Plymouth Woman Recalls Surviving Holocaust
Thursday, April 12, is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Six million Jews were slaughtered during that dark time in history. A Plymouth woman is one of the survivors.
You would never know from looking at 90-year-old Eva Gross that she endured so much heartache and horror growing up.
“One day they came and said ‘okay, you have to get together and line up and we’re going to take you someplace,'” explained Gross.
At 16 years old, her innocence was taken away. In 1944, Eva, her mother and grandparents were forced to leave their home in Hungary. They were put on a train that was headed to Auschwitz.
“They pushed us all in there, the Germans kept saying ‘faster, faster.'”
After about three days, they arrived to their destination and Eva remarkably replaced her fear, with a new sense of freedom.
“When the opened the door, you would not believe how relieved it was that you got some fresh air,” she said.
Armed SS guards of the Nazi Party divided Eva and her family up in lines. Eva and her mother lined up on the right, her grandparents on the left.
“All the people on that side was immediately taken to the gas chamber,” she recalled pointing to her grandparents on the left.
Eva and her mother were moved to five different concentration camps during a year’s time. They had little food and were forced into hard labor. They pretended they were not related, so they could stay together.
“Only thing that went through your head was how to survive, day by day,” she said.
They were eventually freed a year later when the war ended. But the freedom was bittersweet. At least 100 of her family members died in the camps.
Eva shares her story so history won’t repeat itself.
“Make you aware of what hate can create. If we could eliminate hate out of our lives, how much better this world could be,” she said.
Eva now travels the country, sharing her story with others. She enjoys spending time with her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
