Eva Temple migrated to South Australia from the UK in the 1960s as a ‘Ten Pound Pom’. She is one of the youngest Holocaust survivors in Australia and possibly the youngest survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Eva speaks to students about her life and experiences as a Holocaust survivor as part of our museum education program.
‘I owe my life and survival to a very brave, courageous, and special lady – my grandmother. I really hope that she knew that I had been saved because she obviously gave up everything to look after me, to save me.’
Born Eva Bader in 1944 in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, then occupied German territory, here Jewish parents were deported when Eva was just a baby. She remained hidden in a secret room by her grandmother until they were both discovered and sent to Bergen Belsen. Eva was found in her grandmother’s dying arms on liberation, 15 April 1945. Despite severe malnourishment, Eva survived and was eventually adopted by an uncle in England.