My Voice: Eva Neumann

Living for my family

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• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781526192349
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526192332
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Jewish History
• Index: History

Eva (then known as Maidi) was born in 1929 in the town of Szolyva in the Carpathian Mountains.

Eva appears in some of the photographs that are the only visual evidence of the mass murder at Auschwitz. She was shaved, tattooed and give a uniform to wear. She felt so dehumanised and alone.

A job in 'Canada' (a place of safety within the camp) enabled her to pinch food, clothes and on one occasion, diamonds. This possibly saved her life. In January 1945, Eva was forced to march from the camp - the 'death march' to Bergen-Belsen, and then to Berlin. Those who could not continue were shot.

After the war, Eva hitch-hiked through Europe, and was later introduced to a Hungarian businessman, Leopold Neumann who had escaped to Britain before the war. Eva and Leo married in 1950 and raised a family in Manchester. Eva has 25 grandchildren, almost a hundred descendants in all.

In her later years, Eva has devoted much of her energy to telling her story. Many have been inspired by her message of hope and kindness, her resilience, her warmth and her wisdom.

Eva's book is part of the My Voice Project book collection, a stand-alone project of The Fed, the leading Jewish social care charity in Manchester, dedicated to preserving the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK. The oral history, which is recorded and transcribed, captures their entire lives from before, during and after the war years. The books are written in the words of the survivor so that future generations can always hear their voice. The My Voice book collection is a valuable resource for Holocaust awareness and education.

Table of contents

• Front matter
• My Voice Project
• Dedication
• Contents
• 1 – My family history
• 2 – Our home in Szolyva
• 3 – It was a Jewish town
• 4 – The hot springs
• 5 – My grandmother Pearl
• 6 – Early school life
• 7 – My learned father
• 8 – The sanctity of Shabbos and Yomim Tovim
• 9 – Growth of antisemitism and anti-Jewish laws
• 10 – My Bas Mitzvah
• 11 – Horror stories
• 12 – An underlying fear
• 13 – Shmuel’s Bar Mitzvah
• 14 – The last Seder
• 15 – Deportation from Szolyva
• 16 – Degradation in Munkács
• 17 – Death train to Auschwitz
• 18 – The selection
• 19 – My father’s words
• 20 – The barracks in Birkenau
• 21 – Finding diamonds in Kanada
• 22 – Encounter with my grandmother
• 23 – Shema Yisroel
• 24 – What helped me survive?
• 25 – Uprising in the crematorium
• 26 – Death March
• 27 – Digging for our lives at Neustadt-Glewe
• 28 – Saved from a pile of bodies
• 29 – Hitchhiking to Prague with my cousins
• 30 – An emotional reunion in Budapest
• 31 – Adapting to normal life was hard
• 32 – A difficult journey to Vienna
• 33 – Finding my cousin Pinchas
• 34 – Meeting my husband
• 35 – Married life and children
• 36 – Thoughts
• 37 – Returning to Auschwitz
• 38 – Family is everything
• Glossary
• My Voice volunteers
• About The Fed