THE children of a former Telegraph & Argus employee met a German prisoner of war who befriended their father during the Second World War.

Maire and Paul Morris, originally from Bradford Moor, visited Bertold Kamm, 89, in Nuremberg, Germany, to end a 30-year search to find him after he got to know their father, Bill Morris.

Mr Kamm refused to join the Nazi youth groups the previous year, and his repatriation in 1946.

He was detained, tortured and abused for months by the Gestapo in Salzburg under a charge of high treason.

He was forcibly put in uniform and attached to a parachute regiment.

But he was captured by British forces in 1944 and held in Yorkshire and became the camp Pastor and then helped to find work for his fellow captives.

He also worked as a labourer, building houses on what became known as the Fagley estate.

Bill Morris would talk with the prisoners, including Mr Kamm, on his regular walks to Fagley Woods.

After the Second World War, Mr Kamm returned to Germany but he and Mr Morris stayed in touch with letters and sending copies of the T&A.

Mr Morris retired from his job as a compositor at the T&A and died aged 67 in 1969.

But his children first tried to trace Mr Kamm in the mid-1980s but record searches and contact with the German embassy could not find him.

It was not until 2014 that another online search would prove successful, when details of his life and that he had been a prisoner of war in England between 1944 and 1946 were revealed.

His address was listed and the Morris siblings wrote to Mr Kamm and had a reply to invite them to meet him in Germany.

Last year’s meeting was poignant as Mr Kamm died aged 89 last month.

Mr Morris, 70, of Wakefield, said: “The visit to Germany was full of emotion.

“Bertold was quite overcome that we had found him.

“He was part of a generation of Germans who are still hurting a lot about the Second World War.

“My sister and I spent some wonderful days visiting a man who had a great feeling and affection for Britain.

“It was clear that he was a man of great humanity, and had never tired of sharing his experiences from the time of oppression and persecution by the Nazis and the cruelty of the Second World War with the generations who have had the good fortune to grow up in peace and prosperity.

“After repatriation, Mr Kamm dedicated his life to the improvement of the living conditions of those who have a hard time in society because of old age, social disadvantage, disability or illness.”

Mr Kamm was a member of the Bavarian State Parliament from 1966 and its vice-president between 1978 and 1986.

He also founded homes for disturbed children and youth, many of them orphaned by the Second World War, alongside his work with the Bavarian Workers Welfare Association.

Speaking on their successful online search to find Mr Kamm, Mr Morris added: “In 2014 another web search produced a cascade of information, including details about his life, and the fact that he had been a prisoner-of-war in England from 1944 to 1946. We knew then we had got our man.”