The Truth About What Happened To The Titanic Orphans

than second and third class passengers most of the people who died in the Atlantic's icy waters on April 15 1912 were third class Travelers more than three-quarters of the 709 third-class passengers died while 58 of second-class passengers and just 39 percent of first-class passengers perished was locked in here like animals the ship's bloody sinking two second-class survivors became media Sensations because of their unusual backstory they

were two and four years old and had lost their father in the disaster their father had kidnapped them from their mother and registered them under false identities when they boarded the ship they were listed as Louis and Lola but the Press called them the Titanic orphans since they were the only children who survived without a parent or Guardian the authorities had to figure out who they

were and whether they had any surviving family their father Michelle navratio was a Slovakian tailor who lived in Nice France he decided to take his two young boys Michelle Jr and Edmund to America without telling his estranged wife Marcel who had custody but had let them visit him over Easter he and the boys were sleeping when the ship struck an iceberg near Newfoundland according to the

2019 documentary Titanic stories from the deep Michelle Jr recalled years later in a letter I was woken up by my father he carried me in his arms to the deck of the Titanic my brother and I were put in a boat that was already almost full of passengers it was the last Lifeboat to escape a 19 year old first-class passenger Margaret Hayes wrapped her dog in

her cloak and heard someone yelling as the boat was being lowered as reported in a 1912 article in the day book a man called out and handed his two children to a sailor Michelle Jr wrote my father charged me to give my mother his affection and he left us Hayes took care of the children when they were rescued by the Carpathia the authorities struggled to identify

them the two young survivors spoke only French and answered we to everything they were asked Michelle Jr and Edmund stayed with Hayes in Manhattan while the authorities searched for anyone who might know them meanwhile in France Marcel navratil saw their photo in the paper and was overjoyed they weren't Louis and Lola but Michelle and Edmund her boys who had been taken from her by their father

Marcel went to New York confirmed that she was the boys mother and took them back home to France on the ship Oceanic according to the day book she told reporters I am the happiest mother in the world Hayes kissed them goodbye and both boys grew to adulthood Edmund Was An Architect who joined the French Resistance during World War II and became a Nazi prisoner of war

he died in his 40s in 1953 after his health suffered during his imprisonment Michelle Jr was a professor of philosophy at Montpelier University he visited the U.S for the Titanic's 75th anniversary and a few years later saw his father's grave in Canada for the first time his father's body had been recovered and buried in Halifax Michelle Jr died in 2001 at age 92. according to the

non-profit encyclopedia titanica he once said in an interview there were vast differences of people's wealth on the ship and I realized later that if we hadn't been in second class we'd have died the people who came out alive often cheated and were aggressive the honest didn't stand a chance