Michel Navratil and his brother Edmond (1910 - 1953) was known as «Titanic Orphans» (Orphans "Titanic"), because the only accompanied by an adult - their father - had died, and the brothers because of their age is not immediately able to identify.Michel Navratil lived longer than the others rescued male.
Michel Navratil was born on 12 June 1908 in Nice.Father - Michel Navratil, Sr. (1880 - 1912) was a Slovak immigrant, who then moved to Hungary, and from there to Nice, where he worked as a tailor.Mother - Caretto Marcella (died in 1974) - he was Italian.My parents were married in London.There was a younger brother of Michel Edmond Roger Navratil, who was born on March 5, 1910.
Marriage parents was fragile.Father's business began to collapse, and he began to suspect his wife of infidelity.At the beginning of 1912, Michel and Marcella went, and divorce custody of his sons went to Marcelle, however, she allowed Michel to take the children to himself for Easter.Later, when she came to them, I discovered that all three of them disappeared.Michelle decided to emigrate to the United States and take the children with her.After a brief stay in Monte Carlo with the children, he moved to England.
During disaster Michel was three years old, Edmond - two.Michelle remembered the four days' journey as "a feeling of complete well-being."On board the "Titanic" Navratil climbed as passengers 2nd class, but for the sake of the safety net, the tickets were registered in the name Louis M. Hoffman (Louis M. Hoffman) and his sons, Louis (Michelle) and Bingo (Edmond).The false name was taken from a friend who helped Michel Sr. to leave France.Before traveling companions portrayed Michelle widowed single father and said, "Mrs. Hoffman," has died.
Throughout the four days he did not leave with the children, playing with them on the front deck, and did so that they were always in sight.Liberty, he allowed himself to himself only once, when asked their neighbor on the dining table 17-year-old Swiss Bert Leymann (which was saved), who knew French, but spoke English, to look after the boys while he was playing cards.On the way, Michel Sr. Hungary sent a telegram to his mother, which asked whether his sister and her husband to take the boys in which case;Obviously, this was a backup plan in the one case they could not get in America.
While Michel was three years old, it is well to remember many episodes disaster.During the collision with the iceberg and he slept Edmond.
«My father came to our cabin where we slept.He warmly dressed and took me in his arms.The man [who was with him] did the same for my brother.When I think about it now, I am very touched.They [the father and the stranger] know that they shall die. "Michel and Edmond were saved in the final run-flat water, collapsible boat D. Since Charles Lightoller put around the boat disengagement of the men to sit there might only women and children, Michel Sr. managed to passchildren in the hands of the passenger 1st class 24-year-old Margaret Beshteyn Hays.Later Michel recalled that the last he heard from his father, was: "My child, when your mother finds you, and she, of course, find and tell her that I loved her dearly, and love to this day.Tell her that I expected her to go for us, so that we can live happily together in peace and freedom in the New World. "The body of Michel Navratil, Sr. was the fifteenth, which picked up the ship" Mackay-Bennett. "
Like the others, Michel Sr. May 15, 1912 was buried in Halifax, but due to the fact that his assumed name in sound reminiscent of the Jewish, he was not buried in the cemetery of Fairview, and Baron de Hirsch.
moment when "Titanic" sank, Michelle did not remember.They Edmond fell asleep on as the boat moves away from the sinking ship.The next time Michael woke up when appeared on the horizon, "Carpathia".All the time they spent in the boat, passengers 1st Class Michelle Hough Vulner fed the biscuits.On board they raised in bags.Since they were very young and did not speak in English, they could not help to identify themselves.And as their father drowned, then Michel and Edmond were not only popular among the children of survivors.So she called their press «Titanic Orphans».Beshteyn Margaret Hays, that Michel Sr. passed boys landed in the boat, spoke French and temporarily sheltered brothers at his home in New York.
later Marcella Navrátil sons learned in photographs in newspapers and with the assistance of «White Star Line» came to New York, where May 16 was reunited with the boys.They went back to France aboard the "Oceanica".
Throughout his life, Michel Navratil claimed that brush with death at such a young age and the loss of his father strongly influenced his mmirovozzrenie.While studying at the university in 1933. Michel married his classmate.Eventually he became a professor of philosophy.The fact that some wealthy passengers of the first two classes of "buying" a place in the boats, Michelle commented later: "We were close with the daughter of the American banker, who managed to save his dog - no one objected.There were huge differences in wealth of people on the boat, and later I realized that if we were in the second grade, we would have died.Those who survived were most often the aggressors and deceivers, have not been honest does not stand a chance. »
In 1987, Michelle went to Wilmington to celebrate with the rest of the surviving 75th anniversary of the disaster.It was his first visit to the United States after 1912.A year later, Michelle joined the ten living at that time saved in "Titanic Historical Society" in Boston.In 1996, Michelle, along with Eleanor Eileen Johnson and Edith Heysmen went on a cruise to the site of the tragedy, which then attempts were made to raise to the surface much of the ship's hull.August 27 the same year, Michelle, before returning to France, came to Canada for the first time and visited the grave of his father later in '84.The rest of his life he lived in Montpellier, and died January 30, 2001.
Edmond worked as an interior decorator, and then became an architect and builder, he also was married.During World War II he joined the French army and was captured but managed to escape from there, but greatly undermined the health and died in 1953 at age 43.
daughter Elisabeth Michel, opera director, is the author of «Les enfants du Titanic» (Children of the Titanic), which tells of the sad journey of her father, grandfather and uncle.
Photo source: liveinternet.ru
Articles Source: pmos_nmos
