Special to the JTA Holocaust Victims’ Child Reunited with His 104-year-old Grandmother

The story began in Hungary 50 years ago and had its happy ending on Purim, 1980, in Paris, it was reported here by the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). A young man left Budapest in the 1930’s, leaving his mother behind, and went to live in Paris with his bride. A son was born to them a few years before World War II. When the fighting separated the family, the child was placed in a children’s home run by OPEJ, a French Jewish children’s agency. This was the last time the Hungarian grandmother had any news of her son, daughter-in-law or their child.

Right after the war she heard that both her son and her daughter-in-law had perished in concentration camps, but no news was available of their child. The only thing she knew was the approximate date of his birth and the fact that he had been placed in a Jewish institution.

Last October, two representatives of the JDC went to Hungary to strengthen contacts with the Hungarian Jewish community. The grandmother, now 104 years old, approached them and asked them to try to trace her grandson, George Darvas. The JDC made inquiries with OPEJ in Paris, a JDC-supported agency, which confirmed the fact that young Darvas was indeed at their institution until 1951, but they did not know what became of him.

The file was sent to the Fonds Social Juif Unifie (FSJU) and the French United Jewish Appeal which placed a small advertisement in the magazine L’Arche stating: “The address of George Darvas is being sought. Please address all information to the FSJU.” Two months passed, and on the eve of Purim, last Feb. 29, the FSJU representative received a phone call from George Darvas, who had heard about the advertisement from a friend. Now a Paris businessman, he was delighted to learn his grandmother had survived — that another Darvas lived — and made plans to go to see, for the first time, his 104-year-old grandmother.