German Prisoner

When i was a child growing up in the fiftys,my grandparents, who lived in Derby, often talked about a german prisoner who was held localy and became a friend of the family. By all accounts he was well mannered and spoke good english, his name was Siegfried Gipp. My grandparents children, Kathleen [my mother] and Reg my uncle lived at home, ironically my other uncle Ron was serving with the British army in Germany and Kathleens future husband George[my farther] was in the Royal navy. After the war Siegried was repatriated back to Germany. Over the years i had often wondered what became of him. A few years ago my uncle Reg died, and among his papers i discovered some letters sent by Siegfried to my grandparents after the war and i decided to try and contact him ,but with no success. I recently met a Nomandy veteren, who since the war has spent a lot of time in Germany and spoke fluent German, with his help i sent a letter in German to his last known address, hopeing that someone may know what had became of him, this was in March this year, sixty years since he left England, to my amazement i received the following reply,
Dear George
I was very happy and supprised to get your letter after 4 days on the way,as we say in Hamburg that the authorities work very slowly but also very thorougly. Since i was i England a lot of time as past and i am sixty years older now. I was astounded because you write very good German. were you in Germany at sometime? i have been retired for 5 years. I would be very happy to get post from you with news of you and your family till then all the very best SeigfriedGipp.
I have just sent the following letter Dear Seigfreid
I would like to say how delighted i was that you took the time to reply to my letter . I have to confess that i got a friend to write my letter as i do not know the German language. I discovered some letters sent by you to my Grandparents and decided that i would see if i could contact you. Unfortunatly there are no surviving members of the family. As i am the oldest son of Kathleen Cook together with my sister Kath and my brothers Ron and Dennis we are the only surviving members of the Cook family.

I have enclosed some photo's which i trust will be of interest to you. I have also enclosed photographs of a military scrapbook. I often wondered what service that you were in and how that you ended up in Derby, and how life has treated you this last 60 years since the war?. We are now awaiting his reply as we have now sent him our e-mail address.

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