Eva Clarke

Eva Olga Clarke (née Nathanová; born 29 April 1945) is a British Holocaust survivor and former college administrator known for her birth at Mauthausen concentration camp. Born to Czech-Jewish mother Anka Bergman, she is a speaker for the Holocaust Educational Trust. Clarke combats modern day instances of racism and prejudice through sharing her family's experiences in the Holocaust.

Birth and early life Image still from a reel by the U.S. Army Signal Corps of Anka Nathanová and her newborn daughter, Eva Clark at Mauthausen concentration camp. Clarke was born on 29 April 1945 on a cart at the gates of Mauthausen concentration camp. Her mother, Anka Nathanová, a Czech Jew from Třebechovice weighed less than and had managed to hide her pregnancy long enough to keep herself and her unborn child safe from the Nazi gas chambers.

Before giving birth, Nathanová endured three years in the Theresienstadt ghetto, six months of slave labour in an armaments factory in Freiburg, Germany, and a 17-day train journey in an open coal car to Mauthausen. When she previously arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Nazi SS doctor Josef Mengele asked if she was pregnant, to which she had lied and replied no. In September 1944 Bernd had been transported to Auschwitz before Nathanová could tell him she was pregnant. Nathan and Nathanová's first child, Dan (George) was born in 1944 in the Theresienstadt ghetto and died of pneumonia at the age of two months.

Six days after Clarke's birth US troops liberated Mauthausen, and an Army Signal Corps cameraman filmed the human wreckage as evidence of Nazi atrocities. He also filmed Nathanová with her new baby. Born in Trhová Kamenice, Bergman had fled Nazi persecution, later serving in the 312th Czechoslovak Fighter Squadron. After the war, Karel Bergman returned to Czechoslovakia as the sole survivor of his family. later purchasing the company where he was employed. The family settled in Cardiff and then Cyncoed, where Clarke attended Rhydypenau Primary School and Our Lady's Convent School. In 2000, she began speaking publicly of her family's experiences during the Holocaust. Clarke volunteers as a speaker for the Holocaust Educational Trust. She also supports the Anne Frank Trust and the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre. In the 1960s, she met and married Malcom Clarke from Abergavenny (1943–2024), a professor of law at Cambridge University, and they had two sons. , Clarke resides in Cambridge. Clarke was one of four Holocaust survivors awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2019 New Year Honours "For services to Holocaust education" in their efforts to share testimonials of their experiences for future generations. In 2023, Clarke was awarded the Freedom of the County Borough of Blaenau Gwent in Wales.