THE start of a new year can often inspire those of us who over-indulged during the festive period to seek out fitness clubs, boot camps, and now intensive military-themed fitness courses that promise an intensive solution to our widening waistlines.

However, back in the winter of 1980, there was one such military-themed camp located in a remote part of north Hampshire that offered punishment of a very different, and somewhat sinister, kind.

On a bleak compound at Weyhill, derelict buildings, watchtowers and barbed wire fences greeted the guests at Camp Butlitz as they were shepherded into the camp by men wearing grey German Army uniforms.

In those less politically correct days, Butlitz inmates could pay £30 for a weekend holiday in Hunland where they were could enjoy cold and damp conditions, hunger and interrogation at the ultimate wartime Nazi prisoner of war camp.

Under the headline: “Ve hav vays of making you enjoy yourself!”, the Daily Echo reported back to its readers after visiting this most unlikely of holiday spots.

Daily Echo: According to the story: “The camp is a disused isolation hospital and prisoners are put up in a tumble-down outbuilding. A dank and draughty place with bunks but no blankets and mattresses.

“But persistent attempts to escape earned the inmates even less inviting accommodation, known ominously as ‘The Tank’.

“This is a small metal chamber in which potential escapees are confined for up to half an hour.

“Those who managed to liberate themselves from the camp, earned themselves a “Butlitz Escaper’s Tie.""

Daily Echo: