POW Escapes from Vittel - Grandma's Story

btw, I see your Grandma tells one of the papers that an earlier escape attempt was foiled after they were grassed up by an English fifth columnist!
p.s. the aforementioned Nina Nash, whose well-being she attested to at lunch with Nina's parents, is number 5 in this row, at Vittel in 1943.

 

I was wondering whether you might check your copy of the rather rare Sofka memoirs for me?
I do have a pdf of the volume's final third (from page 198 onwards) purchased from a Paris state library but just wanted to be sure I am not missing any good info about the Besancon internment camp personnel/inmates.
I think the Besancon episode begins just a few pages before what I have in hand i.e. around page 193/4?
From a later biography, I already know she will have mentioned her room mates - cousin Ellinka, a bed-bound "Lady Something", a half-Russian governess, and some fishwives (!)
But does anyone else get a mention?

 

So, it's been a while since I updated here and, with some amazing help from Travers, progress has been made.

Unfortunately the Eddington family tree came to an abrupt end as Francis & Audrey (Ray) Eddington has no children. Which is where Travers suggested I use the probate records to see what information they hold. Well, I purchased copies of both wills and was really pleased I did so. In Audrey's she's named a Shirley Browning as a key beneficiary and her daughters. Now, within Audrey's will she requests all her diaries are destroyed, except those from 1940-1946, which we to be given to Shirley.
Whilst I had a family tree set up for the Eddingtons on Ancestry I noted a connected person also had a tree for them, a Rosalind Browning. I sent her a message, but it does not look like she is a regular visitor to the site.
Tracking the daughters would be a challenge as Audrey passed in 2001 so the addresses on the will might not have been relevant. Indeed I checked the addresses and the properties had all been sold at various times.
On Ancestry I could see Rosalind's mother, Shirley was still alive, but their father Thomas passed in 2008. Within his will he leaves everything to his daughters, so I had some more addresses and names to try. One of those names was uncommon, I believe due to her working and marrying in UAE.
Having a fairly brief search on the internet I was able to track this person down and sent them messages via Linked-In and Facebook.
On Thursday night i'd gone to bed at 10pm, early for me, but I had an early start. Unusually at 12:30am my dog woke me to demand to be taken out, after shambling downstairs I happened to check my phone and I had the following reply to my message:

Hello, we are excited to get your message! Yes, I believe my mum , Shirley has Auntie Ray's diaries. My sister is the family tree expert, so I've copied your message to her.

The information in these diaries I'm sure will be invaluable to this research. I really hope the family will be happy to share them with me so I can tell the story of these two brave women.

 

good stuff! congrats. persistence pays off...

 

That and a huge amount of help from Travers, who has my eternal thanks.

 

If Travers sees my Nov.1st message above, perhaps I too will eventually have the chance to thank him profusely...