Eva Clarke BEM | Full Address and Q&A | Oxford Union
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Published 2019-09-17
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Clarke was born in Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, in April 1945. She and her mother are the only Holocaust survivors of their family, 15 members of whom were killed in Auschwitz. In December 1941 Clarke's parents were sent to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, later onto Auschwitz, and ultimately to Mauthausen, where Clarke was born in a cart with no medical assistance. If the gas chambers had not been blown up on the 28th April 1945 and the American Army had not liberated Mauthausen three days after Clarke's birth, Clarke nor her mother would have survived. Clarke and her mother returned to Prague in 1948; in the same year they emigrated to the UK. Clarke has lived in Cambridge since 1968.
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All Comments (18)
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She apologised for speaking so long. I wish that she spoke longer. I could listen to Ms Clarke all day.
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What a classy, poised, well-spoken woman of distinction. To think that there were so many instances in which her mother could have lost her life and that Eva would never have been born. I could just listen to her speak all day. It's not the accent or command of the language or the pacing of her words. It's the collective pain and wisdom of her mother and all her other relatives who've been lost, and the strength and light they possess, showing through in her personality and her disposition. Her mother, was such an indestructible force of nature whose spirit the Nazis could not break.
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This audience was beyond dense. If you watch this segment on another taping you’ll recognize that this audience, not only rushed her, but asked inane questions. I love her responses. And calm. Adore her.
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I teach history to year 6 students. This term, we are studying WWII. The children are fascinated by the subject and so keen to learn more that they carry out their own research. A number of my students are from Jewish backgrounds and are very clued up about their relatives’ experiences. Quite by coincidence, on the eve of her 75th birthday I came upon Eva’s remarkable and very moving talk about her family and the circumstances around her birth. I’d just like to wish her a very splendid happy birthday. I will be talking to my students today about this remarkable woman.
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The postcard is just so heartbreaking
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An incredible life experience that everyone should be exposed to. My only bone of contention with what Eva said comes from one of her answer to the questions, when she exclaimed that knowing these histories can be a warning as to what can happen with the rise of far-right politics. She is correct, this is what can happen with the rise of far-right politics, but she omitted that these outcomes are also what happens with the rise of far-left politics. Stalin, Mao, and Pot were responsible for some of the largest historical death-tolls and were each of the far-(socialist)-left. I would suggest a more correct answer would be, that knowing these histories can be a warning against the potential consequences of any extreme ideology.
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Amazing story
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What an amazing lady
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Ms. Clarke's answer to the member who asked the very last question at 1:02:51 is quite powerful for me. Her mother has given me permission to also have that mindset.
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No wonder certain members of the 'upper' classes in Germany are very quiet about where their wealth came from. Oh you keep on keeping quiet... as we know, what a disgraceful and harrowing period, shame on you all, you are tinged with those souls of stronger heart than you shall know.
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Someone has written a Wikipedia article for Eva Clarke. If the license of this video was "creative commons" then it could be included in the wiki article. Could the Oxford Union change it?
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She is very calm
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With all the heartfelt respect, I wonder what Eva Clark might think about this report: https://www.patreon.com/posts/zaitsevo-dpr-we-29918225?fbclid=IwAR2gZoesw0OgA5XTq1jxJ4FCtd180eooMWHW4yCUQdY1Jck9W_5vj-gnbpM
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Who rushes a holocaust survivor and her story? Really?
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If her mother was non-observant and religion was irrelkevant to her then by what model of morality did she condemn the Shoah? If we each do our own thing and morality is purely subjective, then what makes us better than the far-right ideologies that Eva Clarke rightly speaks out against?
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The left are the proto-nazis of today.
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In her closing remarks she compares the Nazis to right wing political movements when they are in fact left wing socialists.
