Hi I am not sure is this is the correct place for this enquiry but anyone is welcome to move it if it is wrong. While he was a POW, my father received from the Red Cross, a pair of pale blue and white striped pyjamas. He had no idea why, but he 'embroidered' his initials,WGH, on the jacket pocket and traded an item in his Red Cross parcel for a darker dye. As he was working in a sugar factory at the time he used the facilities to soak the pyjamas in water and then hung them to dry. His idea at the time was that darker colours were harder to see in the dark - and he was certainly no angel. He did not realise the significance of his act. When he marched out of Thorn, Stalag XXA, one of the first items he threw away was the pyjamas. He later saw a girl wearing his pyjamas among a lot of other girls in striped clothes and guarded by the SS. Somewhere in the vicinity of Thorn a line of lorries fleeing from the Russians passed the girls with one lorry hitting them. The POWs came on the scene just after it had happened and the girls were being forced to move off leaving blood and bodies in the snow. My Dad saw his pyjamas as the group moved away. That night they rested near each other, the girls in among trees and the POWs in an open field. The last he saw of her was as they passed into Germany from Poland (the old border). He always hoped she survived, (although I had my doubts I never said anything.) I have contacted several historians, Michael Gilbert, Michael Foote, Yad Vasham, Simon Wiesenthal and others and I sent an email to Dachau, asking if they had the pyjamas in their collection of clothes. They never replied. Does anyone have any idea how I can find out if the girl survived? Where she came from? And any other information. Jacky
