AN AMAZING reunion is set to take place this summer when a family split between Latvia and York get back together after almost 60 years apart.

Charles Udris, who lives in Acomb, York, has not seen his sisters since he was forced into slave labour by the Nazis during the Second World War.

At the time he was 20 years old, and living in the Latvian capital, Riga, his home town.

Mr Udris, now 78, said: "It was 1943. Three German soldiers came and made me go. I left home then and never returned.

"I was a baker, so they made me bake bread for soldiers on the German front line."

Mr Udris said he thought he might see his family again, until he returned to Latvia in 1999 and could find no trace of them.

"I think I gave up hope after that," he said.

But his daughter and son-in-law, Pam and Grahame Bonsall, of Huntington, York, started searching on the Internet last year.

Only weeks ago, word came through that two of Mr Udris's sisters had been traced. Shortly afterwards, a letter arrived from his sister, Berta.

Mr Udris, of Wheatlands Grove, said: "I just couldn't believe it, I didn't think it would happen. My sisters didn't even know what country I was in."

Pam said: "It was mostly Grahame really, he did the trawling around on the Internet.

"It was an amazing feeling to think we had found them, I was so pleased for dad."

Berta, now living in the city of Aluksnes Raj, told Mr Udris that one of his sisters, Emma, had died in 1999, but her daughter, Brigita, was alive.

His elder sister, Alma, is also still alive, and living in Riga.

He is now discussing a reunion trip to Latvia with Pam and Grahame, along with his sons Peter and Tony, and granddaughter, Nicola.

"We plan to go in the summer holidays. It should be interesting, as I haven't got much Latvian these days and they have no English," he said.

Mr Udris came to England after he was liberated by British troops towards the end of the war.

He turned down the chance to return to Latvia because of Russian occupation, and instead settled in Hull.

He worked at an agricultural camp in Melbourne, near Pocklington, until he married his wife, Ivy Guest, in 1952.

The couple moved to York, and he worked for bakers Woodcock's, then Ovengloves, only retiring fully last Christmas.

Updated: 10:17 Saturday, April 20, 2002