SIR – It is the Spree which flows through Berlin, not the Danube (‘Days of highs and lows on Berlin trip’, T&A, February 15).

The mention of the Wannsee Villa in this piece, where the Final Solution for the Jews was honed to perfection, prompts me to relate a perfect example of a blessing in disguise.

When we lived in Berlin and in 1936, my late father was arrested by the Gestapo on trumped up charges, but fortunately released after a day.

This gave him the impetus to make preparations to leave Germany and eventually come to the UK. If he had not been arrested we might not be here today.

Rudi Leavor, Heaton Park Drive, Bradford