Evelina Merová, born Evelina Landová in Prague, survived Theresienstadt, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Josef Mengele’s selection, forced labour, and the loss of almost her entire family during the Holocaust.
Only twelve years old when she was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in 1942, Evelina spent eighteen months there before being transported with her parents to Auschwitz-Birkenau in December 1943. Instead of being immediately murdered, the family was imprisoned in the so-called Theresienstadt family camp, a special section of Birkenau.
Life there was defined by hunger, disease, overcrowding, exhausting roll calls, and the constant threat of death. Evelina became prisoner number 71,266. During the day, children gathered in the Children’s Block associated with Fredy Hirsch, where attempts were made to preserve education, discipline, hygiene, and a small measure of normality.
On 8 March 1944, nearly 3,800 prisoners from an earlier transport from Theresienstadt were murdered in the gas chambers. Fredy Hirsch also died that day. Evelina’s father died only weeks later, while her sister Lisa and her infant son would later be deported to Auschwitz and murdered.
When Josef Mengele conducted a selection of prisoners from Evelina’s transport, the young girl claimed to be sixteen years old and described herself as a gardener. She passed the selection—a moment that helped save her life.
Evelina and her mother were subsequently transported to Stutthof and then to the Gutowo subcamp, where starvation, disease, and forced labour continued to take a devastating toll. Her mother died in November 1944, leaving Evelina to survive with the help of fellow prisoners.
Liberated by the Red Army in January 1945, Evelina was later adopted by a Soviet doctor and rebuilt her life under the name Evelina Merová. She became a scholar, mother, and important witness to the Holocaust before her death in February 2024 at the age of 93.
This documentary concludes Evelina Merová’s extraordinary story of persecution, loss, survival, and life after the Holocaust.
This episode is part of the series Survivors of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution.
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