The story of German and Austrian war refugees who secretly listened in on Nazi prisoners at Trent Park will be dramatised thanks to a lottery grant.

British intelligence services recruited refugees who fled Nazi Germany before the Second World War to spy on top-ranking prisoners held at the Trent Park mansion in the early 1940s.

The plan was to make the 84 generals and other prisoners of war who were brought to the park feel relaxed enough to discuss issues amongst themselves in the listed mansion.But they were unaware that every room in the building was bugged.

The ‘secret listeners’, many of them Jewish, made detailed transcripts of private conversations between the prisoners, providing vital information on to what extent the German army was involved in the Holocaust.

Now the tale of the secret operation will be told in a play at the same building in July, after a grant of nearly £95,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to a project run by the Pascal Theatre Company, Middlesex University and Jewish organisations.

The play will be led by screenwriter Adam Ganz of Royal Holloway, whose father was one of the team of refugees at the mansion.

He said: “I’m very excited about the chance to work with volunteers to make a site-specific drama from the exact words spoken in the same rooms over 70 years ago.

“As their story echoes down the generations we can remember the terrors they were fleeing, and learn so much from what these refugees gave to their host country.”

Middlesex University students and young Jewish volunteers will read through the original transcripts to carry out research for the play.

The mansion is currently home to the university’s theatre and television production courses, although all students will be moved to Hendon over the summer as the campus is sold off.

The play will be held at the mansion on July 22 and 23, and a performance will be held at The Jewish Museum in Camden later this year.