Literatureאווה ארבנובה

Eva Erbenová

Eva Erben is a Czech-Israeli writer and Holocaust survivor, known for her memoir When I Was Missed: Memories of a Jewish Girl.

born 1930Memoir When I Was MissedHolocaust survivor and witnessBrundibár performances in Theresienstadt

Born: 24 October 1930, Děčín
Occupation: writer, author

Eva Erbenová was born in 1930 in Děčín

Eva Löwidt was born on October 24, 1930 in Děčín, Czechoslovakia, near the German border. Her father Jindřich was a chemical engineer and inventor who owned a rubber factory, and her mother Marta was an office clerk and housewife. The family was Jewish and assimilated, and Eva spoke German and Czech at home.

From 1936 the family lived in Prague. After 1939 their bank account was frozen, her father lost his company, and the Gestapo took their property. Jewish children were barred from school, so Eva studied privately with a dismissed Jewish teacher.

At the end of 1941 she was deported with her family to the Theresienstadt Ghetto. In 1942 she performed in 55 shows of the children's opera Brundibár there, and she was later put to forced labor tending vegetable beds. In 1944 she was deported to Auschwitz.

She survived the camps and death marches and became a writer and witness to history. Her book describes her family's ordeal and has been translated into several languages. She received the Czech Medal of Merit in 2020 and the Gratias Agit award in 2023.