Eva Clarke

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Eva Clarke
BEM
Eva Clarke - Holocaust survivor shares mother's story of resilience, survival in WWII concentration camps (4) (cropped).webp
Clarke at a Holocaust Remembrance Week event at RAF Mildenhall in 2022
Born
Eva Olga Nathanová

(1945-04-29) 29 April 1945 (age 79)
Mauthausen, Austria
Occupation College administrator
Known for Holocaust survivor
SpouseMalcolm Clarke
Children2
Parents
  • Mother: Anka Bergman
    (formerly Nathanová)
  • Father: Bernd Nathan
  • Adoptive Father: Karel Bergman
Honours British Empire Medal (2019)

Eva Olga Clarke BEM (née Nathanová; born 29 April 1945) is a British Holocaust survivor and former college administrator known for her birth at Mauthausen concentration camp. Born to Czech-Jewish mother Anka Bergman, she is a speaker for the Holocaust Educational Trust. Clarke combats modern day instances of racism and prejudice through sharing her family's experiences in the Holocaust.

Contents

Birth and early life

Image still from a reel by the U.S. Army Signal Corps of Anka Nathanova and her newborn daughter, Eva Clark at Mauthausen concentration camp. Anka Nathanova and Eva Clarke (cropped).jpg
Image still from a reel by the U.S. Army Signal Corps of Anka Nathanová and her newborn daughter, Eva Clark at Mauthausen concentration camp.

Clarke was born on 29 April 1945 on a cart at the gates of Mauthausen concentration camp. Her mother, Anka Nathanová, a Czech Jew from Třebechovice weighed less than 35 kilograms (77 lb) [1] and had managed to hide her pregnancy long enough to keep herself and her unborn child safe from the Nazi gas chambers. [2]

Before giving birth, Nathanová endured three years in the Theresienstadt ghetto, six months of slave labour in an armaments factory in Freiburg, Germany, and a 17-day train journey in an open coal car to Mauthausen. [3] When she previously arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Nazi SS doctor Josef Mengele asked if she was pregnant, to which she had lied and replied no. [4]

Clarke’s father, Bernd Nathan, a German-Jewish architect ,who had previously moved from Germany to Prague in an attempt to escape Nazi control, was shot and killed on 18 January 1945, shortly before the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp. [5] [6] In September 1944 Bernd had been transported to Auschwitz before Nathanová could tell him she was pregnant. Nathan and Nathanová's first child, Dan (George) was born in 1944 in the Theresienstadt ghetto and died of pneumonia at the age of two months. [7] [8]

Six days after Clarke's birth US troops liberated Mauthausen, and an Army Signal Corps cameraman filmed the human wreckage as evidence of Nazi atrocities. He also filmed Nathanová with her new baby. [3]

After the war, Anka moved with Eva to Prague to live with Nathanová's cousin. [6] In February 1948, Anka married old acquaintance, Karel Bergman, a Czechoslovak Jew and former Royal Air Force interpreter who had previously escaped to the United Kingdom in 1939. [9] Born in Trhová Kamenice, Bergman had fled Nazi persecution, later serving in the 312th Czechoslovak Fighter Squadron. [10] After the war, Karel Bergman returned to Czechoslovakia as the sole survivor of his family. [10]

In September 1948, following the communist takeover, the family fled intending to emigrate to Canada, but a job offer in Wales allowed Bergman to return instead in the United Kingdom. Bergman found work in Pontypridd, Wales [11] later purchasing the company where he was employed. The family settled in Cardiff and then Cyncoed, where Clarke attended Rhydypenau Primary School and Our Lady’s Convent School. [6]

Career

Clarke speaking to the US 501st Combat Support Wing at RAF Alconbury in 2023. Eva Clarke - Holocaust survivor shares story of perseverance on Holocaust Remembrance Day (13).webp
Clarke speaking to the US 501st Combat Support Wing at RAF Alconbury in 2023.

Clarke was an administrator at Cambridge Regional College for 20 years. [4] [12] In 2000, she began speaking publicly of her family's experiences during the Holocaust. Clarke volunteers as a speaker for the Holocaust Educational Trust. She also supports the Anne Frank Trust and the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre. [12]

In 2010, she attended the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Mauthausen. Clarke returned in May 2013 as one of 20 survivors invited by the Austrian government to attend the opening of a new exhibition. [6] She is one of the three subjects of the book Born Survivors: Three Young Mothers and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance and Hope (2015) by British writer Wendy Holden. [7] In 2020, Clarke's birth certificate was on display at the Imperial War Museum. [4] Through her testimonials, she hopes people learn from the Holocaust and combat modern day instances of racism and prejudice. [12]

Personal life

Clarke speaking at a Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony in 2018 Eva Clarke - Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony (1).webp
Clarke speaking at a Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony in 2018

Clarke lived in Cardiff until she was 18. [13] In the 1960s, she met and married Malcom Clarke from Abergavenny (1943-2024), a Professor of Law at Cambridge Univeristy, [14] and they had two sons. [6] [4] [8] Clarke's father-in-law, Kenneth Clarke, was a navigator in RAF Bomber Command who participated in the bombing of Dresden while her mother, Anka Nathanová, was sheltering with other prisoners. [15] As of 2017, Clarke resides in Cambridge. [13]

Awards and honors

In 2015, De Montfort University awarded Clarke an honorary doctorate in law for her work in Holocaust education. [16] Clarke was one of four Holocaust survivors awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2019 New Year Honours "For services to Holocaust education" in their efforts to share testimonials of their experiences for future generations. [17] [18] In 2023, Clarke was awarded the Freedom of the County Borough of Blaenau Gwent in Wales. [19]

References

  1. ↑ "Holocaust Educational Trust - Eva Clarke BEM". www.het.org.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
  2. ↑ "'I was a concentration camp baby'". The Northern Echo. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
  3. 1 2 Amidon, Audrey (6 May 2019). "A Mother, a Baby, a Name: Identifying One of the Youngest Survivors of the Holocaust". The Unwritten Record. Retrieved 1 March 2021.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  4. 1 2 3 4 Bridge, Mark (27 January 2020). "Birth certificate reveals baby's remarkable escape from Auschwitz" . The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  5. ↑ "Holocaust survivor shares her mother's story". www.af.mil. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Gaskell, Simon (28 April 2013). "A holocaust survivor born in a concentration camp remembers her Welsh upbringing". WalesOnline. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  7. 1 2 Brown, Ebony (12 May 2016). "The Holocaust's Youngest Survivors". Baltimore Jewish Times. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  8. 1 2 "Eva Clarke, born at Mauthausen when the Third Reich collapsed". romea.cz. 11 May 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  9. ↑ Grunwald-Spier, Agnes (15 January 2018). Women's Experiences in the Holocaust: In Their Own Words. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN   978-1-4456-7148-2.
  10. 1 2 "Karel Bergman – Jeden ze dvou a půl tisíce z Trhové Kamenice mezi příslušníky Royal Air Force". National Museum, Prague. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
  11. ↑ Dermody, Nick (5 May 2013). "Holocaust survivor Eva Clarke returns to Mauthausen birthplace". BBC News. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  12. 1 2 3 Pilgrim, Tom (27 January 2018). "Meet the incredible Cambridge woman born in a Nazi concentration camp". CambridgeshireLive. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  13. 1 2 "Holocaust survivor tells of birth in concentration camp". BBC News. 12 February 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  14. ↑ "Malcolm Clarke (1943-2024) | Faculty of Law". www.law.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
  15. ↑ Wightwick, Abbie (31 January 2015). "The remarkable story of the Welsh WW2 bomber and the future daughter-in-law who was in his line of fire". WalesOnline. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  16. ↑ "DMU". www.dmu.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
  17. ↑ Frazer, Jenni (28 December 2018). "Seven Holocaust survivors on New Year's Honours List". jewishnews.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  18. ↑ "British Empire Medals 2019 – The Lieutenancy of Cambridgeshire" . Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  19. ↑ "Freedom of The Borough Awarded to Eva Clarke". Blaenau Gwent CBC. 5 April 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
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