of the operations section of the German army’s general staff. He was arrested for making a tactical retreat near Warsaw, thereby contravening Hitler’s orders. Despite this, he maintained his military rank and honours while in captivity.
General Alexander von Falkenhausen was a former Governor of Belgium during its occupation. He was arrested on suspicion of being associated with a plot to kill Hitler.
General Georg Thomas bore some responsibility for the Nazis’ brutal treatment of the inhabitants of occupied Russian territory, even while involved in some anti-Nazi plots.
General Franz Halder was involved in plots to overthrow Hitler during the early years of the Nazi administration. The former Chief of the Army General Staff, he was accompanied by his wife Gertrud in captivity.
Colonel Fabian von Schlabrendorff was a cousin and adjutant to Major General von Henning von Tresckow, and directly involved in plots to kill Hitler.
German Civilian Prisoners
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and theologian who opposed the Nazis.
Georg Elser was a would-be assassin of Hitler. He planted a bomb in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich, which exploded soon after Hitler had left.
Friedrich Engelke claimed to be a civil servant but was almost certainly an SS colonel stationed in France during the occupation.
Wilhelm von Flügge was an executive of I.G. Farben with links to the German opposition.
Dr Erich Heberlein was a former German ambassador to Spain who was detained along with his wife Margot.
Fey von Hassell was a daughter of the former German ambassador to Italy and opposition leader, she was arrested soon after the execution of her father.
Heidel Nowakowski was purported to be a lover of an SS officer before being interned in Dachau for reasons unknown.
Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia was a cousin of the Keizer and was arrested in 1944 along with his secretary and partner, Baron Fritz Cerrini, because of their homosexuality.
Josef Müller was a Bavarian lawyer and leading Catholic politician. He was a link man with the Vatican in a conspiracy to overthrow Hitler.
Martin Niemöller was an evangelical pastor and renowned opponent of the Nazi regime who was arrested on Hitler’s orders.
Prince Phillip of Hesse was an active Nazi who considered himself to be an intimate of Hitler until he was arrested in 1943. He was closely related to German and British royalty and his wife was a sister of the King of Italy.
Sigmund Rascher was a doctor in Dachau who conducted appalling, cruel experiments on prisoners.
Hjalmar Schacht was president of the Reichsbank and economics minister in the Nazi administration before he fell out of favour.
Alexander von Stauffenberg was a brother of Clause and Berthold von Stauffenberg, both of whom were executed for their roles in the attempt to kill Hitler on 20 July 1944. Alexander was arrested under the Sippenhaft (‘kin liability’) laws.
Fritz Thyssen was a leading German industrialist and financier of the Nazi regime. He was arrested after announcing his opposition to the invasion of Poland.
Isa Vermehren was a popular cabaret artist who was arrested after her brother, who was a German intelligence officer, defected to the British.
Wilhelm Visintainer was a former circus clown who became a prisoner trustee assigned to service the needs of the special prisoners.
Paul Wauer was a Jehovah’s Witness who, like most of his fellow co-religionists, was imprisoned and later assigned as a trustee to service the special prisoners.
SS Guards
Ernst Bader was an SS lieutenant in charge of one element of the SS guards that were believed to have earlier been part of an Einzsatzgruppen unit involved in the murder of civilians behind the lines in Poland and Russia.
Edgar Stiller was the Lieutenant in charge of the special prisoners in Dachau, and assigned the duty of escorting the Prominenten to the Alps.
Hungarians
Miklós Horthy was the son of Admiral Horthy, the Regent of Hungary.
Miklós Kállay was formerly the Prime Minister of Hungary.
The Soviets
General Ivan Bessonov was a senior NKVD officer, who, after his capture in 1941, agreed to work for the Germans. Before falling into disfavour, the Germans intended that he would command a group of turned Russian POWs to act as anti-Soviet partisans.
Lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili was Stalin’s son from his first marriage. He was captured and used by the Nazis for propaganda purposes. He was imprisoned at Sachsenhausen with some of the Irish captives.
Lieutenant Vassily Kokorin was a nephew of the Soviet Foreign Minister. An officer in the Soviet Air Force, he was a close friend of Stalin’s son, with whom he shared a cell at Sachsenhausen.
Major General Pyotr Privalov was a former university lecturer and decorated solider. The highest-ranking among the Soviet contingent, he was captured near Stalingrad.
Yugoslav
Colonel Hinko Dragic was an officer in the Yugoslavian Army. He was arrested after the German invasion and imprisoned in Flossenburg Concentration Camp, where he managed to become part of the Prominenten.
PART I
SPECIAL PRISONERS
Each concentration camp had an elite of privileged prisoners, no more than ten percent of the population, and admission to this exclusive club depended on an inmate’s position in the internal hierarchy, which was determined by myriad factors such as ethnicity, nationality, profession, political beliefs, language, age, and the time of arrival in the camp.
–Nikolaus Wachsmann, KL
Following the defeat of France, about 40,000 British troops joined an estimated 1.8 million French, Belgium and Dutch prisoners of war in Germany. The provisions of the Geneva Convention were largely observed, although, in breach of its terns, a small proportion of prisoners were transferred to concentration camps. Some were selected for punishment due to repeated escape attempts or for political or security reasons. While some had to endure the deprivations of ordinary concentration camp inmates, others were given special status, housed in isolated compounds and allowed more favourable treatment. These included a number of the British Army and Air Force prisoners, who were held with Russians and natives of other combatant countries. They were placed in Sachsenhausen and later Dachau, where they were joined by prominent Germans suspected of traitorous intentions against the Nazi regime. Two British Intelligence officers were included in the group.
CHAPTER ONE
KIDNAPPED AT VENLO
Captain Sigismund Payne Best seems to have relished being a spy for he did not go out of his way to hide it. In his mid-fifties, tall and gaunt, his grey hair combed back, he sported a monocle and was fond of wearing tweed suits and spats. Comparisons
