Speak Out Speak Up In Drumbrae

Last night I had the honour of doing the introduction to the first talk we have had at our magnificent new Drum Brae Library Hub. 

Our speaker was Eva Clarke who had come to speak as part of the Speak Out Speak Up Holocaust Memorial project I have written about in the past.

Eva's story was the most remarkable one I have heard in a very long time if ever. She told of how her parents were married in Czechoslovakia in the early days of the war before being sent of to concentration camps.   Eva was born in a coal wagon outside Mathausen Concentration Camp one week before the war ended and a few days after the gas chambers were destroyed as the guards tried to cover up their crimes.

Nothing I can ever write here would do her extraordinary tale of survival against massive odds justice.  She ended up living in Cardiff with her mother and step father. 

It struck me while looking at the old black and white photos in her presentation  they seemed so old and so long ago and yet Eva is only two years older than my oldest brother. The total contrast in their first few years of life was as stark as it is possible to imagine.

We were very fortunate to have such an accomplished speaker in Eva. She had spoken at two schools yesterday before us and was off to the Royal High this morning. We forget the suffering   that Eva and those that experienced those awful times endured at our peril.