Eva Franz

Eva Franz (née Christ) spent the first two and a half years of her life in Teplitz-Schönau in the then Sudetenland. Her father’s family came from Fulda. In spring 1943 Eva Franz was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp with her parents and maternal grandparents. There the then two and a half year old was tattooed with prisoner number 4167 in the skin of her left forearm. She still wears the number today.

After her older sister Franja had died in Auschwitz-Birkenau after only a short time, her mother also became increasingly weakened as a result of this loss, the lack of food and forced labour. One day she collapsed at work and died.

Eva, just under six years old, was finally liberated in Bergen-Belsen. As late as 2019, Eva Franz emphasized that she would never visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial because she could not cope with it.

Quelle: Birgit Mair: Die letzten Zeugen. Meine Arbeit mit Holocaust-Überlebenden an Schulen, Nürnberg 2019. Bestellung über www.isfbb.de