Eva Olsson

On Monday, October 26, 2009 a Holocaust survivor visited my school. Her name was Eva Olsson. In 1933 when she was 19 years old a man came down her street beating a drum. He told everyone that they had to go to Germany to work at a brick factory. She left with a large group of people. They had no idea where they were actually going.

They walked for 7km to a set of cable cars to load into them for a long journey. They stood for four days sharing a pail of water and a pail for the washroom. Many people died from lack of oxygen. People had to stand the whole time because there was very little room inside a cable car, they stood during the day and had to sleep while standing. It was not what Eva had expected.

She arrived at Auschwitz to find that she was lied to. All of the survivors lined up in front of a man that told them where to go (left or right). She was one of the fortunate people who were chosen to go right. The people who went right had to work. Eva saw her mother go left and she never saw her mother again. The people who went left were put in gas chambers.

This was just the beginning of her adventure!

I think Eva Olsson is a great speaker. She made me feel like I was there watching everything happen. Her story was phenomenal and convincing. I believed every little bit that she said, who wouldn't? She made the story very sad and it was summarized very nicely. I really enjoyed her speech.