INSIDE COLDITZ
Central to new book The Traitor
of Colditz is Walter Purdy, the
treacherous ‘Lieutenant Grey’.
John Ash delves into Colditz’s
shadowy underworld with author
Robert Verkaik
JA: What drew you to Walter Purdy’s story? RV: I wanted to get to the truth of surviving the most secure POW camp in Nazi Germany. The legend is of an escape-proof prison in which the British spent five years outfoxing the Germans, but the majority of escapees were recaptured. After 1941, more POWs were repatriated on fraudulent health grounds – including Pat Reid’s brother, Miles. Walter Purdy is barely mentioned, and when he is it’s by an alias. What happened is still treated with great sensitivity. All that was known was that there was a rumbled stoolpigeon, but who was he? I researched
National Archive files and there was more to say about his dalliance with fascism, his collaboration and trial. The MI5 documents are interesting as they track Purdy’s treachery. In fact, the agency described him as the “greatest rogue unhung”. It was self-made MI9 spy John Brown who made Purdy’s story worth telling. The working-class sergeant conned the Germans into believing he was their agent, ensuring Purdy and 20 others paid.
