer’s drugs GLP-1 medications tied to decreased risk of dementia At WashU Medicine, we transform lives and shape the future of healthcare through pioneering research, world-class education, and unparalleled patient care. As one of the nation's largest academic clinical practices, we bring the full power of WashU Medicine to every patient, advancing treatment and training the medical leaders of tomorrow at Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals and more than 130 clinics across Missouri and Illinois Consistently recognized among the nation's top institutions for research we are driven to challenge convention and elevate care for all Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author Colditz Castle in eastern Germany has had what can justifiably be described as a checkered history After the outbreak of the Second World War it took on a new role as a prisoner-of-war camp immensely thick stone walls would rule out any possibility of escape they sent prisoners who’d escaped from other camps to the castle there was a compelling question for the Colditz captives Related: 10 Facts about the Wildest Prison Break You’ve Likely Never Heard Of Schloss Colditz dates back to at least 1046 the year it was first mentioned in writing Ownership of the property was passed on to various noble German families until it was destroyed along with the adjoining town in 1430 The castle continued as a royal possession until the late 18th century The Schloss Colditz website tells us that the property now became “a country workhouse for beggars and tramps.” It was also a haven for disabled and mentally troubled people and all the new occupants were given work in the castle Events at Colditz took a much more sinister turn in 1933 the year Hitler became Germany’s Chancellor The Nazis identified the castle as an ideal place to lock up some of the many people they didn’t like Socialists and other dissidents were imprisoned in Colditz and the regime there became one of severe isolation It was the place where the most problematic prisoners were incarcerated those who had already attempted to escape from camps elsewhere would be able to escape from this formidable medieval schloss with its towering stone walls that were up to 7 feet (2.1 meters) thick The astonishing truth is that there were more escape attempts from Colditz than any other German POW camp The distinction of being the very first successful escapee falls to a Frenchman Alain Le Ray was a general in the French Army who went on to become a noted member of the French Resistance after his successful bid for freedom The very first British officer to escape successfully was Lieutenant Airey Neave Neave was originally imprisoned in Stalag XXA But he was apprehended and moved to Colditz he made his first escape attempt while wearing a bogus German uniform in August 1941 but was caught before he’d exited the castle Another who made it out of the purportedly escape-proof Colditz Castle was Flight Lieutenant Hedley Fowler of the Royal Air Force variously disguised as Polish workmen and Germans Four of the party were recaptured, but Fowler and Dutch officer Damiaen Joan van Doorninck reached the safety of neutral Switzerland. But the Englishman’s war story did not end happily. Promoted to squadron leader, he became a test pilot with the RAF’s Armament Test Squadron. In March 1944, while testing a Hawker Typhoon, he crashed and was killed.[7] whom they called “goons.” Historian Ben McIntyre told the History Extra website that “a huge amount of ingenuity went into this activity: teasing [the guards] refusing to stand up straight—anything the prisoners could do to drive them mad.” These passive-aggressive ploys were known as “goon baiting.” Perhaps the most daring escape plan involved the construction of a glider dubbed the “Colditz Cock,” in complete secrecy within the castle chapel British officer Lieutenant Tony Rolt was the man who came up with this improbable scheme He realized that the chapel roof could make an ideal launching point for a glider supervising a work party of 12 other prisoners American soldiers reached the town of Colditz in April 1945 SS troops and others prepared to defend the town while the Americans readied themselves for battle The Germans had already moved some prisoners from Colditz and now an order was issued for the relocation of the British captives told the prison commandant that his men were going nowhere Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH, the Niess-Gain professor of surgery and director of the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Council of Councils selected from NIH institutes and advisory councils advises the NIH director on policies and activities of the Division of Program Coordination The Council of Councils makes recommendations related to emerging scientific opportunities rising public health challenges and knowledge gaps that deserve special emphasis or would otherwise benefit from strategic planning and coordination Colditz, who also is deputy director of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University and associate director of prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the School of Medicine is one of 10 newly appointed members of the Council of Councils Associate Director of Strategic Communication jgoodwin@wustl.edu Strategies known to prevent cancer could cut disease rates in half by Julia Evangelou Strait•March 8 Cancer-prevention experts call for education efforts and the expansion and implementation of programs legislation and practices intended to help people improve their health in order to halt cancer development That the first public health revolution occurred more than a century ago might surprise people Before the discovery of penicillin or the polio vaccine life expectancy improved dramatically because of relatively simple ideas implemented on a massive scale safer food storage and quarantines to prevent the spread of infectious disease Public health officials now argue that a similar revolution — simple ideas implemented on a massive scale — could cut cancer rates in half “To make major gains against cancer we don’t need new medical discoveries,” said senior author Graham A. Colditz, MD, PhD the Niess-Gain Professor of Surgery and deputy director of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St but we also must work to put strategies that we know prevent cancer into widespread practice.” Strategies for cancer prevention are outlined March 9 in The New England Journal of Medicine by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis and the Harvard School of Public Health “Our challenge is to act on the knowledge we have,” said Colditz, who also is associate director of prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St “We need to stack the deck for prevention — embrace the opportunity to reduce our collective cancer toll by changing the way we live.” Colditz and his colleagues call for education efforts and the expansion and implementation of programs legislation and practices intended to help people: While the ideas are straightforward and known to reduce cancer rates the investigators said widespread implementation of this knowledge has proven difficult Colditz and his colleagues call for increased research into how best to break down barriers that keep these basic public health tenets from widespread adoption Among possible approaches to address such barriers: individual doctors speaking to patients; institutional involvement regarding the writing of patient-care guidelines; or community involvement regarding the development of government policies that may affect public health The researchers said smoking rates are an important example of how such ideas could be expanded beyond current practices They call for increased taxes on cigarettes but also expanding access to smoking-cessation programs especially for patients already receiving health care only about half of substance-abuse treatment facilities provide counseling for smoking cessation and just over one-third of such facilities ban smoking altogether despite data showing that cessation counseling and support can be effective in helping such patients quit smoking for every $1 spent on Medicaid-supported smoking-cessation services the state saves more than $2 in health-care costs the researchers said all cancer patients who smoke should receive help in quitting According to a surgeon general’s report cited by the investigators patients who quit at the time of diagnosis are at lower risk of dying from any cause regardless of the type of cancer they have “The main point we want to convey is preventing cancer can be done through current knowledge and research,” Colditz said “Successful intervention models already exist Now is the time to use these resources to educate and engage community members to make healthy lifestyle changes which will result in reduced cancer risk.” Graham Colditz is supported in part by the Alvin J Realizing the potential of cancer prevention — the role of implementation science williamsdia@wustl.edu Julia Evangelou Strait straitj@wustl.edu Julia covers medical news in genomics, cancer, cardiology, developmental biology, biochemistry & molecular biophysics, and gut microbiome research. In 2022, she won a gold award for excellence in the Robert G. Fenley Writing Awards competition. Given by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the award recognized her coverage of long COVID-19 Before joining Washington University in 2010 she was a freelance writer covering science and medicine She has a research background with stints in labs focused on bioceramics human motor control and tissue-engineered heart valves She is a past Missouri Health Journalism Fellow and a current member of the National Association of Science Writers She holds a bachelor's degree in engineering science from Iowa State University and a master's degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Minnesota Volume 2 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fanim.2021.652306 The temperament of farm animals can influence their resilience to everyday variations within the managed production environment and has been under strong direct and indirect selection during the course of domestication A prominent objective measure used for assessing temperament in beef cattle is the behavioral flight response to release from confinement in a crush or chute termed flight speed (also known as escape velocity) is associated with physiological processes including body temperature This review examines the functional links between this suite of traits and adrenergic activity of the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenomedullary hormonal system It is suggested that flight speed is the behavioral aspect of an underlying “flightiness” temperament syndrome and that elevated adrenergic tone in animals with a high level of flightiness (i.e. flighty animals) tunes physiological activities toward a sustained “fight or flight” defense profile that reduces productivity and the capacity to flourish within the production environment despite a common influence of adrenergic tone on this suite of traits variation in each trait is also influenced by other regulatory pathways and by the capacity of tissues to respond to a range of modulators in addition to adrenergic stimuli It is suggested that tuning by adrenergic tone is an example of homeorhetic regulation that can help account for the persistent expression of behavioral and somatic traits associated with the flight speed temperament syndrome across the life of the animal temperament may modulate ecological fit within and across generations in the face of environmental variability and change Associations of flight speed with the psychological affective state of the animal and implications for welfare are also considered The review will help advance understanding of the developmental biology and physiological regulation of temperament syndromes The reader is referred to those reviews for detailed critiques of experimental studies on temperament (especially FS) and its association with physiology This review focusses on the mechanistic associations between adrenergic activity and psychological affect that may contribute to the observed phenotypic associations of traits with FS seen in some studies Section 2 provides a brief summary of biological functions and production traits associated with FS experimental studies in cattle and other species on the influence of adrenergic activities on the biological functions underpinning production traits is examined Section 4 examines the roles of homeorhesis and allostasis in regulating homeostatic states of the animal Homeorhesis as a mechanism for the persistence of temperament and the potential role of candidate genes identified in genomic studies in this mechanism are examined in Section 5 These concepts are drawn together in Section 6 to suggested that the behavioral response measured by FS is an acute expression of a persistent underlying temperament syndrome that balances behavior and immune functions along an axis between preparedness for defense and more generative flourishing It is suggested that persistent variation between individual animals in adrenergic tone contributes to the temperament syndrome The terms used to describe temperament in the following section (e.g. calm) reflect those of the authors cited below Figure 1. Frequency histogram of the distribution of flight speed (m/s) in a cohort of 164 Angus steers measured on Day 1 of weaning. Calves were the progeny of 47 sires used in a sire genetic benchmarking program and were born and raised at pasture in a single contemporary management group. Adapted from Hine et al. (2019) Cortisol response to the LPS challenge was not affected by temperament whereas epinephrine responses were elevated in temperamental calves The results suggest that the elevated baseline HPA activity in temperamental cattle is not associated with a chronic stress status and attenuated adrenal reactivity adrenergic activity modulates metabolic rate and body temperature at rest and modulates dynamic changes in these metabolic variables during physical and psychological challenges Together these observations in humans and cows suggest that variation between individuals in basal and dynamic adrenergic activities could contribute to the associations seen between flightiness Studies on individual variation between cattle in activity of the sympathetic innervation of skeletal muscle seem warranted through innervation of somatic tissues and via systemic release of catecholamines from the adrenal medulla into the bloodstream contribute to the homeostatic balance of metabolism Studies in a number of species including beef cattle suggest that basal (tonic) activity varies between individuals and contributes to differences in basal metabolic rate and bias in the immune system toward innate inflammatory activity in priority over adaptive immune functions In view of the homeostatic role of adrenergic activities in the resting state and in response to perceived threats from the internal and external environment the next section addresses models of homeostatic regulation that may help illuminate the way traits associated with flightiness tend to persist across the life of the animal despite short and long term environmental fluctuations For an animal to survive and thrive requires maintenance of morphological and physiological conditions across organizational levels extending from intracellular processes to the whole organism (Chovatiya and Medzhitov, 2014) Cannon used the term homeostasis to describe a state or condition of the body rather than the processes by which a state is maintained: “The constant conditions which are maintained in the body might be termed equilibria has come to have fairly exact meaning as applied to relatively simple physico-chemical states The coordinated physiological processes which maintain most of the steady states in the organism are so complex and so peculiar to living beings—involving all working cooperatively—that I have suggested a special designation for these states The word does not imply something set and immobile It means a condition—a condition which may vary but which is relatively constant.” activity of effectors can be influenced by genetic and short-acting physiological messengers that in concert contribute to characteristic differences seen between individuals this general feature of homeostatic regulation indicates that a sensor of affect (or of a higher order characteristic of the animal such as temperament) is not necessary for affect to (appear to) be a regulated state The tendency for traits through which temperament is expressed to persist throughout the life of the animal underpins the homeorhetic account of temperament described next How might homeorhetic processes shape the expression of these traits Mason and Capitanio (2012) summarize developmental patterning as a process that is enabled by an ecologically appropriate environment which supports genome environment interactions that are “customary” of the evolutionary history of the species The foreshortening of the recent evolutionary history of beef cattle by artificial selection creates challenges for the design of environments and management practices to deliberately nurture ontogenetic development of temperament traits that are adaptive for contemporary management environments Table 1. Candidate genes associated with FS suggested in GWAS studies (Valente et al., 2016; Dos Santos et al., 2017; Garza-Brenner et al., 2017; Chen et al., 2020; Costilla et al., 2020; Paredes-Sánchez et al., 2020) It is suggested here that adrenergic tone is an important intermediary within this dialogue Zuckerman (1995) suggests that temperament emerges from “chemical templates that produce and regulate proteins involved in building the structure of nervous systems and the neurotransmitters and hormones that regulate them.” An attempt at one-to-one mapping of neutral processes such as neurotransmitter activity to temperament has long been discredited as molecular phrenology The quantitative character of FS and the diversity of genes implicated with the trait is in accord with Zuckerman's model while variation between individuals in baseline adrenergic tone and in adrenergic reactivity to perceived threats may provide a common link between traits associated with flightiness a causal basis for variation in adrenergic tone within genes associated with adrenergic messaging may not be a prerequisite much of the variation between individuals that leads to variation in adrenergic tone is likely to lie outside the SNS and AHS systems It follows that variation between animals in propensity for synchronization of SNS discharge is an additional level of investigation that may reveal processes contributing to the temperament syndrome The dimensions of temperament that for many species are summarized as boldness and exploration may reflect principal dimensions of environmental variability that are of ecological salience to the life history and eco-niche that a species occupies Variation between individuals within a species points to temperament being a tuning factor that modulates the environmental fit of a population both within and across generations A challenge for studies on temperament is to identify test paradigms that reflect the ecologically salient aspects of environment that over evolutionary time have exerted selective pressure on temperament in the species of interest the opportunity to escape from the perceived threat posed by isolation and confinement may fortuitously fulfill this role A challenge for animal scientists is to develop statistical models to integrate activity of the components of the temperament syndrome in a manner that adequately reflects the biological emergence of temperament within the animal A tendency toward negative affectivity in flighty cattle would provide an additional limit to their suitability for participation in the animal domestication niche of modern animal production a plausible scenario is that in beef cattle fight or flight activity in the face of acute challenge as well as persistent differences in physiological functions such as metabolic rate and immune competence are aspects of a flightiness temperament syndrome that is mediated in part via adrenergic tone adrenergic tone is but one of several neurosomatic axes influencing these traits Variation between individuals in activity of these other axes together with variation in capacity of tissues to respond to adrenergic and non-adrenergic stimuli and to express downstream traits are likely to be additional sources of variation in the relationship between FS The author wrote the article and approved the final version for publication This work was funded by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) (internal funding, www.csiro.au/) The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be constructed as a potential conflict of interest Comments on an earlier draft of this review by Linda Cafe and two journal reviewers were grateful acknowledged The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fanim.2021.652306/full#supplementary-material Local IGF-I axis in peripubertal ruminant 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Ian G. Colditz, aWFuLmNvbGRpdHpAY3Npcm8uYXU= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Items from Colditz recently sold at auction by Noonans Mayfair A wanted poster issued by the German authorities in 1942 Eleanor FleggFri 25 Oct 2024 at 03:30‘One hundred per cent luck isn’t good enough,” wrote Lieutenant Commander William “Billie” Lawson Stephens of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve “You have to have the devil’s luck as well.” He was writing about his escape from the infamous Colditz Castle in October 1942 was a British naval officer who successfully escaped from Colditz during World War II a collection of military medals awarded to Stephens sold for £48,000 (€57,418) at Noonans Mayfair (formerly Dix Noonan Webb) in London Oflag IV-C was a prisoner of war camp in Colditz Castle the Nazis used it to host ­hundreds of Allied prisoners of war including many who had repeatedly escaped from other camps Putting all the “flight risks” in one castle was not a genius move There’s nothing like an inescapable castle for encouraging feats of derring-do Digging tunnels was by far the most popular there were six different tunnels under construction and the prisoners established an escape committee to avoid sabotaging each other Prisoner Peter Allan escaped sewn into a mattress and made it as far as Vienna The prisoners also built a glider — the Colditz Cock — in the hope of sailing over the walls of the fortress to freedom The intrepid (and impossibly handsome) Stephens escaped with three other officers: Major Ronald Littledale; Flight Lieutenant Howard Wardle; and fellow Irishman Major Pat Reid Their escape involved signals sent by an orchestra — the conductor was a famous British fighter pilot who’d lost both legs in a flying accident in 1931 The escapees then had to strip naked to squeeze through a narrow flue descend the wall using sheet ropes and make their way across Germany to Switzerland Reid’s account of the adventure inspired the 1955 film it was sold by a direct descendant of Stephens and fetched £62,000 (€74,370) at Dix Noonan Webb The principal medal was a Distinguished Service Cross with Second Award Bar which was added for a successful “home run” (making it back to Britain) was one of only a handful of decorations awarded for Colditz escape work Other goodies included a reinforced escaper’s map of Germany; a forged wartime ‘urlaubsschein’ (leave pass); a postcard sent by Stephens from Switzerland (“Having a grand holiday here with friends...”); and a photograph of the triumphant escapees The lot also contained a “wanted poster” issued by the German authorities in October 1942 Stephens returned to Belfast where he became a director of The Midland Bank there’s another bite at the cherry on Wednesday when Colditz: The Michael Booker Collection goes under the hammer at Weller Auctions in Surrey at 10am founder of the Colditz Society in 1991 and author of Collecting Colditz and Its Secrets: a unique pictorial record of life behind the walls the Imperial War Museum in London hosted an exhibition of Booker’s Colditz artefacts with posters and memorabilia from Colditz-related films and TV dramas Items of interest include an original POW escape map drawn by Lieutenant Jack Millett an Australian prisoner known as the “Mapmaker of Colditz” for his talent in producing escape documents for Allied prisoners (Lot 116: est £200 to £300 / €240 to €360) A forged escape identity document (Lot 100: est £200 to £300 / €240 to €360) belonged to Captain Rupert Barry one of the longest serving POWs at Colditz Barry was one of the “Laufen Six” — the first British prisoners at Colditz He’d planned to pass himself off as a Belgian agricultural worker When Colditz was liberated by the US army in April 1945 See noonans.co.uk and wellersauctions.com (online bidding is via easyliveauction.com) Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel We know the age-old expression: We are what we eat. So, how does diet affect or reduce the risk of breast cancer or how breast cancer progresses And what non-lifestyle choices should one consider when looking to reduce their risk Dr. Graham Colditz has spent decades diving into these questions and more Colditz is an internationally recognized leader in cancer prevention and one of the one of the most highly cited medical researchers in the world Not only has Dr. Colditz published more than 1,100 peer-reviewed publications and six books and earned numerous awards, but he’s developed the widely-cited website, Your Disease Risk he is deputy director of the Institute for Public Health the Neiss-Gain Professor in the School of Medicine chief of the Department of Surgery’s Public Health Sciences division program director of the Master of Population Health Sciences degree and the associate director of prevention and control at the Siteman Cancer Center Spotify Apple Podcasts  Player FM  Stitcher  Graham Colditz: My pleasure being with you today Chris Riback: So, I read a write-up about the impact you seek to make through your career and area of focus. And the first sentence of that impact statement reads, “It is estimated that nearly a third of breast cancers could be prevented by lifestyle choices, particularly those that support and maintain a healthy weight, including diet and exercise.” And I confess that made me feel really good and somewhat not so good The sadness that so many people suffer based not purely on genetics The good part: it would seem that cancers resulting from lifestyle choices can be preventable through the help of scientists like you and personal actions should I be feeling lousy or hopeful or both And I can say a little for both in that it’s clear some of our risk can be set fairly early in life And so we are not thinking about cancer as children or adolescents that changes a little how much control we may have But at the same time factors later in life that we do as adults and free-living have definitely more control over whether the social-political environment we live in doesn’t tax alcohol as much as you and I might want it to be taxed to cut down our easy access if you would level set on the science and how one derives conclusions out of an area where again one can hear the numbers and you want to understand so how does one actually get to those numbers We can get to some of the root causes and effect and I’m curious how one does that generate a statement such as “It is estimated that nearly a third of breast cancers could be prevented by lifestyle choices.” What is the scientific discovery process look like How do you factor out or consider the role that genetics play and to what extent they’re tightly connected to so-called lifestyle choices and if you could give a clean in and a cleanout that would really help the simplest concept of this would be to identify a set of say women in this case [since] we’re studying breast cancer who are at very healthy lifestyle: healthy diet [We] follow them over time and follow a group that is high risk: heavy drinking And we can compare the difference in the risk of breast cancer between the two groups and do the arithmetic to estimate what proportion is avoided by following the healthy lifestyle and we can look in women with no family history and see these same effects So the statistics and the inference from both the human data there often to get to the cause and prove words that you were asking other hormone levels mechanisms that actually support the association the International Agency for Research on Cancer concludes that alcohol causes breast and a whole range of other cancers They’ll look at the human evidence [and] the animal and other sources of evidence to lay out a mechanism as to how alcohol is actually causing cancer and how it’s doing that in the breast Chris Riback: And as you go through that science and so much of your work caught my attention but this component that choices made even in childhood and adolescence can impact a person’s future risk of breast cancer it can get hard to get an adolescent to stop watching TikTok How do we start to talk to [our kids about this] How does one convince her to sleep more now to help prevent breast cancer in 20 years you’ve hit a really important point that a lot of the lifestyle in childhood and adolescents won’t be framed in terms of just breast cancer risk for your future health and adolescents aren’t always so future-oriented studies show diet and physical activity—physical activity particularly between ages 12 and 20—actually can have a lifelong impact So how do we have a society that supports that rather than thinking it’s just TikTok Or just the mode of transport so we have access to safe exercise All of these things I think come together and that will reduce risk of diabetes Because we don’t have the same range of options for prevention for breast as those other conditions I mentioned Chris Riback: There’s one area of your study and please correct me if I’m misinterpreting this The benefits to adolescents of eating nuts Why are nuts such a big deal for adolescents to eat Interesting thing here is that we can look at diet Nuts come through as clearly reducing risk My colleagues at Harvard had studied nuts in relation to other diseases But the assumption at this stage is still that nuts are uniquely good at changing your metabolic profile And that this in fact then is translating through to breast cancer risk I don’t think we’ve got all the fine details of mechanisms nailed down but it’s consistent across multiple studies Chris Riback: And another area into which I understand you plan to dive deeper: how modifiable factors such as diet affect or reduce the risk of breast cancer including how those factors affect the rate of transition between breast cancer stages such as the progression from benign breast disease to breast cancer I couldn’t fully determine whether this was a gleam in your eye or whether you were deep into the research We’re actually writing a grant literally as we speak but over multiple weeks now to really further understand which factors are impacting sort of and which factors are driving subsequent speed of growth transition from benign lesions to invasive or in situ and then invasive disease And the irony in much of our insight on prevention is that we don’t always have a very good sense of the timeline of when a change in lifestyle will actually finally translate to our risk [there are] lots of different ways that this can be changing risk And so it will help us focus and identify who’s going to benefit most from the changes for prevention colleagues working with me on statistical methods to improve the way we can look at this Building on our premalignant lesion repository that we’ve got So there’s a number of ways to come at this just on one of the elements that you said: What inspired the choice or the decision that there is a need to look at that Was there a gap perhaps in data that you had noticed Was there new data that came across or was this an area that you or colleagues had always wanted to look at but now just it so happens that the time is right one of the concerns I’ve had with recommendations about prevention—going back 30 years of teaching on this—is that we often end up with recommendations if we act now we can halve cancer mortality in 10 years “Really?” Is it all going to change that quickly Our sense to engage people where they’re at with the level of risk they’re at we have to have realistic sense of what change will lead to risk reduction [and] over what timeframe And that just trying to bring more clarity to that is really motivating this And so it is right in front of us to be done still Chris Riback: One more question on the science components I have the privilege to do a number of these conversations as you know from the questions that I know you get peppered with all the time I’m not going to let you off the hook I am going to at least ask you for those tips But one more question to connect really the science How does something like obesity or diet or sleep even connect with something as specific as breast cancer which of course is the trajectory most of the world is on We know that the more overweight a woman is the higher her estrogen levels are—estrogen active if you will—as a fertilizer for cell division and cell division can lead to even more genetic damage accumulating other countries that have different weight gain trajectories and see a substantial portion of postmenopausal breast cancer can really be explained by this higher obesity Chris Riback: Now to get back to putting you on the hook We got a number of questions that folks would like in terms of helping guide their personal behavior I imagine that you might have various caveats please feel free to let me know about them And each of us should discuss our personal situations with our personal physicians But if I could ask you some of these to begin are there any foods that are proven to reduce your risk of breast cancer Is there such a thing as a breast cancer-fighting food or a breast cancer diet but the fruit and vegetable cluster still is probably the most promising part of diet for prevention of breast cancer Chris Riback: And you just mentioned estrogen a moment ago But what’s the link between estrogen and the food that you eat Are there foods that can lower or increase the estrogen in your body Because you’ve already talked about the effect that estrogen can have in terms of risk of breast cancer the challenge for the foods lowering estrogen really comes down to separating out the foods and weight But the potential is there for a higher fiber diet to actually be helpful in the steady hormone status Higher physical activity is probably working in that direction too But a specific food is not going to change hormone levels up or down on its own Maybe alcohol has some impact separately where it’s a chemical agent if you will That’s very different from trying to think across all the foods I eat Chris Riback: You’ve mentioned alcohol a number of times but is that primary or close to primary on your mind in terms of things that you worry about in terms of lifestyle choices Colditz: Both in terms of lifestyle choices and how we could counter its effecting the breast we’ve puzzled over whether there are the equivalence of the vitamin you could take that would counter the effect of alcohol just stop everyone from drinking.” And it’s like Colditz: And we know that adolescents and college-age women have caught up to men with their alcohol consumption So the trends are probably going in the wrong direction for breast cancer what are the potential ways to A) control the amount of consumption and then B) if there are women who are continuing to drink how do we find strategies to counter that effect Does breastfeeding “prevent” breast cancer we’ve looked at the analysis of all the published studies and definitely there is a reduction in risk for women who have breastfed and the longer they’ve breastfed the lower their personal risk This relates to changes in the breast tissue that are in fact there are workplaces where breastfeeding is really hard an option for every woman given her work and social circumstances you could argue collectively we should be providing more support for breastfeeding if we care about this as a nation as we have fewer and fewer children that is diminishing returns I think the last question I have on the tips from Dr even very little bits of exercise can be beneficial Any other non-lifestyle choices that someone should consider to reduce their risk of breast cancer avoiding further weight gain rather than thinking we’ve all got to go back to whatever weight we were in high school or somewhere that is If we all avoided more weight gain in 10 years’ time the nation would be leaner than if we all kept gaining one to two pounds a year And so setting a monitoring—self-monitoring scales and paying attention to weight—rather than what we may do as a nation Chris Riback: What an excellent way to frame it. So the idea of losing weight, getting back to that college weight or whatever is so intimidating. It makes it so easy to give up. Instead, to frame it as. Just maintain. It’s much more attainable, just much easier to consider. Tell me about the Your Disease Risk website Is its impact educational or on actual behavior the website was developed over 20 years ago with a goal of helping people understand that cancer is preventable The thought process in the 1990s if we can go back that far before COVID worked out how to communicate that to the general public and developed a tool that is engaging and offering tips and strategies to adopt changes in lifestyle that can lower risk It’s engaging and really takes account of where you are at now in your risk factor profile as to suggestions for changes The ability for it to transform people’s behavior overnight just by using the tool once is wishful thinking it’s been used in studies by colleagues or more to promote more discussion with your primary care provider about risk and risk reduction strategies—things like this that show it actually is engaging women and having them engage in more discussion of prevention I think they’re all steps towards successful changes to lower risk And there are certainly people who come back multiple times So lots of pieces to support that it’s beneficial we live in a time of immediate gratification So it is hard to have the privilege of getting to talk with you and not also ask about your landmark work from now more than 25 years ago You helped identify the increase in risk of breast cancer with the use of combined estrogen plus progestin therapy and a significant increase in risk with increasing duration of use Chris Riback: You also showed that mortality from breast cancer was also elevated among current users How do you look back now on that work and the incredible impact that is made and it’s gratifying that the results held up The Women’s Health Initiative trial held up and in further evidence that’s accumulated [in the] UK and elsewhere The continuing current use is the real driver back at our earlier question risk starts to fall back to where it would’ve been there’s a real effect—it’s reversible in large part And while the manufacturing industry for tooth and nail to discredit some of this and assemble data that contradicted what we and other studies obviously showed it stopped early because the stopping rule said adverse breast cancer was a reason to stop the good data focused on breast cancer can really help understand how the disease process is modifiable And so we should be continuing to push for other ways to modify this risk It’s incredible impact to so many people over such a period of time If I could have the benefit of embarrassing you further I’m curious about where you are now versus your expectations coming into your profession you enjoyed your share of cricket and rugby And now besides the individual impact you’ve made on individual lives it’s an author level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications initially used for an individual scientist or scholar you have the highest h-level index of any living author I can only assume that that was your exact expectation set as you got into this I did oncology rotations where you had lung cancer patients that clearly had been smoking And we didn’t talk about smoking cessation in med school And then you do another ward with women with ovarian cancer no idea what’s causing ovarian cancer And that hands-on experience really pushed me to ask why aren’t we doing more to prevent this pretty horrible set of diseases breast—my sister-in-law died of breast cancer in her 20s So it’s really dramatic to see we’ve made a lot of progress It’s still challenging that there’s so much more to do I just want to go and some prevention and my mom was upset I didn’t come back to Australia after I finished my PhD Chris Riback: Can’t blame her for that We want to make impact in whatever chosen profession and to have done that and to have that double benefit of knowing that you’re making impact on individual lives but that also it’s getting amplified because it’s being cited because in the metrics around how it’s being cited that must be a double or even somehow exponential level of satisfaction Because you’re getting to make impact beyond yourself Colditz: In a real way; the mentoring junior colleagues and supporting them is another that the number and range of people and the skills that are coming to prevention clearly has grown over time but we’ve got to also move it to the next level to get the changes in behavior We’re not going to let you rest on your h-index doctor what role has BCRF played in your research they’ve been an amazingly steady support for our work and I will say unique support for our work to look at this childhood and adolescent exposures and breast cancer We’ve tried to get NIH funding for this on and off over the years And the peer review process is skeptical of that But BCRF has been there through the whole of this and if you look we’ve contributed substantially to the literature on the adolescent diet activity and so on early on that others have then tried to replicate in other studies And BCRF was in there at the beginning of this and to this day continues to support us to build on both the adolescent piece but also now more on the premalignant lesions and how they progress and what we can do to modify that we wouldn’t be where we’re at without that support over the years and I’m sure that what folks would like now is for you to get back to the grant writing and keep pushing your h-index and the impact that you make Thank you for the work that you have done throughout your lifetime I give to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation federal tax identification number 13-3727250 Breast Cancer Research Foundation28 West 44th Street, Suite 609, New York, NY 10036 General Office: 646-497-2600 | Toll Free: 1-866-346-3228bcrf@bcrf.org | BCRF is a 501 (c)(3) | EIN: 13-3727250 After a flirtation with MI6 while studying at Cambridge British author Ben Macintyre channelled his fascination with double lives into a publishing phenomenon Now he’s turned his pen to the hidden history of the notorious Nazi POW camp By Michael Visontay Ben Macintyre has written more than a dozen books about World War II and the Cold War Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time Ben Macintyre smiles sheepishly as he apologises He has spent the past 20 minutes spinning yarns about the daring exploits of a Soviet Cold War double agent Now he wants to show me that the spy also has a wicked sense of humour “Please excuse my Russian accent,” Macintyre says looks away for inspiration and sets his jaw For a moment it feels like we’ve entered a James Bond film “I don’t know why everyone is complaining about lockdown,” he declaims slowly who has been living in hiding in England since he defected in the 1980s “I have been in lockdown for 35 years.” Macintyre waits for me to chuckle We’re sitting at a table in the white-walled meeting room at his publisher’s office in London’s Pimlico to which he has been driven for a round of interviews about his latest book Macintyre points backwards over his shoulder to tell me the office is just a 10-minute drive from MI6 headquarters across the Thames and slips back into relaxed Oxbridge English to reflect on the price paid by Gordievsky whose revelations Macintyre detailed in his bestselling book The Spy and the Traitor (2019) “Oleg is both the bravest and the loneliest person I have ever met,” he says of somebody who has lived within themselves forever There is a house very near his safe-house that has electronic eyes and ears on the house itself I think it is much more closely guarded than even Oleg is aware of.” That may be because Gordievsky is now more of a target than when he defected “Putin was a young KGB officer when Gordievsky escaped and a lot of his immediate colleagues and patrons were fired as a result of Oleg’s intelligence His career was set back and I’m told he holds Oleg personally responsible.” Described by a book reviewer as “the most significant British agent of the Cold War” Gordievsky worked for MI6 while he was KGB bureau chief in London from 1974 to 1985 In 1985 he was suddenly ordered back to Moscow but in the same year MI6 spirited him out of the USSR after Gordievsky signalled he was ready to be extracted by wearing a grey cap and holding a Safeway supermarket bag An MI6 officer was ordered to walk past him chewing a Mars bar or KitKat triggering the plan to smuggle Gordievsky into Finland in the boot of a diplomatic car while Gordievsky was head of the KGB rezidentura (spy hub) in the Soviet embassy in London there was the “extraordinary moment when Mikhail Gorbachev the great new kind of grand hope of the Politburo The KGB resident designate is writing a memo for Gorbachev about what he should say to Thatcher but the memo has been dictated by MI6 and you’ve also got him advising MI6 how Gorbachev responds.” of somebody who has lived within themselves forever.’ the absurd ironies and an ability to get inside the characters behind these complicated narratives that have made Macintyre’s series of histories about World War II and the Cold War so compelling corduroy jacket and John Lennon spectacles Macintyre is a gifted storyteller who draws readers into his world of war and espionage by a silken thread he has become a one-man publishing industry His subjects include the British double-agent Kim Philby (A Spy Among Friends); the World War II plan to plant false documents on a corpse to trick the Nazis over the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Mincemeat); and the female Soviet spy who operated for years undetected in England as a suburban housewife (Agent Sonya) He retains a special affection for the Philby book The complexity of that story and the character it reveals .. That story was recently adapted into a TV series and is among a raft of his books that have made their way onto the screen: a film of Operation Mincemeat is now on Netflix; this year SBS will screen a series based on SAS: Rogue Heroes his book about the origins of the SAS; and Macintyre says another TV series Although most of his books are set in the context of war and conflict Macintyre says that is not what draws him to his subjects “I’m not terribly interested in guns and battles I’m much more interested in the hidden chambers of the human heart that tell you more about us.” it takes a fresh look at the legendary high-security German POW camp oddly located within a picturesque castle on a rocky hilltop in the town of Colditz It was here where “incorrigible” Allied officers who had repeatedly attempted to escape from other camps were sent a film and TV series about Colditz over the years they have largely focused on individuals and their attempts to escape Macintyre’s Colditz offers an anatomy of prison life that depicts a microcosm of the British class system and a surprising code of respect exhibited by their German captors where Allied prisoners who repeatedly attempted to escape from other German camps during World War II As he chronicles the succession of ingenious attempts to break out of the “inescapable” fortress Macintyre dissects the rivalries between the British Dutch and other nationalities over which country can make more successful escapes the reflexive anti-Semitism of French officers and the ugly class divides between British prisoners Captured officers arrive with their own lackeys ordinary soldiers who are effectively indentured to them and who at one point go on strike over their treatment One of Colditz’s most famous prisoners is Douglas “Tin Legs” Bader the British Royal Air Force pilot who lost both his legs in an aerobatics show in 1931 but who went on to be a war hero during the Battle of Britain and the Battle of France Bader’s exploits were later immortalised in the stirring 1954 book Reach for the Sky which Macintyre and I – so we discover – both read as young boys (The book was also made into a film of the same name Bader is one of those officers with a lackey Ross learns he has been given permission to go home in a prisoner swap and asks Bader for permission simply because he feels he can’t disobey an officer accepting Bader’s humiliating treatment for another two-and-a-half years Bader may have been a national hero but Macintyre shows him to be a heartless How much is known about Bader’s true character Douglas Bader interests me because he’s a bastard but on the other hand he was one of my childhood heroes Yet he did incredible things for handicapped people.” Much of the material comes from recordings made in the late 1980s and early 1990s by every surviving Colditz prisoner which are held in the Imperial War Museum but hadn’t been listened to by researchers or historians It’s through these archives that Macintyre learnt of Ross’s anguish and other prisoners’ private fears including a chaplain’s anxiety over the men acting on homosexual urges The book reveals a culture of homosexuality among the prisoners “No one has really written about that before,” says Macintyre Douglas Bader may have been a national hero but Macintyre shows him to be a heartless Perhaps even more startling is his portrait of the soldiers who were guarding them Colditz reveals the Germans running the prison to be civilised respectful and sticking faithfully to the Geneva Convention rules on POWs The prisoners were allowed to take walks outside the camp and to put on theatre shows Their food was pretty good and they received no specific punishment for failed escape attempts only one prisoner was killed while trying to escape British pilot Douglas “Tin Legs” Bader was one of Colditz’s most famous prisoners.Credit: Getty Images The security officer responsible for dealing with the prisoners was held in such esteem by the prisoners that when one of the first captives was feted after the war in the TV show This Is Your Life Macintyre was also struck by the Germans’ civility and notes that Eggers was a career officer but not a Nazi “I found myself feeling sort of sympathy for some of those German characters who winds up spending 10 years in a Soviet gulag in the postwar reckoning.” So how does he reconcile these Germans with the monstrous barbarity exhibited by the Nazis in the concentration and death camps “One has to bear in mind that this was an officers’ camp and they were treated differently from soldiers in stalags [POW camps for enlisted soldiers] Because of the intensely hierarchical nature of society at that time It was a horrible place but it wasn’t a concentration camp Colditz was run by regular army soldiers; they were professionals They were not the SS; they were not fanatics.” There’s another story Macintyre starts to talk about that is not in any of his books but is just as intriguing “My father was born on a sheep station at Quirindi [330 kilometres north of Sydney] in NSW I’ve never been but I’m going for the first time [this year] There’s a Macintyre River up there that is named after one of my grandfather’s family who moved here in 1827 to buy land; both Macintyre’s paternal grandfather and father were born in Australia was appointed tutor in modern history at Magdalen College and worked his whole career there until he died in a car accident in 1994 the year his father became a tutor at Magdalen College He went to Cambridge and then on to The Times where he soon became a foreign correspondent and started writing books after being posted to New York in his early 20s “This particular genre is one that I never really meant to be part of,” he says “I was recruited by MI6 when I was at Cambridge “I had a tap on the shoulder from one of my tutors ‘There’s part of the Foreign Office that is slightly different from the other parts.’ He never actually said what it was I did the first couple of interviews and I enjoyed talking to them But they took one look at me and realised that here’s a man who can’t keep a secret as I’ve just demonstrated by telling you the story I didn’t.” The hint of a smile appears on his face and he again pauses “But I was really fascinated by the idea of the double life.” ‘The ruthless exercise of private power.’ ′ that roughly describes the four elements drawing people into spying: money “I’ve always thought the most powerful is ego I’ve never come across an important spy who didn’t also think they were motivated by some higher calling “Secrets are very intoxicating and can also be very bad for you You often end up doing a bad thing for a good cause breaking the law or manipulating people or deceiving the people you love.” the ex-KGB spy who defected to the UK in the mid-1980s and has been living in hiding since.Credit: Alamy He’s referring here to the fact that when Gordievsky was safely ensconced in England the Russian used his prodigious memory to pass on vast troves of intelligence to the West he revealed the extent to which the Soviets were paranoid that the US would launch a first strike against them [then US president Ronald] Reagan’s speeches were incredibly incendiary; he was poking the bear very ‘They may be paranoid in the Kremlin but they genuinely believe you’re about to launch your first strike.’ “You can see the [White House] rhetoric begin to ratchet down [after reading Gordievsky’s reports] but the Cold War began to get warmer from that point onwards.” One can only wonder what Oleg Gordievsky would make of the reaction to Mikhail Gorbachev’s passing in August 2022 The Soviet leader was venerated as a liberator in the West but held in contempt by many Russians for destroying the Soviet empire with Vladimir Putin trying to resurrect the empire through his brutal invasion of Ukraine Gordievsky’s dramatic escape from Moscow allowed him to tell his remarkable story; others were not so lucky Among the early successful escapes from Colditz Macintyre describes one involving a flight lieutenant then returned to the UK and was shot down flying for the RAF Fowler was sent to Colditz in December 1941 and was one of six prisoners who got out in September Four were recaptured but Fowler and a Dutch officer made it over the border to Switzerland Fowler got back to England only to die in an air-force training accident two years later Macintyre’s book is written for a British audience so it is perhaps Antipodean nitpicking to point out that although Fowler’s escape (which has been chronicled widely in Australia before now) is described at some length he is not mentioned by name – at least not in the proof version given to me before our interview one of the few Colditz prisoners who successfully escaped “The precise number of successful escapers is still debated … The best estimate is that a total of 32 men made ‘home runs’ with just 15 starting from inside the castle: 11 British one Pole and a Belgian.” What about Bill Fowler I think I probably put the Commonwealth escapers in with the Brits.” “I just thought Australian readers would notice it,” I fumble “I think you’re right; I think British is meant to include British and Commonwealth.” But when I went back to check the biographical details of Fowler I could see that his mixed nationalities would make it hard to label him Australian and that Commonwealth is who prides himself on his attention to detail is able to visit his ancestral home this year with his head held high Ben Macintyre will appear at the upcoming Perth and Adelaide writers’ festivals To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times \\u201CPlease excuse my Russian accent,\\u201D Macintyre says For a moment it feels like we\\u2019ve entered a James Bond film \\u201CI don\\u2019t know why everyone is complaining about lockdown,\\u201D he declaims slowly \\u201CI have been in lockdown for 35 years.\\u201D Macintyre waits for me to chuckle We\\u2019re sitting at a table in the white-walled meeting room at his publisher\\u2019s office in London\\u2019s Pimlico \\u201COleg is both the bravest and the loneliest person I have ever met,\\u201D he says I think it is much more closely guarded than even Oleg is aware of.\\u201D That may be because Gordievsky is now more of a target than when he defected \\u201CPutin was a young KGB officer when Gordievsky escaped and a lot of his immediate colleagues and patrons were fired as a result of Oleg\\u2019s intelligence His career was set back and I\\u2019m told he holds Oleg personally responsible.\\u201D Described by a book reviewer as \\u201Cthe most significant British agent of the Cold War\\u201D there was the \\u201Cextraordinary moment when Mikhail Gorbachev and you\\u2019ve also got him advising MI6 how Gorbachev responds.\\u201D the absurd ironies and an ability to get inside the characters behind these complicated narratives that have made Macintyre\\u2019s series of histories about World War II and the Cold War so compelling That story was recently adapted into a TV series and is among a raft of his books that have made their way onto the screen: a film of Operation Mincemeat is ; this year SBS will screen a series based on SAS: Rogue Heroes \\u201CI\\u2019m not terribly interested in guns and battles I\\u2019m much more interested in the hidden chambers of the human heart that tell you more about us.\\u201D It was here where \\u201Cincorrigible\\u201D Allied officers who had repeatedly attempted to escape from other camps were sent Macintyre\\u2019s Colditz offers an anatomy of prison life that depicts a microcosm of the British class system As he chronicles the succession of ingenious attempts to break out of the \\u201Cinescapable\\u201D fortress One of Colditz\\u2019s most famous prisoners is Douglas \\u201CTin Legs\\u201D Bader Bader\\u2019s exploits were later immortalised in the stirring 1954 book Reach for the Sky which Macintyre and I \\u2013 so we discover \\u2013 both read as young boys Ross doesn\\u2019t question Bader\\u2019s decision simply because he feels he can\\u2019t disobey an officer accepting Bader\\u2019s humiliating treatment for another two-and-a-half years How much is known about Bader\\u2019s true character Douglas Bader interests me because he\\u2019s a bastard Yet he did incredible things for handicapped people.\\u201D which are held in the Imperial War Museum but hadn\\u2019t been listened to by researchers or historians It\\u2019s through these archives that Macintyre learnt of Ross\\u2019s anguish and other prisoners\\u2019 private fears including a chaplain\\u2019s anxiety over the men acting on homosexual urges \\u201CNo one has really written about that before,\\u201D says Macintyre Macintyre was also struck by the Germans\\u2019 civility and notes that Eggers was a career officer but not a Nazi \\u201CI found myself feeling sort of sympathy for some of those German characters who winds up spending 10 years in a Soviet gulag in the postwar reckoning.\\u201D \\u201COne has to bear in mind that this was an officers\\u2019 camp and they were treated differently from soldiers in stalags [POW camps for enlisted soldiers] It was a horrible place but it wasn\\u2019t a concentration camp They were not the SS; they were not fanatics.\\u201D There\\u2019s another story Macintyre starts to talk about that is not in any of his books but is just as intriguing \\u201CMy father was born on a sheep station at Quirindi [330 kilometres north of Sydney] in NSW I\\u2019ve never been but I\\u2019m going for the first time [this year] There\\u2019s a Macintyre River up there that is named after one of my grandfather\\u2019s family who moved here in 1827 to buy land; both Macintyre\\u2019s paternal grandfather and father were born in Australia \\u201CThis particular genre is one that I never really meant to be part of,\\u201D he says \\u201CI was recruited by MI6 when I was at Cambridge \\u201CIt happened in the traditional way.\\u201D \\u201CI had a tap on the shoulder from one of my tutors \\u2018There\\u2019s part of the Foreign Office that is slightly different from the other parts.\\u2019 He never actually said what it was But they took one look at me and realised that here\\u2019s a man who can\\u2019t keep a secret as I\\u2019ve just demonstrated by telling you the story which I\\u2019ve told others before.\\u201D I didn\\u2019t.\\u201D The hint of a smile appears on his face and he again pauses \\u201CBut I was really fascinated by the idea of the double life.\\u201D \\u201CI\\u2019ve always thought the most powerful is ego I\\u2019ve never come across an important spy who didn\\u2019t also think they were motivated by some higher calling \\u2018The ruthless exercise of private power.\\u2019 \\u201CSecrets are very intoxicating and can also be very bad for you breaking the law or manipulating people or deceiving the people you love.\\u201D He\\u2019s referring here to the fact that when Gordievsky was safely ensconced in England [then US president Ronald] Reagan\\u2019s speeches were incredibly incendiary; he was poking the bear very \\u2018They may be paranoid in the Kremlin but they genuinely believe you\\u2019re about to launch your first strike.\\u2019 \\u201CYou can see the [White House] rhetoric begin to ratchet down [after reading Gordievsky\\u2019s reports] he\\u2019s not the only player in this scenario and I wouldn\\u2019t give him singular credit but the Cold War began to get warmer from that point onwards.\\u201D One can only wonder what Oleg Gordievsky would make of the reaction to Mikhail Gorbachev\\u2019s passing in August 2022 Gordievsky\\u2019s dramatic escape from Moscow allowed him to tell his remarkable story; others were not so lucky Macintyre\\u2019s book is written for a British audience so it is perhaps Antipodean nitpicking to point out that although Fowler\\u2019s escape (which has been chronicled widely in Australia before now) is described at some length he is not mentioned by name \\u2013 at least not in the proof version given to me before our interview \\u201CThe precise number of successful escapers is still debated \\u2026 The best estimate is that a total of 32 men made \\u2018home runs\\u2019 one Pole and a Belgian.\\u201D What about Bill Fowler I think I probably put the Commonwealth escapers in with the Brits.\\u201D \\u201CI just thought Australian readers would notice it,\\u201D I fumble \\u201CI think you\\u2019re right; I think British is meant to include British and Commonwealth.\\u201D Ben Macintyre will appear at the upcoming Perth and Adelaide writers\\u2019 festivals of somebody who has lived within themselves forever.\\u2019 \\u2018The ruthless exercise of private power.\\u2019 \\u2032 Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker HistoryNet THE BASICS:   Escape from Colditz is the Osprey reissue of a popular game originally released in 1973 a British Army officer who escaped the real Colditz Castle One player plays the German Security Officer while the others control Allied Escape Officers—prisoners of war The game returns with clearer rules and nicer components THE OBJECTIVE:  Players in the Escape Officer role draw cards that contain items or French officers safely out of Colditz as possible players use guards and various card-driven search tactics to prevent the prisoners’ escape there is not much room for creative out-of-the-box thinking the game captures—in his opinion—the sport of escape and the realistic options at hand AND THE UGLY:  The game is visually gorgeous Contents include a recreated Red Cross package One criticism is players are limited to preset options But enterprising players can modify rules if desired PLAYABILITY:  Colditz is a real “beer and pretzels” type of game—fun for gatherings Certain cards can be omitted and game length can be altered to change it up for repeated play the game sets a certain amount of turns counting down to 1 Experienced players can increase difficulty by reducing the number of turns THE BOTTOM LINE:  Escape from Colditz is enjoyable and atmospheric Few games can boast having a designer involved in its subject Unlike other war games that attract mainly military historians Colditz has the ability to attract wider crowds Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance how Wild Bill Donovan shaped the American intelligence community During the 1835–42 Second Seminole War and as Army scouts out West these warriors from the South proved formidable “History is a guide to navigation in perilous times History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the world’s largest publisher of history magazines photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians sign me up! From the silver to the small screen, Colditz Castle during the Second World War has captured audiences in the West for over 75 years bravery and swashbuckling officers with perfectly maintained mustaches playing a cat and mouse game with Nazis all while being held in captivity is worth its weight in Hollywood gold Such stories have been firmly mined by historians and screenwriters alike Author Ben Macintyre recently spoke with HistoryNet about the notorious prison camp after all these years and countless retellings Colditz is the most symbolic notorious wartime prison camp in history — it’s buried in our national mythology I grew up watching the black-and-white TV series about Colditz I grew up playing the board game of Colditz.   And so along with that kind of heavy symbolism comes a lot of mythology There is a very clear legend associated with Colditz it’s the legend of brave Brits with mustaches winning the war in a different way by defying the German captors and digging their way out to freedom there was a lot of that — there was a tremendous amount of bravery and resilience and a lot of incredible escape attempts But what I found fascinating about Colditz is that it’s a kind of enclosed world that takes place in the middle of war.  most of them right at the beginning of the war And what you get is this sort of a strange where different people behave in different ways You find that some of them are incredibly tough and resolute What always fascinates me is how ordinary different people respond to circumstances particularly in wars that are not of their making.   I just wanted to revisit that story really what has come down to us is often rather simplified The history of the Second World War is often and the people who win it are on the right side of righteousness but within that there’s also a much more interesting and moving and poignant set of stories to be told.  Part of the myth is that Colditz was a very homogenous place where everyone worked together to achieve the single aim of defying the Nazis and getting out The truth is it was riven with division.   obviously between the Germans and the Allies and they all had slightly different ways of coping with this world that they were in And one of the ways was an intense rivalry between the nations.   The Brits in particular are obsessed — still are — with the whole idea of class Class was sort of imported into Colditz wholesale There were ordinary soldiers who were not allowed to escape so you had a kind of an extraordinary social cleavage running straight down the middle of Colditz.   had demanded that the Jews in the camp be removed to a different part They did not want to share barracks with French Jewish prisoners the Germans saw this as a huge propaganda opportunity and leapt at it.  Another one of the stories that I found actually amazing was about a British officer who was Indian and he suffered the most terrible racism in Colditz It was the other white prisoners who treated him as a second-class citizen He was told that he wasn’t allowed to escape because his skin color would mean that he was going to get caught but it was still a profoundly racist thing to say He walked 700 miles across Nazi-occupied Europe into Switzerland I think there are many elements of the Colditz story that have been suppressed We have a different approach to the world these days from the way it was written up immediately after the war way of looking at what happens when you lock up 500 people for five years.  both the society at the time and the history that was written afterwards did not consider them worthy of inclusion in the main story It was a prison camp for male officers and yet there are two women who played an absolutely crucial role in the history of Colditz One was a middle-aged Scotswoman named Jane Walker who ran the escape networks out of Poland The prisoners who did manage to get out of Colditz went straight for her The other one was a very young dental assistant to have a love affair with one of the characters inside the prison It turned out that she herself was a committed anti-Nazi resistance operative inside of the town and she ended up passing intelligence information to the prisoners inside this was an actual glider that was built in the attic of Colditz fabric made out of bed mattresses and a steering mechanism There was to be a runway built on the apex of the longest roof and then they would use a weight filled with concrete which they could use as a counterweight to drop it off the end to literally fling this thing into the air over the Mulde River it never flew but it undoubtedly existed.   I think it was a way of keeping themselves from going a bit mad towards the end but there were these other incredible escapes That was partly because the Germans in their wisdom had decided to put all the most difficult prisoners all the prisoners from other prison camps that had already tried to escape they decided to put them in one place in the belief that if you put all the bad boys in one in one classroom if you put all the naughty boys in one room they’re egging each other on and very soon your classroom is on fire So it actually turned out to be very counterproductive.   And while this vast Gothic castle on a hill is extraordinary and looks impregnable Colditz was riddled with underground passages and secret compartments One of the more intelligent German officers did say it’s probably the worst place we could have chosen to try and keep 500 extremely difficult escape-prone prisoners.” And so right from the word “go” there was a battle on between the escapees and the guards to see to see who would come out on top.  While there were plenty of escapers at Colditz there were plenty of people who understandably decided that particularly as the war moved towards its bloody climax Trying to get out of this prison was a very quick way to end up with a bullet in your head in an unmarked grave.   If you were an officer and you escaped from Colditz probably the worst that would happen to you would be to be brought back and put in solitary confinement for a few weeks But as the war moved on and it became bloodier and more brutal the SS began to take control over the prison camp system many people inside decided that the danger of escape was simply too much.   there was always a hardened core who never gave up who believed that it was their absolute duty to keep going They were really in a pretty small minority by the end of it.   We imagine stories of war full of life and movement and color in a way the battle they were fighting was often a mental battle to stay alert It’s a part of Colditz life that is seldom discussed but there was a high incidence of mental illness and breakdown It wasn’t a jolly game for everybody For many people it was a terrible traumatic experience that they never recovered from.  In places like Colditz it does ask a rather essential question in an odd way the question of “What would you do?” How would you Which one of these characters would you have been It’s obviously a question none of us can truly answer but it’s an imaginative thing that I think popular history — if it works — does very very well is to try to place you in the position of those few And I think that’s why these narratives have such a grip on us.   We’d like to imagine that all of us would have that indomitable spirit to keep going And some of the people that I love most in this story are the least well known They’re the modest ones who sort of did keep going but never pretended it was fun never pretended that this was a jolly game They just sort of stuck at it with a certain grim British humor There were some extraordinary American prisoners in Colditz towards the end who really provided such a moral boost that they became almost mascots of the place.  I think that some of these “lesser characters” are not lesser characters They’re just characters that have been hidden perhaps behind a brightness of the celebrities also came out of Colditz.  Our 9 best-selling history titles feature in-depth storytelling and iconic imagery to engage and inform on the people and the events that shaped America and the world I’m the News & Social Editor at HistoryNet and a World War II researcher with an unparalleled affinity for Sir Winston Churchill I have a Master's degree in military history from King's College London and my cornucopia of interests include: World War II Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH, the Niess-Gain professor of surgery and director of the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Council of Councils Colditz, who also is deputy director of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University and associate director of prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the School of Medicine Originally published by the School of Medicine  F1’s first race took place 70 years ago this week and featured a war hero who went on to win Le Mans before becoming a successful engineer and businessman Tony Rolt’s name is written into F1’s opening chapter but his story demands a broader canvas. He was a youthful prodigy, a soldier decorated for gallantry, a serial escapee in the second world war and designer and builder of the Colditz glider, a Le Mans winner and a successful engineer and businessman. Read moreThat inaugural grand prix did not go well for Rolt Peter Walker had done well to qualify his English Racing Automobiles (ERA) car in 10th but when Rolt took the wheel for the race he was forced to retire after only four laps with a gearbox failure who had come through the crucible of conflict He had known crushing disappointment in capture and imprisonment during the war and could take the slings and arrows of competition with aplomb Born in 1918 and enamoured of racing as a child he was fortunate to have a mother willing to indulge his passion Perhaps hoping to curb the excesses that had already resulted in him being caught by the police for driving under age she bought him a Morgan three-wheeler when he was 16 in which he competed in schoolboy trails events for Eton A grand career in racing beckoned until the war intervened, as his son Stuart, now 71, recalls. “He was going places rapidly as a private entrant and then the war came along,” he says. “He would drive anything he could get his hands on but left motor racing because of Adolf Hitler at a point when he was being lined up to drive all sorts of stuff. There were people interested who really rated him and he was young. He was ready to become a top driver of the time.” Fate had other plans and Rolt would distinguish himself with the same quiet determination in service of his country as he had behind the wheel. As an officer in the Rifle Brigade he was ordered to Calais to prop up the crumbling French defence, as the evacuation at Dunkirk proceeded. Read moreAfter only five days of fighting his battalion was captured but not before Rolt had proved himself assisting a wounded comrade while still firing his Bren gun at the enemy He was awarded the Military Cross but was set to spend the rest of the war in captivity “He wasn’t doing his bit for his country and there was anger that his war was over after five days and an absolute determination to get home and fight.” Rolt proved his resolve in no uncertain fashion He suffered the cruel disappointment of making it to within 100m of the Swiss border on one occasion The Germans failed to confiscate the false documents he had been using and Stuart still has them On another he and his comrades walked out of a camp dressed as Swiss Red Cross visitors “It worked brilliantly,” Rolt later recalled waited a suitable length of time and then walked out the main gate We then walked for two nights using makeshift maps.” The escapers managed to board a train but were ultimately recaptured View image in fullscreenRolt (second right) and Duncan Hamilton with their wives following their victory at Le Mans in 1953 Photograph: Keystone/Getty ImagesLike other serial escapers Rolt was sent to Colditz Castle in February 1944 Fearing the SS might execute the prisoners Rolt came up with an audacious plan to secure a way out for at least two of them: building a glider and launching it from the gloomy stalag when the officers were told to cease escape attempts because of the approaching end of the war Rolt returned home but had lost six years of his career He threw himself back into the sport but it was a different experience to that of the late 1930s Now driving an Alfa Romeo he raced whenever and wherever he had the chance “But in an ideal world he would have been a grand prix driver.” He at least made it to the grid for that momentous occasion at Silverstone in 1950 It ended sadly as did his other two grands prix both at Silverstone where he again suffered mechanical failures in 1953 and 1955 View image in fullscreenThe false document that Rolt hid from the Nazis while a prisoner of war Photograph: Courtesy of Tony RoltIn 1952 as reserve driver in the RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod he lapped quicker than Stirling Moss in the Jaguar C-type alongside his teammate and friend Duncan Hamilton In 1955 they retired while in second in a race marked by terrible tragedy It was the year more than 80 people were killed when a Mercedes flew into spectators on the pit straight with a young family and a fledgling engineering business Rolt’s engineering firm focused on building new technology around four-wheel drive and anti-lock braking Working with the inventor of the modern tractor It remains the only four-wheel drive car to win an F1 race the non-championship Oulton Park Gold Cup in 1961 His transmission systems were used in Ford’s world championship-winning rally cars and with pleasing symmetry in the Audis that were all-conquering at Le Mans in the 2000s Silverstone too remained close to his heart He was a proud member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club and Stuart has fond memories of his father and friends in charge of the inside of the corner at Becketts for many He attended F1 for the rest of his life until his death aged 89 in 2008 Rolt may have been a bit player when F1’s 70-year journey began but he has his place as much more than a footnote in the history books “He had an overwhelming love of motor sport he lived and breathed it and he had an extraordinary life,” says Stuart “The war definitely had an effect on him but after that he was determined to prove himself to he world and he did it.” This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media American and British intelligence agencies collaborated on a top-secret mission with the US Playing Card Company To help Allied prisoners of war escape from Nazi prison camps the company devised a way to hide a map of Germany inside playing cards Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Nazi Germany captured and detained nearly 94,000 prisoners of war (POWs) from the United States.[1] POWs from the US and other Allied nations were imprisoned at Prisoner of War Camps throughout Europe including Stalag Luft III in western Poland and Oflag IV-C in eastern Germany the Nazis established Oflag IV-C near Leipzig They converted the Renaissance-style Colditz Castle into a prisoner of war camp Colditz Castle was primarily used for detaining captured Allied officers especially those who were high-profile or likely to escape.[2] Oflag IV-C had a reputation for being impossible to escape It was the only Nazi prison camp where guards outnumbered prisoners Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History The camp’s escape-proof reputation did not deter Allied prisoners Some dug tunnels into the floors or through the castle’s thick stone walls while others plotted different ways to break out there were at least 130 escape attempts from Colditz Castle the US Army captured Colditz Castle and liberated the remaining Allied POWs the American Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA) and British Special Operations Executive hatched a plan They tasked the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC) to create decks of Bicycle brand playing cards that could conceal maps of Germany.[3] Under the rules of the Geneva Conventions the Red Cross and other charitable organizations could send parcels and mail to prisoners of war.[4] In addition to clothing an enclosed deck of cards would offer more than just a way to keep busy Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum © IWM HU 58537 All Bicycle decks had the same white and blue design but a crooked cellophane seal on the box indicated that there was more than met the eye the map outlined escape routes out of Germany.[5] Other cards contained instructions about places to avoid or landmarks to look out for the US Playing Card Company Complex had already converted much of its production lines to wartime uses The company churned out parachutes for antipersonnel fragmentation bombs.[6] Other products included materials for defense as well as electronics and radar devices for the Navy and Signal Corps the USPCC produced another special deck of cards printed with the shapes of military vehicles from other warring countries Known as “spotter decks,” these cards were intended to help civilians identify ships and aircraft from both friendly and enemy nations Due to the top-secret nature of the map decks, the project had to remain confidential for many years after the war. It is unknown how many escape map decks were produced or survived. Only two full decks are still known to exist. They are both held in the collection of the International Spy Museum in Washington To recognize its contribution to the war effort the US Playing Card Company released a commemorative escape map deck in 2013 the commemorative deck openly displays sections of the map on the front of each card the USPCC relocated to a smaller facility in Erlanger The US Playing Card Company Complex in Norwood Ohio was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2015 This article was researched and written by Jade Ryerson Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education [2] Prisoners included officers from Poland [3] Escape map decks were just one of many top-secret methods that American military intelligence used to help American servicemen to evade and escape capture. To learn more, check out this article about POWs and Intel at Fort Hunt [4] The Geneva Conventions are a series of four treaties that established international legal standards for humanitarian treatment during wartime They describe the rights of military personnel They also describe protections for sick and wounded soldiers [5] The joker cards included instructions explaining that the intended order of the cards was spades antipersonnel fragmentation bombs released shot or other fragments that could be deadly when released at a high velocity Editors of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. “Colditz Castle.” Encyclopedia Britannica. April 26, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Colditz-Castle Fry, Helen. “Great Escapes.” Chap. 7 in MI9: A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion in World War Two, 119-136. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv15pjxb4.15 3 in Confronting Captivity: Britain and the United States and Their POWs in Nazi Germany Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press Naylor, Wendy and Diana Wellman. “United States Playing Card Company Complex.” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Naylor Wellman, LLC, Cleveland Heights, June 30, 2015. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/5e810d3c-e633-4cd6-9bfe-49402ec65ec9 POWS Got the Best X-Mas Gift of All—An Escape Map.” Popular Mechanics Vance, Jonathan F. “The War Behind the Wire: The Battle to Escape from a German Prison Camp.” Journal of Contemporary History 28, no. 4 (October 1993): 675-693. https://www.jstor.org/stable/260860 Download the NPS app to navigate the parks on the go the Niess-Gain Professor of Surgery and professor of medicine is recognized for his distinguished contributions to cancer epidemiology and prevention — particularly his work to advance the popular understanding of strategies to reduce cancer risk As an epidemiologist and public health expert Colditz has a longstanding interest in the preventable causes of cancer and other chronic diseases and translating that research into guidelines and policies to promote health He has focused on how lifestyle factors such as smoking and diet affect the risk of cancer and other diseases Colditz also is chief of the Department of Surgery’s Division of Public Health Sciences deputy director of Washington University’s Institute for Public Health and associate director of prevention and control at the Alvin J Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine His past honors include the American Association for Cancer Research Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Prevention Research the American Society of Clinical Oncology-American Cancer Society Award and Lecture and the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor Colditz earned his medical degree from the University of Queensland in 1979 and completed his internship and residency at Royal Brisbane Hospital before pursuing his master’s degree in public health in 1982 and doctoral degree in 1986 Colditz joined the Washington University faculty in 2006 Because of research, every year we’re learning more about breast cancer risk and risk factors—knowledge that helps us improve and personalize detection and screening Read on to learn how researchers calculating breast cancer risk and how BCRF advances risk-related research we need to zoom out and talk about risk more generally Risk refers to the likelihood that something Scientists and clinicians measure risk in two primary ways: absolute risk and relative risk Absolute risk (also called cumulative risk) is a term used to describe the chance that something will happen—such as a breast cancer diagnosis—over a set time If you’ve heard the commonly cited estimate that one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime then you’ve encountered a measure of absolute risk This calculation comes from estimates showing that the average 35-year-old woman in the U.S who doesn’t have any known breast cancer risk factors has a 12.9 percent (roughly one in eight) chance of developing invasive breast cancer by age 90 Absolute risk can be calculated over any amount of time: a year When absolute risk is estimated for the course of someone’s life This form of risk calculation is helpful for looking at large but it doesn’t account for any one person’s unique risk of breast cancer In other words: Your individual breast cancer risk could be higher or lower than 12.9 percent given your genes (including whether you carry a breast-cancer associated gene mutation such as BCRA1/2) Relative risk is used to compare risk between groups When researchers and doctors talk about specific risk factors for breast cancer This measure is helpful for considering how things like lifestyle choices play a role in a person’s overall breast cancer risk but this measure can also be confusing—particularly in news headlines without important context researchers have looked at alcohol use as a risk factor for breast cancer Heavy drinkers—women who have three or more drinks per day or eight-plus drinks per week—have been found to have a 61 percent higher risk of breast cancer compared to non-drinkers This doesn’t mean that 61 percent of heavy drinkers will be diagnosed with breast cancer sometime in their lifetimes It means that their breast cancer risk is 61 percent higher than a non-drinker’s risk a researcher might also calculate relative risk of a breast cancer recurrence based on how one group in the trial responded to treatment compared with how another group responded but it’s important to remember it can easily sound alarmingly high on first glance Remember that relative risk compares two things and is one part of a larger picture of risk The 12.9 percent average absolute risk of breast cancer for women born in the U.S that’s discussed above is a good starting point But breast cancer risk is not fixed over the course of a woman’s lifetime because breast cancer risk increases with age and End Results (SEER) Program estimates from the National Cancer Institute at these ages has the following risk of developing breast cancer over the next 10 years: these numbers are overall averages for all U.S women and don’t reflect someone’s individual risk of breast cancer but they do show how breast cancer risk by age changes Healthcare providers often use the National Cancer Institute’s Breast Cancer Risk Assessment tool (also known as the Gail model or Gail risk assessment) to estimate someone’s average five-year and lifetime risk of breast cancer The breast cancer risk assessment method has limits; it cannot predict anyone’s individual risk or give good risk estimates for women with inherited gene mutations or histories of lobular and ductal carcinomas in situ But it can help inform screening and risk-reduction strategy recommendations In 2013, longtime BCRF investigator and breast cancer prevention expert Dr. Graham Colditz developed the Rosner-Colditz model for breast cancer risk with BCRF support This breast cancer risk assessment was notable for not only considering well-established factors known to increase a person’s risk of the disease (such as alcohol consumption and weight) but also those factors that were not included in other models (such as what age a woman started menopause) A subsequent validation study found that Dr Unlike NCI’s Gail model—which should only be used by providers—Washington University School of Medicine’s Siteman Cancer Center provides a patient-friendly version of the Rosner-Colditz model via its Your Disease Risk website Another breast cancer risk assessment tool clinicians commonly use is the Tyrer-Cuzick model, developed by BCRF investigator Dr. Jack Cuzick, which looks at family history in-depth. A patient-friendly version can be found here While these breast cancer risk assessment tools cannot and should not replace discussions with your doctor they may be a useful starting point to assess your habits see how they influence your breast cancer risk and guide further conversations with your healthcare team To drastically reduce breast cancer incidence rates and death, BCRF’s overall research portfolio includes a significant investment in breast cancer prevention research and all it encompasses—personalized breast cancer risk assessment individual risk-reducing lifestyle interventions The Foundation is currently funding 49 projects to advance our understanding of risk factors for breast cancer These investments work in concert with the Foundation’s significant support of research into uncontrollable risk factors for breast cancer—including genetics, ethnicity and race, environmental exposures, family history—and ways to apply principles of precision medicine to prevention strategies via our pioneering Precision Prevention Initiative BCRF investigators are at work on every angle of breast cancer prevention and risk reduction research to ultimately stop the disease in its tracks Alcohol and Cancer Risk Fact Sheet. (2021, July 14). National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/alcohol/alcohol-fact-sheet Breast Cancer Risk in American Women. (2020, December 16). National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/risk-fact-sheet Cancer of the Breast (Female) – Cancer Stat Facts. (n.d.). SEER. https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html Alcohol and Cancer: A Statement of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Strait, J. E. (2016, January 13). Better predictor of breast cancer risk developed – The Source – Washington University in St. Louis [Press release]. https://source.wustl.edu/2013/11/better-predictor-of-breast-cancer-risk… Information and articles in BCRF’s “About Breast Cancer” resources section are for educational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice Content in this section should never replace conversations with your medical team about your personal risk Always speak to your doctor about your individual situation BCRF’s “About Breast Cancer” resources and articles are developed and produced by a team of experts PhD provides scientific and medical review Scientific Program Managers Priya Malhotra PhD research and write content with some additional support Director of Content Elizabeth Sile serves as editor former inmates portrayed Colditz Castle as a place of excitement and derring-do where plucky British officers defied their jailers with ingenuity and resilience wrote several books portraying the camp as a place in which there was “never a dull moment” His account Escape from Colditz was adapted into a gung-ho 1955 film starring John Mills But compared with the fate of those held in the concentration camps run by the SS The castle this week reopened after a six-month renovation with a new tour guide: an interactive tablet device offering augmented reality, 3D animations and the opportunity to build an imaginary escape '+n.escapeExpression("function"==typeof(o=null!=(o=r(e,"eyebrowText")||(null!=l?r(l,"eyebrowText"):l))?o:n.hooks.helperMissing)?o.call(null!=l?l:n.nullContext||{},{name:"eyebrowText",hash:{},data:t,loc:{start:{line:28,column:63},end:{line:28,column:78}}}):o)+" \n '+(null!=(o=c(e,"if").call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2PreText"):l,{name:"if",hash:{},fn:n.program(32,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:63,column:20},end:{line:63,column:61}}}))?o:"")+"\n"+(null!=(o=(c(e,"ifAll")||l&&c(l,"ifAll")||n.hooks.helperMissing).call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Text"):l,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Link"):l,{name:"ifAll",hash:{},fn:n.program(34,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:64,column:20},end:{line:70,column:30}}}))?o:"")+" This article was published more than 2 years ago Colditz was a notorious wartime castle-cum-prison for high-risk POWs.Staatliche Schlosser Burgen und Garten Sachsen gGmbH Schloss Colditz After writing more than a dozen critically lauded popular histories many of them about espionage during the Second World War or the Cold War Ben MacIntyre is enjoying a bit of a red-carpet moment: This year sees three major screen adaptations of the London Times columnist’s books starring Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen while two dramatic series – SAS Rogue Heroes and A Spy Among Friends starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce – debut back-to-back at the end of October in Britain During a recent stop in Toronto to attend the International Festival of Authors MacIntyre talked to Emily Donaldson about his latest book a novelistic account of life – the personalities ceaselessly inventive escape attempts and occasional tragedies – at Colditz Germany’s notorious wartime castle-cum-prison for high-risk POWs You’ve written about many war-related subjects I grew up in the 1970s playing the Colditz board game watching the BBC-TV series based on the books by Pat Reid Something like a third of the British population watched that series so it’s deeply embedded into our national mythology But I always knew Colditz couldn’t be just a story about brave British chaps trying to gather enough rope to climb off the chapel roof The Second World War was a literate war in the sense that everybody wrote everything down I’ve lost count of the number of times I went to the family of somebody who was in Colditz and said “Do you have any material?” Frequently people say a box Grandpa left behind.” For me that’s absolute catnip and that’s where a lot of the material from this story came from Those stories are often very different from the accepted mythology that was less about war – indeed less about masculine warfare – than it was about class and race and sexuality and mental illness and all the things we know human beings are prey to You went multiple times to Colditz for research so I spent part of my summer holiday two years ago living in this grim gothic castle on the banks of the Mulde There’s an amazing archive and a very helpful local historian-archivist and we had the most wonderful time digging down in the tunnels they keep finding more escape equipment hidden in the walls and ceilings and floorboards so in a way history is still unfolding in Colditz It looks very forbidding in the wartime photographs but they’ve painted it white and it’s rather beautiful There’s a sort of fairy tale element to it Author Ben Macintyre.Justine Stoddart/Supplied You’ve said previously that war can give opportunities to people with unusual minds Who do think had the most unusual mind at Colditz who went on to become a correspondent for the Times He’d battened onto fascism and ended up going to the Nuremberg rallies But then he did a complete 180 and became a properly committed communist To make up for his early dabbling with fascism he signed up for the commandos and took part in this incredibly brave and horrendous assault He looks at it with a very cynical and funny eye – he wrote the only good novel to come out of it so he writes about sex in Colditz in a way that nobody else does I just loved his combination of dilettantism and intelligence and self-mockery He ended up running a mussel farm collective off the coast of Wales One of the most surprisingly empathetic characters is the prison’s security officer I had inherited the idea that this was a brutal camp run by horrendous Nazis who were either very stupid or completely sadistic It was a place run by the German army based on well-established rules that everybody knew The Germans themselves were very punctilious and took deep offence at any suggestion that they were somehow bending the civilized rules of behaviour it became more brutal and appalling and those levels of understanding began to fray But in some ways he was the most humane figure I loved that he was gathering material because he knew this was important Without him I don’t think I’d have been able to write this book but after the war he systematically tried to contact all the prisoners he’d known from Colditz I found all these wonderful letters he wrote to say That the prisoners maintained their class divides and social hierarchies so rigorously and willingly is sort of astonishing Do you think this helped them psychologically They imported and exaggerated the kind of clubby mentality and public-school ethos they brought with them I think it made them feel that home wasn’t so far away On the other hand – and this is again a good example of our modern sensibility looking into the past – I’m still appalled by the idea that one class of prisoner was allowed to seek their liberty and another class was effectively prevented from doing so That seemed to me immoral: the idea that the masters were considered of greater human value than the servants Assuming you didn’t have the entire run of the place what perspective did you get on what the prisoners endured Actually I more or less did have the run of the place It’s a place full of ghosts; not just wartime ghosts but prewar ghosts This had been a place to incarcerate people who didn’t want to be there from the unwanted children of the great electors of Saxony to troublesome siblings to unmarried daughters and it’s impossible not to feel the accreted weight of some of that history but I felt very conscious of the different lives that have been lived in a very enclosed space It’s a difficult place to get into and a difficult place to get out of and you sense that even today There’s something both magical and forbidding about it Expand your mind and build your reading list with the Books newsletter. 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For more information on our commenting policies and how our community-based moderation works, please read our Community Guidelines and our Terms and Conditions Colditz is a renowned leader in cancer prevention goes over epidemiological research with Victoria Anwuri project manager of the Siteman Cancer Center “Graham Colditz is an exceptional leader,” says Larry J executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine “He has a clear vision for what it takes to build a world-class program and the keen ability to bring out the strengths in those he works with to accomplish that vision.” always knew he wanted to be a primary-care physician — just like his father Colditz was struck by the kinds of patients he saw in the hospital Too many were suffering from heart attacks or lung cancer — conditions linked to smoking “It made me wonder: Couldn’t we do a better job at prevention?” he says That line of questioning changed the trajectory of Colditz’s career he is an internationally known leader in cancer prevention Rather than treating patients after they get sick his life’s work focuses on understanding the preventable causes of chronic disease and translating that research into guidelines and policies aimed at promoting healthier lives through prevention Colditz joined the School of Medicine faculty in 2006 as the Niess-Gain Professor and associate director of Prevention and Control at the Siteman Cancer Center bringing her knowledge of research structures and implementation planning he has broadened the scope of prevention research education and community outreach and markedly raised the profile of the university’s public health initiatives Colditz has recruited more than a dozen new faculty members whose research focuses on cancer’s link to physical activity and on public health strategies to help eliminate cancer disparities He also has brought in more than $30 million in federal funding to expand the breadth and depth of cancer prevention research and programs dean of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work Colditz was instrumental in establishing the university’s Institute for Public Health The institute has expanded its interdisciplinary research and education programs to improve public health throughout the city After finishing medical school and an internal medicine residency at the University of Queensland in Brisbane Colditz headed to Harvard University’s School of Public Health He came with a dual interest in epidemiology and health policy Harvard epidemiologists advised him to steer clear of health policy their thinking was that epidemiology generates the truth and that policymakers could debate the research but epidemiologists shouldn’t be involved in those discussions,” he says Colditz took courses in health economics and decision analysis and joined forces with health-care economists building a model that estimated the costs to society of smoking he also was at the forefront of efforts to develop cancer prevention programs on the local the state of Massachusetts and the American Cancer Society Graham Colditz’s family: (from left) daughter Colditz earned a master’s degree in public health in 1982 and a doctorate in public health in 1986 he worked on the landmark Nurses’ Health Study has tracked the health of more than 238,000 nurses and is one of the largest investigations into the risk factors for chronic illnesses in women Colditz ran the day-to-day operations of the Nurses’ Health Study and the study was expanded to include data on fractures tissue samples from premalignant and malignant lesions Hundreds of studies since have been published based on data from the study “The Nurses’ Health Study is a massive undertaking,” Colditz says “but it really gave us a incredible opportunity to look at how diet physical activity and other lifestyle factors influence a woman’s risk of disease.” began doctoral studies in psychology at Washington University in 2003 so Colditz knew of the school’s reputation and its academic rigor was looking to recruit someone to lead the Cancer Prevention and Control program Colditz was well aware of health disparities in the region Missouri and Illinois both have cancer death rates higher than the national average; the problem is particularly worrisome in urban and rural areas with high poverty where rates of smoking and obesity also are high Some might look at those statistics as hopeless but Colditz saw them as an opportunity and a challenge “We’ve got a phenomenal opportunity here to bring people together to change some of these disparities,” Colditz says and other colleagues recently received additional National Institutes of Health funding for a major project to increase colorectal cancer screening among underserved and underinsured people in St Colditz also has spearheaded the development of the new master of population health sciences program for physicians and clinical trainees which launched this fall and is designed to give clinicians the research skills to evaluate the effectiveness of medications or clinical procedures in large populations “Graham has accomplished so much in such a short time,” Eberlein says “Graham has a real gift for creating an environment where people want to work together Colditz’s own research has focused on how diet and lifestyle during adolescence can influence cancer risk in later years He has shown that regular exercise in girls as young as 12 can reduce their risk of breast cancer he found that girls and young women who drink alcohol increase their risk of benign breast disease which in itself raises their risk of breast cancer He also has initiated an effort to collect blood samples and health histories of the 25,000 women who get mammograms at the Joanne Knight Breast Health Center at Siteman The information will be used as part of clinical studies to determine why certain women get breast cancer and why they respond differently to treatment “Washington University has enormous strength in basic science research and in understanding how disease develops,” Colditz says “The challenge is to add ways to identify disease risk — both for individuals and within whole communities — and to change behavior to lower risk and improve people’s lives.” an online tool to assess a person’s risk for cancer Washington People ©2025 Washington University in St. Louis This dialog contains the full navigation menu for this site. Bradley Colditz and Waldemar Rivera-Berrios GANSEVOORT, N.Y. - A pair of Penn State Altoona men's volleyball players swept the North Eastern Athletic Conference's weekly awards in the sport, as the league announced its Players of the Week on Tuesday afternoon. Named the NEAC Player of the Week was sophomore outside hitter Bradley Colditz (Upper St. Clair, PA/Upper St. Clair), and selected as the NEAC Defensive Player of the Week was sophomore libero Waldemar Rivera-Berrios (Toa Alta, Puerto Rico/Samuel Clemens). Colditz and Rivera-Berrios both had big weeks for the Lions, helping their team go 3-0 in last weekend's NEAC Crossover Weekend at Mount Aloysius College. The wins improved Penn State Altoona's NEAC record to 10-1, keeping the squad in sole possession of first place in the conference standings. Rivera-Berrios posted 23 digs in Penn State Altoona's win over Wells on Saturday. He followed that up by tallying 21 digs versus SUNY Polytechnic and 19 digs against Keuka during Sunday's action. Rivera-Berrios totaled 63 digs (5.72 digs per set) and also chipped in 12 set assists on the week. This marks the first NEAC Player of the Week honor this season for Colditz, while it is the fifth time this year that Rivera-Berrios has been recognized as the conference's Defensive Player of the Week. Lions volleyball returns for more NEAC action this Friday, March 24 and Saturday, March 25 at Hilbert College. The squad faces Hilbert on Friday at 4:00 p.m., then on Saturday, they play Medaille College at 11:00 a.m. and D'Youville College at 5:00 p.m. Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. 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ease-in-out","readMoreTrigger":"opacity 150ms ease-in-out height 0ms ease-in-out 150ms","onboardingJourneyWrapper":"600ms ease-in-out","collapsibleTransition":"all 0.5s ease-in-out"},"fontWeight":{"thin":300,"normal":400,"medium":500,"regular":600,"bold":700,"black":900},"zIndex":{"header":1001,"modal":2147483645,"modalBackground":2147483644,"bestSubNavMenu":1002,"stickyPrompt":1003},"gradients":{"climate":"linear-gradient(0deg #19D37A 100%)"},"__variants__":{"color":{"light":{"semiotic":{"success":"light-dark(#157F1F 0.25))"}},"wob":{"actionBase":{"base":"light-dark(#ffffff the cooler king of Colditz who failed to get the recognition he deserved","description":"His death has raised questions about why he was never honoured I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice He was the cooler king of Colditz – the clown prince of the high-security citadel reserved for the most incorrigible of escape artists. Yet with 415 days spent in solitary confinement – and a further three months still to serve when the notorious former mental hospital was liberated in 1945 – Squadron Leader Peter Tunstall could not lay claim to being the Second World War’s greatest escapologist. Five of his audacious bids for freedom ended in heroic failure. Tunstall had another trick up his sleeve though – making himself the Germans’ biggest pain in the neck. He was court martialled five times for his antics, which included tossing water bombs over his Nazi captors and generally goading them into a state of distracted fury – much to the delight of his fellow PoWs. And by the time the war was over no other prisoner had spent as much time incarcerated alone or faced so many tribunals. His death on Saturday at his home in South Africa aged 94, has once again raised questions over why it was that Tunstall was never officially recognised for his heroic actions. Along with the celebrated “shows” he created, which bought escaping PoWs valuable time to make good their get-away, he smuggled out vital coded messages on tracing paper concealed in letters and photographs. Filmmaker Dave Windle, a personal friend of the former pilot, spent four weeks filming his reminiscences in 2006 for the video Escape into Colditz which chronicled Tunstall’s extraordinary life. He believes it was a personality clash with the castle’s highly respected senior British officer, Colonel Willie Tod, that cost him the recognition he deserved. “He did so much to assist other people but this was not understood by Colonel Tod who had no time for Pete or for Douglas Bader [a fellow inmate] who was regarded by all the young RAF officers, including Pete, as God,” said Mr Windle. “Tod never spoke to Pete until he was liberated when he saw him with a gun and said: ‘What are you doing playing soldiers?’ He never forgot that,” he added. Tunstall was told after the war by Tod’s former adjutant that the ex-Scots Fusilier had been sitting on the panel which considered the award of medals for former PoWs after being put forward by MI9, the Military Intelligence Directorate at the War Office who valued his covert messaging. “He said: ‘Over my dead body. He should never get any recognition whatsoever’,” said Mr Windle. The death of the former flying ace leaves just three former Colditz inmates still alive in the UK – Flight Lieutenant Francis “Errol” Flynn, Captain Tommy Catlow and Major- General Corran Purdon – all of whom are in their 90s. Two survivors are believed to live in Canada and Australia with a number of Frenchmen who were taken to the castle towards the end of the war from the Eastern front are also still living. Tunstall, along with Bader to whom he remained fiercely loyal for the rest of his life, was a towering character of one of the most enthralling chapters of the Second World War. He paid for flying lessons while still a schoolboy growing up at Chadwell St Mary in Essex by shooting rabbits and selling them to the local butcher. During his training – after joining the RAF at the first opportunity – he was told by the veteran World War One escaper AJ Evans that if captured “your first duty was to try to escape. Your second duty was to be as big a bloody nuisance as possible to enemy”. It was advice he took to heart. Shot down on a bombing mission in 1940 when his aircraft ditched on a Dutch island, he was captured and sent to Barth in Poland where he joined an escape party and attempted to steal a German plane at a nearby airfield. The ill-fated adventure earned him his first three months in solitary and later a transfer to Spangenberg Castle. There he participated in the notorious “Swiss Commission” in which an Allied prisoner in a stolen Nazi uniform walked free accompanying two fellow inmates posing as neutral Swiss. Another attempt to steal a plane failed and Tunstall walked 100 miles towards Holland where he was picked up and returned to more time in the cooler and another transfer to Oflag VIB where yet another escape bid resulted in the move to Colditz in March 1942. Though celebrated for his stunts he insisted everything he did was carried out at the behest of the senior escape officers and were part of a careful plan. He was later to recall: “I have gone down in history as the arch German-baiter, the chap who is always causing trouble and raising lots of laughter which was essential for our morale. I seemed to have a knack for it, because I’m naturally rather naughty I suppose. But I’m sorry for that reputation, rather than being remembered for my escaping and getting intelligence messages home.” After the war, Tunstall was a pilot for Freddie Laker before moving to Uganda where his passengers included Idi Amin. He later became an actor and even recorded cowboy stories under the name Pete and the Boys. “He had a sense of fun about it but with all that solitary confinement he thought that in the end you did go potty. He once said that he had never been right again,” said Mr Windle. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Colditz is a story the British love to tell because it confirms their assumed superiority has traditionally consisted of “prisoners of war with moustaches firmly set on stiff upper lips defying the Nazis by tunnelling out of a grim Gothic castle” our hunger for heroes diminishes and the truth is revealed what emerges is a useful parable about wartime Britain was “a miniature replica of pre-war society exclusively British since there were also French The French cavalry officer Pierre Mairesse-Lebrun carried out one of the most audacious musings about the actor and the characters he brings to life “It seems fairly redundant to say “Damian Lewis is a good actor” the biggest guy in the room in name and stature if not ever actual presence something flawed in the hull and he knows it.” Wolf Hall is one of the best things that ever happened to TV Peter Straughan’s script is wonderfully condensed with most of the conversation coming directly from Mantel’s pen Hearing some of the best lines I have ever read spoken by the characters is delightful Peter Kosminsky’s directing is flawless And while some characters needed to be recast the continuity is beyond impressive that you don’t feel the nine-year interval between the two productions The entire cast gives a masterclass in acting Continue reading “Damian Lewis as Henry VIII in Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light” Welcome back to Court and to the final episode of “Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” Step inside the Tudor Dynasty with us as we handpick our favorite superlatives for each episode of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light – from ‘who wore it best’ fashionable costume and top villain to outstanding scene and perfect cinematography – and everything else in between Continue reading “Best of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, Episode 6 Finale “Light”” will there?” – Thomas Cromwell No jury. No trial. Only an interrogation team, perfectly convinced about Thomas Cromwell being a traitor, asking ridiculous questions. And an Act of Attainder which Cromwell himself also used against others Welcome back to Court and to episode five of “Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” and I can only think that is because what Henry saw in the mirror of Anne of Cleves’ eyes was something that shook him to the core From hole-in-the-walls to Michelin-starred restaurants Billions characters know how to eat well This book has more than 100 iconic NYC spots featured on the show - get a copy Enter your email address to find the new Fan Fun post in your mailbox every morning Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.