Dr. George Polgar, 96, pediatric researcher, Nazi foil

George Polgar, 96, who founded a pediatric hospital in Nazi-occupied Budapest, where he helped Hungarian Jews survive the death camp trains, led his family on a daring escape after a failed revolution, and later became a leading pediatric pulmonary physiology researcher at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, died April 17 in Havertown.

He died of natural causes at the Quadrangle Senior Living Community, where he had lived for 20 years, said his son George Polgar Jr.

"To me, he was always a heroic figure," said his son. "He did epic things because he grew up in a place and time when you had to do epic things just to survive."

Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Polgar was one of a team of three doctors at the University of Pennsylvania who developed a ventilator technology that has saved the lives of countless premature infants over the last 40 years.

Dr. Polgar often told his family he decided when he was 5 to become a doctor. Born in Gyongos, György Polgar earned his medical degree at the University of Szeged in 1938.

During World War II, his family was persecuted by the German-aligned Hungarian government and stripped of its vast vineyards and businesses, which included a bank and law firm, George Polgar Jr. said. Despite the setbacks, Dr. Polgar continued to treat patients.

He opened a children's hospital in the Budapest ghetto in 1944. Jews had been largely protected by the government until then. But after the Hungarian government began armistice negotiations with the Allies, the Nazis occupied the country and 400,000 Hungarian Jews were killed or deported to the camps.

Like his contemporary Raoul Wallenberg, Dr. Polgar used everything in his power to save as many people as possible. Among those he tried to save were his own parents.

"My father got his own parents off the death trains at least once," said his son. "He couldn't do it a second time. They were sent to Auschwitz."

Hungary was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in 1945, and Dr. Polgar was briefly imprisoned. After his release, he rose to a senior post at the leading pediatric hospital in Budapest without joining the ruling Communist Party, said his son.

The Hungarian Uprising erupted in 1956 to overthrow the Communist regime. The Soviets invaded Hungary and swiftly crushed the revolution. As the Russians began to secure borders and lower the Iron Curtain, Dr. Polgar decided to flee.

He enlisted the help of revolutionaries who guided the Polgar family - his wife, Katalin, and his three children, ages 2, 9, and 11 - in a nighttime trek into Austria.

"The guys who led us out, the Hungarian freedom fighters, were shot and killed on their way back," said George Polgar Jr. "We heard the gunshots after crossing the border."

The Polgars emigrated to the United States in 1957 and settled near Philadelphia. Dr. Polgar rose to the position of associate professor of pulmonary physiology at Penn and served as a physician at Children's Hospital, where he was codirector of the cystic fibrosis program from the mid-1960s until 1974.

He also served as head of the pulmonary pediatrics department at Wayne State University and Children's Hospital of Detroit and was a visiting professor of medicine at the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland. During his tenure in Switzerland, he treated Sophia Loren's children and members of the royal family of Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Polgar was an accomplished pianist. He was also an avid world traveler and photographer. He enjoyed reading literature in his native Hungarian, as well as in English and German.

In addition to his son, he is survived by another son, Steven; a daughter, Barbara Massey; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A memorial was scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday, April 26 at the Quadrangle Senior Living Community in Havertown.

Donations may be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 6931 Arlington Rd., 2d floor, Bethesda, Md. 20814.