About the Family

Adolf and Samuel POLAKOV received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux on June 19, 1940.

Samuel POLAKOV crossed into Portugal, where he resided in Figueira da Foz. He sailed from Lisbon to New York on the vessel Nyassa in April 1941.

He then became Samuel MERYN. "In March 1942, he joined the U.S. Army and was awarded American citizenship. He participated in campaigns in Tunisia, Sicily and ... came to Rome and Austria. Sergeant Meryn was assigned to the Fifth Army Corps, released with honors in February 1946."
Source: http://www.ustrcr.cz/data/pdf/publikace/securitas-imperii/no15/010-041.pdf

From Time Magazine, November 21, 1949:

Last month the Czech Communist government brought obviously phony charges of espionage against a Czech-born U.S. citizen named Samuel Meryn, a clerk at the American embassy in Prague. In a formal note of protest the U.S. State Department vainly demanded his release.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,856302,00.html#ixzz25QcpB6Ko