Eva Marks receives the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award

In October 2010, Eva Marks received the Austrian Government’s prestigious Holocaust Memorial Award, the first given to a woman and the first to an Australian. The award was presented by the Austrian Ambassador, the Hon Dr Hannes Porias.

Eva was a child when the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938. She fled with her mother and grandmother to Latvia, but after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, they were transported to Siberia. She spent the next six years in Soviet gulags, first in Siberia and later in Kazakhstan. She was liberated in 1947 and came to Australia, where she built a new life in Melbourne with her husband, Stan.

Eva was an active and valued volunteer at the Jewish Holocaust Centre for 17 years. She worked both as a guide and as assistant curator of the museum. She was also treasurer of the Friends of the Jewish Holocaust Centre and a founding member of the Melbourne branch of the World Federation of Child Survivors of the Holocaust. She has appeared regularly on television and radio and has lectured about her experiences during the Holocaust, both in Austria and the Soviet Union.

This prestigious Austrian Government award is well deserved. Congratulations Eva!