Eva Szirmai

Interview Summary

Eva was born in 1929 in Budapest. Her parents tried to shield her from the growing antisemitism but after the Arrow Cross’s terrifying attack on Jewish people in 1944 life changed dramatically. Jewish children were forbidden at school. Eva and her family were forced to wear a yellow star, hand in their valuables and move into a Yellow Star House. When her father and brother were sent to a concentration camp, it was her mother’s determination that kept Eva and her grandmother safe in the Ghetto where they were imprisoned throughout the war in squalid conditions. It wasn’t until 1956, after the Hungarian uprising that they took a chance and made their move to Britain thanks to Eva’s husband’s singing talent, and they began a new life in Glasgow. (Budapest Ghetto, Concentration Camp Survivor)