WWII soldier Zarifian’s remains found 80 years later
US Army Sergeant Hagop Jack Zarifian will be laid to rest in Providence on Saturday, nearly 80 years after he was killed in action in Germany
By Christopher Gavin, Bostonglobe.comPROVIDENCE — The sterling bracelet was a gift from co-workers to a young man named Hagop Jack Zarifian, who landed his job at General Electric in Bridgeport, Conn., not long after he graduated high school in 1943.
His colleagues had taken well to the teenager, and when they learned he enlisted in the Army in January 1944, they gifted him the piece, engraved with his name and Army serial number. It made for a striking set with his class ring from Warren Harding High School, which had his initials inscribed inside its gold band.
Within a year, Zarifian had climbed the ranks to sergeant, and ended up bringing the bracelet and the ring with him to Europe, then in the throes of World War II.
Both were with him in early April 1945, when American forces squared off with German soldiers in the Battle of Buchhof, only weeks before Germany’s eventual surrender on May 7.
Zarifian was killed on April 6, 1945, when he was struck by a Nebelwerfer rocket as the two forces traded fire, according to his obituary.
His remains were never accounted for — until last year.
In October 2023, construction crews working to install underground power lines near Buchhof discovered what were identified in May 2023 as Zarifian’s remains, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
Zarifian had apparently been buried by German villagers. His uniform and rifle were buried with him — and so were the sterling bracelet and class ring, according to a DPAA laboratory report.
Those two pieces of jewelry, carried by a young soldier all those years ago, helped bring him home, helping officials to piece together Zarifian’s identity, along with DNA testing, according to a statement from the agency released last month.
Now, nearly 80 years after Zarifian was killed in action, he will finally be laid to rest on US soil on Saturday in Providence.
“I was in disbelief,” Zarifian’s nephew, Gary Chapkounian of North Providence, R.I., told the Globe on Friday, recalling the moment he received a phone call informing him his uncle had finally been found.
Chapkounian’s mother, Marion, Zarifian’s sister who is now 97 years old, couldn’t believe it either, he said.
“All of a sudden, you know, an 80-year-old mystery has finally gotten solved,” he said.
Born on Nov. 9, 1925, in Bridgeport, Zarifian was the oldest child of Albert and Sophie (Serpoohie Berberian) Zarifian. He played football and bugle in the school during his time at Harding High, and also served as an altar boy at Armenian Church of the Holy Ascension, according to his obituary.
“In addition to being an altar boy, he cut the lawn at the church and was always available for various tasks when called upon by the ladies at the church,” the obituary read, adding that Zarifian was “appreciated so much by the ladies that they affectionately called him, Saint (Sourp) Hagop.”
Marion Chapkounian remembers walking with her brother through a storm, the obituary read. His other sister, Louise Goorhigian, now 96, remembers Zarifian taking her out for ice cream.
“You had to know him,” Marion Chapkounian said Friday. “Everybody liked him.”
Soon after the war, she wrote letters to the military, trying to learn what happened to her brother, who was initially classified as missing in action, according to her daughter, Judy Ayers.
About a year later, Zarifian was considered killed in action, Ayers said. Even so, decades later, in the 1970s, Zarifian’s brother, George, began writing again, trying to learn what he could about his brother.
“He thought, maybe — you know, how you get PTSD, and — [his brother is] wandering around in Germany. He wasn’t sure,” Ayers said. “I don’t think my Uncle George could accept the fact that he was killed in action.”
But Ayers remembers Zarifian’s portrait hanging on the wall of her grandmother’s house all those years when their family did not know where he was — his photograph watching their family gatherings play on through the passage of time.
“We always had the grace of his company, be it in a picture,” she said. “So he was always kind of with us.”
Having him back home brings “almost like a peaceful feeling,” Ayers said.
“It’s just nice that we have closure,” she said.
Zarifian’s remains arrived at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport on Monday, where the soldier was greeted with military honors and an escort, Gary Chapkounian said.
“The respect they gave him,” Marion Chapkounian said on Friday, her voice trailing off, as she recalled the hero’s welcome her brother received at long last.
“And he deserved it,” she said. “He deserved it. He was a good person.”
A visitation will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Pontarelli-Marino Funeral Home on Branch Avenue in Providence, followed by a service at 11 a.m. A burial with full military honors will take place at the city’s North Burial Ground.
