“Our brother was stolen. Please help us find him,” plead Greek-Australian family

This is the story of Harry Tavlaridis.

A baby born in November 1964 in the Greek clinic of Giannitsa.

Harry was declared dead a few days after his birth.

Today, his Greek Australian family claims that Harry’s death story is highly suspicious, and they are convinced their son and brother never died.

The family claims that baby Harry was stolen as part of human trafficking which existed in Greek hospitals during the 1950s and 1960s.

“I remember, it was Monday morning when I gave birth to a healthy baby boy and my husband, and I were both very excited to meet our firstborn,” Ms Olga Tavlaridis told Neos Kosmos.

She was only 18 years old when she had her first child, but her family’s happiness turned into a nightmare when, just a few hours after giving birth, the nurses told the young mother that little Harry might have developed jaundice and it was best for him to be transferred to the hospital in Thessaloniki so that he could receive better care.

Upon their arrival to the hospital in Thessaloniki, the family claims that the nurses’ actions “just didn’t add up”, which led them to believe that something suspicious was happening behind the scenes.

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“My mum accompanied her baby. After arriving at the hospital, she waited for hours to see the doctor and nurses. Nobody came to check on her and the baby until the late hours of the night,” Ms Tavlaridis’ son, Charalambos, told Neos Kosmos.

“Instead, my mum recalls two women sitting behind a door in the hallway, and the nurses coming in and out of the room asking her why she was there and why she had been transferred to the hospital with her child. Following that conversation, the nurses offered to baptise the baby by lifting it up in the air “just in case something happened to him.”

The two nurses rubbed the baby’s body with ouzo claiming it was a treatment for jaundice.

Ms Tavlaridis was apprehensive, but she was young, inexperienced and did not question the nurses’ practices and recommendations.

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The family claims that it was likely that the nurses were trying to put the baby in a deep sleep to appear motionless.

When they gave little Harry back to the mother, the baby would not feed.

The young mother told the nurses that her son appeared to be unwell.

The head nurse was called in and told the mother the baby had died.

She proceeded to take the baby from his mother’s arms and left without giving further explanations to the family; nor did she offer the body for burial.

The parents never saw their child again.

“The nurses told my parents that their child had died suddenly and that they had to bury it at the back of the church. No certificates or evidence was provided. My parents never saw Harry’s body nor were they able to give him a proper funeral. The sudden death story, and the lack of evidence of death or body to bury leads us to think that Harry may still be alive,” Mr Tavliaridis said.

“My parents went on to have me and my two siblings but years later, in 1998, we discovered that this hospital and the clinic that they were involved with when they had baby Harry had engaged in baby trafficking, falsifying records, death certificates and adopting babies out to other families; and those families would pay a fee to take on the new child. A lot of those families didn’t even know that they were adopting a stolen child.

“They thought they were getting a child who was unwanted.”

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Mr Tavlaridis is urging anyone who might know something about this case or similar cases, to get in touch with his family.

“This possible reunion with our long-lost brother would mean a lot to us but it would mean a lot more to my mum and dad who have had a great life here in Australia but to this day cannot rest until they find out the truth about what happened to my brother,” Mr Tavlaridis said.

Through DNA testing and similar facial features, the family hopes to be reunited.

If you’re male, with a birthday close to November 1964, look like one of the members of the Tavlaridis family, or have doubts over your parentage, please get in touch with the family.

“Harry’s ‘death’ story is fishy, we never saw a body, and we firmly believe he is still alive. We are offering free DNA testing for any male born around November 1964 (birthdates are usually guessed or falsified so may be slightly different) and has facial features resembling someone in our family. I have been tested with ancestry, myheritage, 23andme and GEDmatch hoping to help identify some connection with my brother.”