Earlier this week the Claims Conference released research that showed that fewer than 200,000 survivors of the Holocaust are still alive. Within the next decade, that number is expected to drop by 70%. By 2040, it will have reduced by 95%.
It was a stark reminder that the Holocaust – the state sponsored murder of 6 million Jewish men, women and children – is fading from memory.
But for those of us who work with Holocaust survivors day in and day out, it did not come as a shock. We know that the precious time we have with survivors among us is running out.
And the day after the report was released – the eve of Yom HaShoah – the reality of the research was brought into sharp focus when we heard the news that Eve Kugler had passed away.
Eve, that ray of sunshine with a smile you could spot a mile away, who left a lasting impression on everyone she met.
Eve Kugler. Pic: HET Twitter/X
Every story of the Holocaust is unique. But Eve’s was particularly unusual. She was born in Halle in Germany. On Kristallnacht, when the Nazis unleashed a night of unprecedented violence on 9th November 1938, Eve remembered the Nazis storming her home, smashing the windows of the family business, and taking her adored father away. Her father was sent to Buchenwald and her mother showed huge courage in fighting for his release. Incredibly she was successful and the family was reunited.
In June 1939, seeing the dangers surrounding them in Germany, the family moved to France, where Eve’s mother once again showed incredible strength, sending Eve and her sister Ruth, to live in a Jewish children’s home, where she hoped they would be safe. She herself got a job as a cook in the home, seeing her daughters as much as she could, separated but not fully apart.
But then, in 1941, Eve and Ruth received visas for America, and for the next five years lived completely apart from their parents, never knowing what would happen when the war finally ended. In a story that is almost unheard of, the five of them were reunited in 1946, having all survived the unimaginable. Her parents in French internment camps, Eve and Ruth in America, and her sister Lea in hiding with the French Resistance. By the time of this long awaited reunion Eve had lost so many of her formative years to the traumas of the Holocaust.
Being so young, Eve struggled to remember the first 11 years of her life, so she relied on her mother to pass down the details of her family’s experiences. The painful outlines of her early years shared by her mother coloured in by the bravery of her parents, bringing the anxiety, desperation and loss they faced into view. Eve carried the weight of this with courage and spoke not just for herself, but for her family.
Eve went on to have a successful career in journalism, and rebuilt her life first in the USA and then here in London in the 1990s.
In 2019 I had a conversation with Eve I will never forget. A far-right terrorist had entered the synagogue in Halle, the very place where Eve grew up, where she remembered thugs entering her home on Kristallnacht and taking her father away. The horrifying 2019 attack on the synagogue left 2 dead and 7 injured. The attacker ranted about Jews and denied the Holocaust, driven to commit these appalling acts by the very same ideology that drove the Nazis to commit the crimes inflicted on Eve and her family – antisemitism.
Eve said this was why she shared her testimony.
That barbaric attack was a rallying cry for Eve, to speak more, to reach even more people. In the years afterwards, she would often talk about antisemitism, and when we recorded her last summer for a promotional film, her fear around antisemitism today was palpable. All she wanted, she said was ‘to feel safe. I want my children never to have to worry about being Jewish.’
And for Eve, the way to achieve that dream of safety, for her to counter the horrors and violence she saw as a child and feared as an adult, was to share her story. She believed in the power that her story had to change the world.
And today, with Eve gone, I know she was right. Her story had an impact, on each and every person she spoke to – young people in schools, footballers, and politicians alike.
She spoke with charm, warmth, humility, and as I always used to remark – a bit of sass. With her easy way, her infectious smile, and compelling personality, Eve shared her story with incredible power. It made a difference, and I know that long after this week, she will be remembered.
- Karen Pollock is the CEO of the Holocaust Educational Trust
