Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Priests Claim Both Finaly Boys Are Alive; Jews Say One is Dead

Advertisement

An attorney for a number of French priests charged with kidnapping the Finally brothers and spiriting them out of France to Spain today issued a statement that he had received word that the boys were in good health. The statement was apparently made in reply to reports and statements to the effect that one of the brothers had died in Spain following an attack of pleurisy.

However, Moshe Keller, attorney for the Finaly family which seeks the return of the children, stated that a “source worthy of confidence” had told him ten days ago that the younger of the children had died. The two boys, left in a French orphanage by their refugee parents during the war a short time before the parents were murdered by the Gestapo, were converted to the Catholic faith by a Mile. Brun, director of the institution, who later refused to return them to an aunt in Israel, as ordered by a French court.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement