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Holocaust survivor reunited with brother

11/28/2003

SEATTLE -- George Gordon spent most of his life thinking he had lost his entire family in the Holocaust.

But he couldn't shake a lingering sense of uncertainty -- or the haunting dreams.

"I'd see my mother and sister in my sleep and wake up thinking, 'No, I can't believe they are dead,'" the 77-year-old Polish immigrant said. "It stays with you, if you don't know for sure. You can't let it go."

Then a volunteer for the American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Service stepped in and discovered something Gordon never expected to find: His sister.

Gordon had contacted the group hoping to discover how his family died.

"He was looking for graves. He never was looking for living people," said volunteer Tammy Kaiser. "The only reason he even began searching was just to find out where they were buried so that one day he could visit and pay his respects."

The tracing center, based in Baltimore, has handled requests from some 40,000 Americans, combing through war records released after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It forwarded Gordon's request to the agency's International Tracing Service in Arrolsen, Germany.

The Polish Red Cross got involved, and Kaiser, on her own trip to Poland with a Jewish student group, made a detour to Gordon's former hometown, Wroclaw, searching for his family graves. She found nothing.

After 18 months, Polish researchers finally discovered a simple newspaper obituary. It described Gordon's mother, Janina. It was dated 1979, and it mentioned only one survivor, a daughter, Krystyna.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard," Kaiser told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for a story Friday. "I cried for like 10 minutes. Then we called George."

Born Jerzy Budzynski, Gordon was sent at age 14 on a boxcar to Stuthoff, a Polish-only work camp, and then to Buchenwald, where he spent the rest of the war. His father and younger brother were shot dead by SS soldiers.

Only when speaking of the night he heard his sister's voice for the first time in 59 years did his voice waver.

"Krystyna, this is Jerik," he said, using his childhood nickname in a phone call to Poland.

There was a long silence. Neither knew quite what to say.

On Sept. 26, they were reunited in the lobby of the Hotel Monopol in Wroclaw, where Hitler had once shouted speeches from the balcony.

"These two women walked in, my sister and her daughter," Gordon said. "I wouldn't have recognized her if we'd passed each other on the street -- to me she was always a 12-year-old girl -- but when I heard her voice, I knew it was her."

© Copyright 2003 Associated Press.

Posted: 29-11-2003 20:52 Post subject:

This is a wonderful story.

That people can be traced and reunited after so many years, and that other people are dedicated enough to do so, raises the spirits and gives one hope for the human race.

Posted: 29-11-2003 21:12 Post subject:

That's beautiful.......needless to say i'm typing this with tears streaming down my face.

Posted: 06-01-2004 21:34 Post subject: Reanimated

As I couldn't find a general thread on people dying and being brought back to life I thought I'd start one.

Posted: 06-01-2004 21:44 Post subject:

I've read lots of articles etc about this. It really interests me.

I've heard of peeps waking up during an open-coffin funeral, jumping out, running off screaming and being knocked down in traffic, whereupon they are replaced in the coffin and buried. Surprised

Many British hospitals have discreetly discontinued certain aspects of the laying-out of the dead because, it is rumoured, there have been cases of 'corpses' coming to life in the mortuary only to choke to death on cotton wool. Dead / drunk

There's a Discovery Channel prog about this which feastures interviews with 'resurrectees'. Can't tell you any details having only seen it 4 times! Wink

Mom finds kidnapped daughter six years later
Philadelphia officials had ruled infant died in 1997 fire

Tuesday, March 2, 2004 Posted: 8:19 AM EST (1319 GMT)

Police declared Delimar Vera dead after a fire destroyed much of her home.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A fire that authorities six years ago thought killed a 10-day-old girl was a ruse to kidnap the infant, Philadelphia police said Monday.

The baby, Delimar Vera, was sleeping in the upstairs front bedroom when a fire broke out at her family's two-story row house in north Philadelphia on December 15, 1997.

Luz Cuevas, her mother, could not find Delimar when she ran into the room. She eventually ran out of the house, overcome by smoke and burned on her face. Her two other children also survived, police said.

Remains of the infant's body were never found, and police concluded they had been incinerated in the flames.

The official cause of the fire was listed as an overheated extension cord attached to a space heater.

But Cuevas never fully believed her daughter died in the fire.

In January, she attended a birthday party for the child of an acquaintance and was struck by the resemblance of a 6-year-old girl to herself and her other children.

Telling the girl she had bubble gum in her hair, Cuevas was able to take strands of her hair in hopes a DNA test would prove she was right, according to Philadelphia police Lt. Michael Boyle of the special victims unit.

Luz Cuevas never fully believed her daughter died in the fire.

A state legislator helped put Cuevas in touch with police, who launched an investigation and had DNA tests performed that confirmed the girl is her daughter.

Police say Carolyn Correa, 41, a resident of Willingboro, New Jersey, a Philadelphia suburb, started the fire and kidnapped Delimar, whom she passed off as her own daughter.

Before the results of the DNA tests were in, officials placed the child in New Jersey state custody.

When police returned to Correa's home to confront her about the DNA results, she had fled, leaving behind three other children.

She remains a fugitive from multiple arrest warrants on charges that include arson, kidnapping and concealing the whereabouts of a child.

Lt. Thomas McDevitt of the special victims unit said Cuevas told police that Correa was a distant friend of a cousin of the baby's father, from whom she has separated.

Cuevas had met Correa the day before the fire, McDevitt said. Correa returned December 15, saying she had left her purse upstairs, he said.

The fire was discovered shortly after Correa left the house, McDevitt said.

It has not yet been determined when Delimar will be reunited with Cuevas.

Boyle said that when police told Cuevas about the DNA test results Saturday night she was "overwhelmed with joy."

"She sat there and shook and cried and kept saying, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you,'" Boyle said.

Police say they cannot fully explain why Delimar was declared killed.

Officers at the time found bone fragments they thought were the baby's remains, but tests later showed them to be nonhuman, McDevitt said.

When investigators returned to the scene, firemen had already dumped several hundred pounds of debris from the gutted bedroom in the back yard, McDevitt said.

The officers sifted through the debris but found mostly dry wool particles, which they were told resemble human ashes, but only those burned at 1,000 degrees for an hour or longer, McDevitt said.

The fire, which was confined to the bedroom, lasted only about 15 minutes and was nowhere near 1,000 degrees, McDevitt said.

McDevitt admitted this scenario is an explanation only "up to a point." On the other hand, officers had no reason to suspect arson or a kidnapping, he said.

CNN's Susan Chun and CNN.com's David Osier contributed to this story.

© 2004 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

Posted: 02-03-2004 16:19 Post subject:

That is so horrible, I wonder if the other children she had were also the victims of kidnapping.

Posted: 02-03-2004 21:29 Post subject:

So is the little girl with her real mother now? She must feel as if her mother has deserted her. Sad

Posted: 02-03-2004 21:34 Post subject:

Spooky, I gathered from CNN this morning that the need to do lot prep work with the girl meant it hasn't happened quite yet. She*may* be in state custody. I'm sure they'll both need a lot of family counseling for a while.

Posted: 02-03-2004 21:34 Post subject:

the child is with the social services getting the child ready to be reunited with her real parents

Posted: 02-03-2004 21:45 Post subject:

Poor kid. What a scary thought at that age. BTW your mum isn't really your mum, she's done a bunk and this is your real mum. It'll take a long time to get over this. Sad

Posted: 02-03-2004 21:56 Post subject:

I hope they put that woman under the jail. How could you do that to another person. I think I would kill them with my bare hands.

Posted: 02-03-2004 21:57 Post subject:

I should also add I smell a subtext here. I saw her interviewd. Hispanic woman, her English isn't that great, probably not a real high income. That might be part of the reason the police/arson invesigations were so lame. Until the state leg guy helped her (also Hispanic, but a handsome, well-spoken, successfull man) she police were still ignoring her. Sad, but not far-fetched. She is resourcefull, I will say that.

Posted: 03-03-2004 02:15 Post subject: suspect turns herself in

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A woman accused of kidnapping a 10-day-old girl six years ago has surrendered to police in Philadelphia and is being questioned by detectives, CNN has learned.

Carolyn Correa, 41, walked into the Philadelphia Police Department Special Victims Unit office in downtown Philadelphia just after 4:30 p.m. Tuesday with her attorney, Jeffrey Zucker, police said.

"We are pleased that this phase of a complex, protracted, and emotionally charged investigation has been completed with the subject's arrest," said Philadelphia Capt. John Darby.

Correa had been sought in connection with the kidnapping of the infant, Delimar Vera, who was sleeping in her room when a fire broke out at the two-story house in Philadelphia December 15, 1997.

Luz Cuevas, the baby's mother, couldn't find Delimar when she ran into her room. She eventually ran out of the house, overcome by smoke and suffering burns on her face. Her two other children survived the fire.

Remains of the infant's body were never found, and police concluded they had been incinerated in the flames.

The official cause of the fire was listed as an overheated extension cord attached to a space heater.

But Cuevas never fully believed her daughter died in the fire.

In January, she attended a birthday party for the child of an acquaintance and was struck by the resemblance of a 6-year-old girl to herself and her other children.

Telling the girl she had bubble gum in her hair, Cuevas was able to take strands of her hair in hopes a DNA test would prove she was right, according to Philadelphia police Lt. Michael Boyle of the Special Victims Unit.

A state legislator helped put Cuevas in touch with police, who launched an investigation and had DNA tests performed that confirmed the girl is her daughter.
Police declared Delimar Vera dead after a fire destroyed much of her home.

Police say Correa, a resident of Willingboro, New Jersey, a Philadelphia suburb, started the fire and kidnapped Delimar, whom she passed off as her own daughter.

Before the results of the DNA tests were in, officials placed the child in New Jersey state custody.

When police returned to Correa's home to confront her about the DNA results, she had fled, leaving behind three other children.

She had been a fugitive from multiple arrest warrants on charges that include arson, kidnapping and concealing the whereabouts of a child.
Philadelphia officials had ruled infant died in 1997 fire

Lt. Thomas McDevitt of the Special Victims Unit said Cuevas told police that Correa was a distant friend of a cousin of the baby's father, from whom she has separated.

Cuevas had met Correa the day before the fire, McDevitt said. Correa returned December 15, saying she had left her purse upstairs, he said.

The fire was discovered shortly after Correa left the house, McDevitt said.

It has not yet been determined when Delimar will be reunited with Cuevas.