REUNITING—Holocaust survivor and Newbury Park resident Tomas Kovar, center, recently traveled to Israel, where he reunited with two people he had not seen since World War II, Agi Feldmar and Haim Feldmar, in Haim Feldmar’s Tel Aviv suburb apartment. The three met when they were children, hiding from the Nazis in Slovakia. Tomas Kovar recently reunited with two people he’d been in hiding with more than six decades ago during World War II in Slovakia.

The Newbury Park resident traveled to Israel, where he met with siblings Haim and Agi Feldmar at Haim Feldmar’s Tel Aviv suburb apartment. The last time the three of them were together, Kovar was 7 years old, Haim Feldmar was 5, and Agi Feldmar was 3; there was a war going on that forced them to hide each time the Germans came to search for Jews.

“It was emotional,” Kovar, 74, said of the reunion. “I didn’t recognize them. I didn’t see them since they were little, so they looked much different.”

Kovar’s cousin, who lives in Israel, found the Feldmars by calling all 15 listings of the name “Feldmar” in the phone book.

“One person who answered said the description fit his uncle,” Kovar said.

Haim Feldmar e-mailed his phone number to Kovar.

“I called him at 4 a.m. Israeli time. My wife said, ‘Wait at least until 6 o’clock,’ but I couldn’t wait,” Kovar said.

Soon after arriving in Israel for a two-week visit, Kovar, his wife, Rita, and their daughter Jacqueline met the Feldmars. There was much reminiscing and discussion about what had taken place during the 1940s.

When the Nazis invaded their region, Kovar’s family fled their town by escaping into nearby mountains. They hid with other Jews in huts that were used by local farmers to store hay. That’s where Kovar met the Feldmars, who had also left their village to escape persecution.

“Haim remembered part of the place where we were hiding,” Kovar said. “He remembered how the hay used to poke us.”

After hiding for a week, the families were taken in by two local couples who agreed to provide shelter and food in exchange for money and labor. The mothers cooked and cleaned; the fathers hid in the woods most of the time. When the Nazis searched for Jews, Kovar and his mother hid in a cellar that was accessed through a hole in the floor that was covered with a carpet. Another hiding spot was a bedroom whose entrance was concealed by a huge armoire with shelves and an open back, Kovar said.

“The lady would put clothes, pots and pans so they couldn’t see us in the back,” Kovar said.

During the reunion, Kovar spoke in Hungarian with Haim Feldmar and in Slovak with Haim’s sister Agi. Kovar and Agi Feldmar compared notes about their visits to Slovakia years after the war. Kovar returned in 1991 and found the woman who had hidden his family still in her home. She remembered Kovar as a boy with curly hair and that his mother had a Hungarian accent. The hole in the floor was still there.

After Slovakia was liberated by the Russians, the Kovars and Feldmars returned to their villages, but their homes had been pillaged and then a pogrom took place. The families once again escaped. The Feldmars immigrated to Israel. The Kovars relocated to Chile after being turned away by the United States due to filled immigration quotas. In 1966 Kovar’s family moved to California due to the threat of Communist leadership in Chile.

The people who hid the Kovars and Feldmars were honored by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial. While in Israel, Kovar visited the museum and found the plaque with their names.

Kovar, who speaks Spanish, English, Slovak, Hungarian and German, works as a Spanish interpreter for worker’s compensation. He said that, although it is difficult to be reminded of the Holocaust years, he often speaks at local schools and synagogues and to community groups about his wartime experiences.