I have a letter dated 23 Aug. 1943 ta Mrs, Claudine Ragner (Al's wife), from Leda, Tom's only sister, who gives her age as 15. Her brother Bill heard from Al that "A1 will be W911 soon and that you (Claudine and Al) will

be together again soon". She writes that "We received a post—card from my

brother Tom a few days ago" (evidently from the Nazi Stalag) "that he was well although that's hard to believe." There "are four of us home now. My mother, my dad and my kid brother Walter aged 5. trouble we have with him."

So you can imagine the

When the reporter interviewed the brothers 6 Dec. 1951 right after Tom's death, Walter was credited with most or almost all of the talking. They were both described as Ford employees, although, per Leda (who must have been mistaken), Walter came to 13-14 years old then. Tom "had been brought up in a broken home and was given too much freedom of action." parents had separated. But, it seems, this could not have affected Tom until after.May 1945 when Tom was 27 years old. Walter held up.2 fingers tightly together, "we were as close as that before the war ... but Tom went

the wrong way". But "before the war", Walter was a small child, and Tom a veteran of one war.

His

I had communicated with Tom and/or his brother William around WWII, and knew very roughly what was happening to him. I did not know how he got back to Canada, perhaps because I was overseas Dec. 1942 to Dec. 1945. I have, now, only 1 letter from him I can locate, written 1 Jan. 1946, in which he says he is taking an auto mechanics course, which runs to the end of March, in Hamilton, about 200 miles from Windsor. I think my last letter from him.was.that he was signing up for 2 years in the civilian merchant marine between North and South America. Whether it-turned out that he was blacklisted from the merchgfitlggcause of his service in Spain, I do not know.

Danek told me in Spain that he had worked in the coal mines in Canada,

and that other family member(s) had too. And yet, upon his death, that part of his life was not mentioned. 9 ‘

Danek had a mother, Stella, who was listed in the 1982 Windsor City Directory at the house given as Tom's home address at his death. She apparently is no longer listed. William is also listed, at a different address, but I do not know if this is his brother; I have written to him.

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