A free mind cannot be enslaved
Download image
Eva Adorian, née Ehrlichová, was born in Prague in 1926 in a well-to-do Jewish family. She had an older sister. Eva was a member of the Jewish movement El Al and she was active in the association Shared Hand, which was helping Jews to cope with critical situations during transports. In 1942 the family had to board a transport for the ghetto in Terezín. Eva stayed there with her mother. While there, she was taught how to draw by the artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeisová. Eva also remembers the infamous inspection by the Red Cross as well as transports of German Jews whom the Nazis had convinced that they were going to a spa resort. Eva contracted typhoid while she was in Terezín. In 1944 Eva Adorian and her mother were transported to Auschwitz, where she has saved her mother’s life during the selection process thanks to her presence of mind. Both were then taken to work in a factory in Freiberg where aircraft parts were produced. In spring 1945 Nazis deported the prisoners to Mauthausen when the eastern war front was drawing nearer. Even after the camp’s liberation, Eva was stayed to help doctors who were taking care of the surviving prisoners. She graduated from secondary school after the war. Eva did not complete her university studies because she emigrated with her mother to Israel where she has been living since.
