Eva Olga Clarke (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

Nathanová; born 29 April 1945) is a British-Czech

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

and former

college administrator Academic administration is a branch of university or college employees responsible for the maintenance and supervision of the institution and separate from the faculty or academics, although some personnel may have joint responsibilities. Some ty ...

known for her birth at

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany ...

. She is a speaker for the

Holocaust Educational Trust The Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) is a British charity, based in London, whose aim is to "educate young people of every background about the Holocaust and the important lessons to be learned for today." One of the Trust's main achievements ...

. Clarke combats modern day instances of racism and prejudice through sharing her family's experiences in

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

Early life

On 29 April 1945, after three years in the

Theresienstadt ghetto Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ...

, six months of

slave labour Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in an

armaments A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, s ...

factory in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

, Germany, and a 17-day train journey in an open coal car, Anka Nathanová arrived at the gates of

. She gave birth to her daughter, Eva Olga Clarke, on a cart there. Nathanová weighed less than and had managed to hide her pregnancy long enough to keep her and her unborn child safe from the Nazi

gas chambers A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History ...

. Previously, when arriving at the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Nazi SS doctor

Josef Mengele , allegiance = , branch = Schutzstaffel , serviceyears = 1938–1945 , rank = '' SS''-''Hauptsturmführer'' (Captain) , servicenumber = , battles = , unit = , awards = , commands = , s ...

asked Nathanová if she was pregnant, to which she lied and replied no. The Americans arrived six days later, and an

Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of ...

cameraman filmed the human wreckage as evidence of Nazi atrocities. He also filmed Nathanová with her new baby. Clarke's father, Bernd Nathan, a

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

architect, was shot and killed on 18 January 1945, shortly before the

liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz concentration camp—a Nazi concentration camps, Nazi concentration camp and extermination camp in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland where more than a million people were murdered as part of th ...

. Her brother Dan (George) was born in 1944 in the Theresienstadt ghetto and died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

at the age of two months. The family moved to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

to live with Nathanová's cousin. In February 1948, Clarke's mother married her old acquaintance, Karel Bergman, a Czech Jew who had escaped to the United Kingdom in 1939 and returned as a translator in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

. Bergman adopted Clarke and the family left Prague in September 1948. Bergman found work in

Pontypridd () ( colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Geography comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng ( Trallwn) and Treforest () ...

. The family relocated to

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

and later

Cyncoed Cyncoed ( ); is an affluent and exclusive community in the northeast of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. With many properties in the area fetching over £1 million, Cyncoed is considered to have some of the highest property prices in the country. Cy ...

. Clarke attended Rhydypenau Primary School and Our Lady’s Convent School.

Career

Clarke was a

Cambridge Regional College Cambridge Regional College is a mixed further education college in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. College profile The college offers courses in a wide range of subjects from hair and beauty and mechanics to media studies and science, as ...

for 20 years. In 2000, she began speaking publicly of her family's experiences during the Holocaust. Clarke volunteers as a speaker for the

. She also supports the Anne Frank Trust and the

Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre Beth Shalom (lit. "House of Peace"), also named the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, is a Holocaust memorial centre near Laxton in Nottinghamshire in England. Opened in 1995, it is England's only dedicated Holocaust museum, though there is ...

. 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 The Government of Austria (german: Bundesregierung der Republik Österreich) is the executive cabinet of the Republic of Austria. It consists of the chancellor, who is the head of government, the vice chancellor and the ministers. Appoint ...

to attend the opening of a new exhibition. 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. In 2020, Clarke's birth certificate was on display at the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

. Through her testimonials, she hopes people learn from the Holocaust and combat modern day instances of racism and prejudice.

Personal life

Clarke lived in Cardiff until she was 18. In the 1960s, she met and married Malcom Clarke, a lawyer from Abergavenny, and they had two sons. Clarke's father-in-law, Kenneth Clarke, was a navigator in

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe, strategic bombing of Germany in W ...

who participated in the

bombing of Dresden The bombing of Dresden was a joint British and American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, during World War II. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 772 heavy bombers of the ...

while her mother, Anka Nathanová, was sheltering with other prisoners. , Clarke resides in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

Awards and honors

Clarke was one of four Holocaust survivors awarded the

British Empire Medal The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to ...

in 2019 for their efforts to share testimonials of their experiences for future generations.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Eva Living people 1945 births People from Mauthausen Mauthausen concentration camp survivors People from Cardiff British academic administrators Women academic administrators Czech Jews Czechoslovak emigrants to the United Kingdom British people of Czech-Jewish descent British people of German-Jewish descent Recipients of the British Empire Medal 21st-century British Jews 20th-century British Jews