Eva Marks

Life

Born in Vienna she fled to Latvia after the Kristallnacht subsequent to the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi Germany in the hope of getting a visa for the US. After the German invasion of Russia in 1941 she and her family were transported by the Russians to a Gulag in deep Siberia, followed by another one to Kazakhstan in 1943. She built up a new existence in Melbourne following her liberation in 1947. Eva describes the story of her life in her book A Patchwork Life.

For decades she talked and lectured about her own and Jewish people's experiences during the Second World War in Europe and the Soviet Union, e.g. by speaking on Radio National in Australia's public broadcaster ABC or by contributing to the interactive video installation system Evolution of Fearlessness that was shown at the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 2009. She first went on record to speak publicly about her war experiences as early as 1952 on a Canadian radio channel. She worked as a volunteer for the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre in Melbourne for 17 years, for the Jewish Museum of Australia for 18 months, and was treasurer for three years of the Friends of the Holocaust Centre. Furthermore, she was a founding member of the Melbourne branch of the The World Federation of the Child Survivors of the Holocaust.

On October 28, 2010 Eva Marks was awarded the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award.

Merits

Works