Eva Erben (Erbenová) (; born October 24, 1930 as Eva Löwidt (Löwitová or Löwidtová)) is a Czech-Israeli writer and Holocaust survivor who serves as a witness to history. She gained international recognition with the publication of her book When I Was Missed: Memories of a Jewish Girl, in which she describes the ordeal of her family in concentration camps and on death marches. The book has been translated into several languages.
Family and Homeland Eva Löwidt (Löwitová or Löwidtová) was born on October 24, 1930 in Děčín, Czechoslovakia, near the German border.Film Zeitzeugen. D/IL 2011, Interviewers: Barbara Kurowska, Daniel Baranowski, 189 min Her father, Jindřich (*January 18, 1895), was a chemical engineer, inventor, and owned a rubber factory in Volyně. Her mother, Marta (*July 17, 1901), was a trained office clerk and housewife. Eva's family was a Jewish, assimilated family that did not strictly adhere to Orthodox Jewish practices. At home, they set up a Christmas tree, lit candles for Hanukkah, and celebrated major Jewish holidays. Eva played with both Christian and Jewish friends and attended a German kindergarten. At home, she spoke both German and Czech.
From 1936, the family lived in Prague at the address Prague XIII, V Olšinách 1330. Tragedy struck in 1939 when Eva, while buying ice cream, read a sign in front of the patisserie: "No entry for dogs and Jews." Friends offered Eva the opportunity to emigrate to Great Britain and later to the USA, but she refused as it would have meant leaving her parents behind. In the following years, the situation deteriorated drastically. The family's bank account was frozen, her father was forced out of his company, and assets such as their car, radio, furs, and skis were confiscated by the Gestapo. Even her canary was supposed to be surrendered, but Eva set it free. From the summer of 1939, Jewish children were barred from attending school. Eva, along with other Jewish children, received private lessons from a Jewish teacher who had also been dismissed.
In 1938, her parents' generation asked, "How long can Hitler last?" During the November pogroms of 1938, people wondered how such events could occur in a civilized country, the land of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Deportations, Shoah and concentration camps
Deportation to the Theresienstadt Ghetto At the age of eleven, Eva Erben was deported with her family to Theresienstadt at the end of 1941 and then to Auschwitz in 1944. The deportation notice for forced resettlement was delivered just one day prior. Eva could only pack her doll Hanna, some colored pencils, and her diary. She had to wear multiple layers of underwear, stockings, and jackets.
During the march from Bauschowitz station to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, the eleven-year-old Eva suddenly realized:
In 1942, as a twelve-year-old, Eva Erben performed in 55 performances of the children's opera Brundibár in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. Of the Theresienstadt children's theater ensemble, only four children survived; the rest were murdered in Auschwitz. The children's opera gave her the courage to believe that "good will triumph, evil cannot last forever". At 13, she was subjected to forced labor, tasked with tending vegetable beds in the fortress trenches.
Despite the ghetto conditions, Eva Erben later recalled this time with many memories of music, theater, literature, and art, which served as valuable life lessons. The rich cultural life helped her endure the horrific times and harsh conditions (lack of medicine, food, etc.). Older generations did not perceive it this way.Postlep, Natascha. ""Kulturlager" Theresienstadt? Historical Site in the Tension Between Historical Reality and Stylized Presentation." (2011). For many prisoners, especially children, youths under 18, the elderly, and the sick, the Theresienstadt Ghetto meant certain death in Auschwitz.
In Theresienstadt, Eva Erben encountered Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for the murder of over 6 million Jews and was sentenced to death in Israel in 1962 for "crimes against the Jewish people," "crimes against humanity", "war crimes", and "membership in a criminal organization". Although living conditions in the "model ghetto" Theresienstadt were better than in other camps, there were harsh punishments, torture, and executions. Within three years, over 30,000 people died. Of the more than 15,000 ghetto children (under 14), most were deported to Auschwitz and killed; only a few survived, including Eva.
Auschwitz-Birkenau and Schlesiersee subcamp of Gross-Rosen
On 4 October 4, 1944, Eva was deported (Transport Cr, No. 177) to the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was separated from her mother and claimed to be 18 years old (born October 26, 1926). Older mothers and children under 15 were sent directly to the gas chambers. She was in Auschwitz-Birkenau at the same time as the almost equally aged Anne Frank, who died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945. The women were forced to dig tank trenches. Those who were too weak or appeared frail were selected and murdered, including by SS camp doctor Josef Mengele. Eva and her mother survived three selections, where they sometimes had to stand naked for hours during roll calls. Of the 2,484 people deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz in Transport Cr, No. 177, 2,452 were murdered; only 32 survived until the end of the war. Eva Erben narrowly escaped the fate of the 216,300 deported Jewish children. Only 451 Jewish children under 14 survived Auschwitz; the rest were murdered. Her camp number was A 1673, with the "A" standing for transport Jews.
About six weeks later, she was transferred to the Schlesiersee subcamp, an external work detachment of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.Rudorff, Andrea. Women in the Subcamps of the Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp, Berlin 2014 The so-called operational authority was the Organisation Todt. A memorial by the German-Polish Society for Cooperation commemorates the Schlesiersee subcamp.
Death of Eva's father after deportation from Auschwitz to Kaufering subcamp complex
Her father, Jindřich,Terezín Initiative Institute: https://www.holocaust.cz/en/victims-database/victim/106711-jindrich-l-widt/ Victims Database was deported to Auschwitz on September 28, 1944 (Transport Ek, No. 308), and later transferred via one of the so-called evacuation transports from the front-line concentration camp to the Kaufering concentration camp complex. The camp was drastically overcrowded, and prisoners were subjected to murderous detention and labor conditions. Catastrophic living conditions led to a typhus epidemic. On January 24, 1945, Jindřich Löwidt died of typhus in the Kaufering subcamp complex of the Dachau concentration camp. Of the approximately 41,500 people who lost their lives in Dachau and its subcamps between 1933 and 1945, over a third died in the last six months of the war.Dachau Memorial Site: https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/en/historical-site/dachau-1933-1945/ Dachau Concentration Camp 1933–1945, accessed February 15, 2024
700 km death marches and rescue
First death march to Flossenbürg Concentration Camp On January 21, 1945, Eva Erben and her mother Marta were forced onto a death march to the Helmbrechts subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Bavaria. The original destination was the Dachau concentration camp. The Death March to VolaryBrenner, Hans. Death Marches and Death Transports. Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp and its Subcamps, Chemnitz 2015 lasted 106 days with intermediate stops.https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/volary_death_march/index.asp Yad Vashem Those too exhausted to continue were shot. The prisoners were guarded by the notoriously brutal SS Totenkopf Division. On January 28, 1945, the women from Schlesiersee arrived at the Grünberg forced labor camp northwest of Breslau. One or two days later, the camp was evacuated. On January 31, they reached the Schwedenwall camp in Christianstadt, a labor camp for Jewish women about 40 km southwest of Grünberg. On February 2, 1945, after about two days in Christianstadt, the march continued. Christianstadt was overcrowded with eastern refugees and was completely evacuated due to the advancing Russian army.Löbner, Martina. "Geheime Reichssache" Christianstadt: The End of a Small Town Between Oder and Neisse and the Ulme Explosives Factory." (2002).
On March 6, 1945, 621 Jewish women arrived at the Helmbrechts subcamp; 479 Jewish women did not survive this leg of the march from Schlesiersee. Living conditions in the overcrowded camp deteriorated drastically.Association Against Forgetting: https://langer-gang.schwarzenbach-saale.de/ Long Corridor and Foreign Workers' Barracks, accessed February 12, 2024 All Jewish women from Auschwitz, including Eva and her mother, were malnourished after over 600 km on foot, suffering from frostbite, especially on their feet, and many had intestinal diseases, some even noma. Eva Erben describes her traumatic experiences in her autobiographical book:Eva Erben When I Was Missed: Memories of a Jewish Girl. Vol. 956. Beltz & Gelberg, 2005, p. 39
Second death march and death of her mother From the Helmbrechts subcamp, a new death march began on April 13, 1945, due to the approaching American army (15 km away), initially heading east toward Svatava, but it was rerouted to Volary in South Bohemia due to advancing Russian troops. The Langer Gang Memorial commemorates this death march. This final death march was halted by the Americans in Volary on May 4, 1945. About 200 women died of exhaustion or were murdered during this last march (including Eva's mother). Of the approximately 1,000 women from the Schlesiersee subcamp of Gross-Rosen and the approximately 300 prisoners from the Grünberg subcamp, about 350 survived.37 Grad (ZDF) - 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3daRnQlcIY How Eva Erben Survived the Holocaust
Her mother, Marta,Terezín Initiative Institute: https://www.holocaust.cz/en/victims-database/victim/106724-marta-l-widtova/ Victims Database died completely exhausted in a night camp during this final death march on April 17, 1945, in the Svatava subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp.https://www.gedenkstaette-flossenbuerg.de/en/research/death-book Death Book of Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Her last words were:
After her mother's death, which she could not accept, Eva was devastated, near death, apathetic, weighing only 28 kilos, and barely able to eat or walk. Looking back, Eva Erben described the death march as "the worst of the worst, truly a hell".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVLJbPzpgfI Eva Erben on the Will to Live. 14th minute
Escape and near death Eva Erben managed to escape during the final leg of the death march to Volary.Yad Vashem: https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/volary_death_march/index.asp Documentation of the Death March to Volary, accessed February 14, 2024 She slept in hay warmed by a cow in a barn during the march, unnoticed by guard dogs and forgotten by the SS. A Polish forced laborer found her, gave her food and drink, and advised her to leave as the farm belonged to a German farmer.Česká televize.cz: "Happy is he who forgets what cannot be changed," says Eva Erbenová She continued alone for a few days, creating a grave for her mother near a railway line. There, she met a deserted young soldier (around April 20, 1945), who shared bread and coffee with her and told her the war was nearly over. Later, she encountered a group of youths who told her she could find help in a nearby Czech village. Physically so weak that she could not keep up with them, she sometimes had to crawl on all fours.
Near the village, she was nearly shot by a guard soldier with a loaded rifle but escaped death when a second soldier said, "Let her go, she'll die on her own. It's a waste of a bullet."
Rescue by the Jahn family