Chania: Letter from Dachau death camp seeks its recipient 71 years later

A truly incredible story that might have jumped right from the notebook of a script writer. A hand-written note sent from Barrack 58 in the death camp of Dachau in 1945 seeks its addressee: the mother of the prisoner Stylianos Valmas or the descendants .

It was lawyer and accountant Stella and Diomidis Batakis from Chania, Crete, who accidentally found the letter while they were refurbishing their grandfathers’ office, who was also a prisoner in Dachau.

Among documents and old papers dating from 1800 onwards, there was also this: the letter of Valmas to his mother. Written in Barrack 58 of Dachau in 1945 and handed over to Yiannis Batakis who was leaving for Greece.

In their appeal to find the descendants of Stylianos Valmas, the Batakis in Chania write:

In 1945 STYLIANOS VALMAS was a prisoner in the concentration camp at Dachau by Augsburg along with our grandfather, in the same barrack 58. Along with many others (the list with the names of Greek prisoners in several barracks of Dachau has been also found.

Probably STYLIANOS VALMAS gave this letter to our grandfather to deliver it to his family. For unknown reasons, the letter never reached its destination. Maybe [the grandfather] did not manage to find anyone [from the Valmas family].

From the wording it becomes clear that Valmas was in Dachau for the 3. consecutive year. Probably [his family] considered him dead. We do not know if he returned [to Greece], but he had a family: a wife and a daughter named Rita. He had also sisters, one of them called Emilitsa.

If he would have grandchildren they would be today 35-50 years old.

When our grandfather returned from Dachau he was , he was approximately 25-27 years old.

Today we want to find a descendant of STYLIANOS VALMAS so we can deliver the letter intended for his family!”

The Batakis say that they will deliver the letter only to Valmas’ family. (via Zappasnews.gr)