Bernadette Mesguen is looking for NATHAN FARKAS (JEAN-FRANÇOIS MAHO)

December 5, 2017

Bernadette Mesguen would like to trace a little Jewish boy who had been entrusted to her grandmother, Jeanne Valo Mesguen, when she lived in Cannes.

Jeanne Valo Mesguen belonged to the TARTANE MASSÉNA network and worked as a Red Cross nurse. One evening she came home with a little boy who had to be hidden at all costs. The child was of Hungarian origin and came from Belgium. He had arrived in Cannes after a long journey of which we do not know the details. He was brought by a certain Monsieur Francis (a nom de guerre). Was he part of the Marcel network?

Drawing on its Breton roots, the family said that “Nanou” was a little cousin from Lorient whose records had burnt.

In 1946 a lady (perhaps a social worker from the OSE or another Jewish organisation) came to fetch the child. He screamed in despair at the thought of leaving and being abandoned once again. Bernadette remembers that her grandmother was told she could apply to adopt the little boy, but too large a sum was demanded of her. The child was therefore taken back to Belgium in 1947 to rejoin his parents. We know that the reunion with his parents went very badly. The little boy screamed constantly and was taken away from his parents. We do not know by which organisation, nor where he was sent (Belgium, Israel?).

Bernadette has only her memories and two photographs in the hope of one day finding this little boy, and finally knowing…

If you have any information that could help Bernadette, please contact the association; we will pass it on. If you don’t think you have any information, pass on this search, share this article – it may reach someone who can help Bernadette.

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