Eva Hayman (born Diamantová), January 1, 1924,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

– August 22, 2013,

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

) was a

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivor, diarist, and nurse. Her sister was the writer and translator Vera Gissing.

Biography

When she was only 15, she was sent on a train to Britain with her sister Vera as part of the

kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...

movement, which saved many Jewish children and was organized by

Nicholas Winton Sir Nicholas George Winton (; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue refugee children, mostly Jews, Jewish, whose families had fled persecution by Nazi Germany. Born to History of the Jews ...

. Hayman said that her childhood ended the day she boarded the train and she saw children that were torn out of their parent's arms. Many older siblings had to become a parent to their younger sisters or brothers. Eva and Vera spent most of the war in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

Monmouth Monmouth ( or ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated on where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8 ...

, and

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

. It eventually became impossible to write letters to their parents, so Hayman began writing a diary that was later published as a book called ''By the Moon and the Stars''. She later discovered that both of her parents had died, her father in a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

, and her mother of

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

. After the war, Hayman became a nurse and helped many people. She was featured in the 2000 film, ''

Into the Arms of Strangers ''Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport'' is a 2000 documentary film about the British rescue operation known as the Kindertransport, which saved the lives of over 10,000 Jewish and other children from Nazi Germany, Austria, ...

'', with many other Holocaust survivors.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayman, Eva 1924 births 2013 deaths Kindertransport refugees Health professionals from Prague Czechoslovak emigrants Immigrants to New Zealand Czech nurses Jewish Czech writers 20th-century Czech women writers 20th-century Czech Jews