Victor was born into a Jewish family with four children. The family, after various moves, arrived in Rome and lived 7 years in the convent of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, in the extraterritorial area, near Vatican City. In 1946, the family returned to Vienna to their grandparents. The seventeen-year-old Victor fell seriously ill with diphtheria, an illness that in 1933 led to the death of his 5- year-old brother. His mother asked the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother to pray for the young man through Mother Frances' intercession. The next day the young man was well. The doctors declared the boy in perfect health.