In St. Gallen, the rescued were initially housed in the Hadwig schoolhouse. Pavel Hoffmann suffered from tuberculosis and scurvy and was taken to a lung sanatorium in the mountains. Pavel remained in Switzerland until July 1945. Then he returned to Czechoslovakia together with the Czech couple Fischer, who wanted to adopt him. The couple had been liberated from Theresienstadt to Switzerland together with Pavel. Like the Swiss authorities, the couple assumed at that time that Pavel had no surviving relatives.