Family history

I had the oppotunity to visit with my Uncle Vasyl and Aunt Bozena the other day at my step-mum Sophia's cottage and finally heard in detail some of my family's wartime history. (I probably should have either listened better to my father while he was alive - but I was young and stupid and he wasn't really interested in dredging up the past either.)
I knew that my father was captured by the Germans at the age of 20 and was shipped off to the occupied territories, but wasn't sure exactly where and was a bit unsure of the details of how he re-joined his family later. It turns out he was shipped to eastern Prussia (which I know know is northern Poland - near Gdansk) and worked in a factory of some sort. Later, the rest of his family (mum, dad, and 4 brothers and sisters) were captured by the Germans and shipped off to the German/Holland border where they were forced to re-build railway lines which had been blown up during the war. My grandmother and grandfather spent back-breaking days gathering up rocks and then re-aligning the tracks upon their supports. 2 years went by and my grandmother took a chance and begged her German commandant to write a letter to his counterpart in Eastern Prussia to bring her son there to rejoin them; promising that he was a diligent worker, like the rest of the family.
When my father was ordered to the commandant of the camp, he was worried he'd done something wrong and was deeply afraid he'd be shot. When it turned out that he was being shipped to meet the rest of his family, he was overjoyed. As my uncle puts it, it was God's will that he was shipped when he was, because apparerently he was on the last train going west before the Russians attacked and rousted the Germans. If he hadn't been on that train, he might never seen his family again and I certainly wouldn't be sitting here writing this blog! Thank God for Babsia taking the chance and getting her son back.