By Laurina Driesse

Last Friday (23 May), ICEJ staff member Jannie Tolhoek was invited to accompany Holocaust survivor Eva Erben and her family to the residence of German Ambassador Steffen Seibert in Israel for a special award ceremony to honour Eva with the Federal Cross of Merit on behalf of the German government. The ‘Verdienstkreuz’ award was bestowed on Eva in recognition of her numerous speaking tours arranged by ICEJ-Germany to address students in German public schools about her experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust and the current fight against antisemitism.

“Today, the Federal Republic of Germany pays tribute to you, whose voice has become a moral compass for generations. To how you lived your life marked by unimaginable loss – and by admirable strength,” Ambassador Seibert told Eva in presenting the award.

Over the past decade, ICEJ-Germany has regularly hosted this remarkable lady to share her incredible story of survival, hope and forgiveness with packed school audiences and to participate in interviews across Germany.

Eva was born in 1930 in Czechoslovakia and raised by loving Jewish parents.  In 1941, she was deported to the Terezín concentration camp, where she endured immense cruelty, hunger and illness.

In 1944, the family was sent to Auschwitz, where her father died. Upon arrival at the notorious death camp, she stood for the first time in a selection line headed by Dr. Mengele. Eva recalls forcing herself to only look down and remembers seeing his black shiny boots. Though 14 years old, she had been told to lie that she was 18, so she was kept alive to work.

Later in the war, Eva and her mother were forced to walk to the Gross-Rosen camp. While leaving Auschwitz, a Nazi soldier gave her two left shoes to wear. She tried to swap one for a right shoe, but the soldier hit her in the face with his gun butt, dislodging two front teeth. So, she started walking to the new camp with two left shoes and two missing teeth.

The death march claimed her mother’s life, but Eva miraculously survived, thus becoming the sole survivor of her family during the Second World War.

Whenever Eva goes on speaking tours to Germany, she is often accompanied by Jannie Tolhoek of our ICEJ Aid team, who gets to see first-hand the impact which Eva’s appearances have on young Germans. In one speaking tour in 2023, Eva spoke to full houses in large auditoriums, including over 3,000 students, with scores of youths lining up afterwards for hugs and ‘selfies’ with Eva. The tour concluded with a large gathering in Stuttgart to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“I have observed how Eva prepares for her trips and events in Germany by following the German news to stay updated on current affairs,” noted Jannie. “She is an exceptional Jewish woman who connects with teenagers, delivering a serious message while maintaining a great sense of humour and encouraging them to stand against the rampant antisemitism. She even inspires me to choose and embrace life.”

During last week’s award ceremony, Ambassador Seibert shared how, although Eva’s story was one of horrors, she had made it one of hope.

“At some point, you made a choice – one that we are all deeply grateful for. You chose to speak… You didn’t make that choice for yourself. You made it for the students you met in Israeli schools. For young Germans who travelled to Israel to understand the history of the Jewish people and to draw from the lessons from the history of our people. You chose to speak for the many thousands who would later listen to you in Germany, because you knew that what you could give them, only you and other survivors can give them,” said Ambassador Seibert.

In receiving the award, Eva, soon to be 95 years old yet young at heart, expressed her heartfelt gratitude to ICEJ-Germany national director Gottfried Bühler and his wife for their exceptional work in Germany and for the chance she has been given to reach thousands through the Christian Embassy.

“I share this ‘medal cross’ with Günter Jauch, who connected me to the ICEJ,” she stated. “Through the ICEJ, I got to be known in Germany and my voice heard. It was the ICEJ who made it possible for me to speak to so many students in Germany who heard my story and with whom I had conversations afterwards, answering questions. We are all humans. I could explain to them who we are as Jewish people.”

“They don’t know what Israel is, and now they know me and understand the impact of the Jews on everything, like the jeans that they wear are designed by Levi Strauss, a Jewish person, the telephone has ‘Jewish brains’ inside, and they see it in a completely different light,” said Eva.

She also thanked her children and family, who gave her the strength to fight to make a life in Israel from nothing.

“If it were not for the hatred and antisemitism, we would have never come to Israel, and the German Jews would have never come. We were all happy where we were. Now, antisemitism is again rising. So, I fight as long as I can!” shared Eva.

Following the speeches, a toast was made to Eva with the words, “to humanity, to love, to Eva – l’chaim!”

“Eva has served as a bridge between Germany and Israel, sowing seeds in the lives of many German teenagers. I felt incredibly privileged and honoured to be present with Eva and some of her family for this very special award ceremony. Here we see the country that once tried to kill the Jewish people now giving this medal to Eva, a Jewish lady who uses her story of surviving these atrocities to show German youth what hatred and antisemitism can do, and how crucial it is to have the courage to act against it!” Jannie concluded.

Please keep supporting the work of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem to stand with Israel and the Jewish people and to combat the resurgence of antisemitism today. You can donate at: help.icej.org/bless-israel-today

Main photo: Eva Erben with German Ambassador Steffen Seibert.