The inspiring lesson of Eva Kuper

" My name is Eva Kuper. I am here to tell you my story. It's a tough story... "

It was at the Montreal Holocaust Museum, Tuesday afternoon. Eva Kuper, 78, Holocaust survivor, spoke to students at Charles-Lemoyne College.

When Eva Kuper speaks, everyone listens. Her voice is soft. She doesn't have a microphone. Whatever. The horror she recounts sounds like screams. The lessons of courage she evokes give chills. For more than an hour, in silence, with misty eyes, we were all hanging on his lips.

Born in Poland in 1940 to a Jewish family, Eva Kuper was 2 years old when, in Nazi-occupied Poland, she and her mother were forced into a train car alongside other women and children of the Warsaw ghetto. Direction: Treblinka extermination camp.

“ They called it “resettlement”. Some hoped to be taken somewhere better. Couldn't believe it could be worse than the Warsaw Ghetto. The most realistic knew that those who boarded these cattle cars never returned. »

At 2 years old, Eva Kuper was too young to remember anything. It took him a lifetime to piece together the pieces of his own story.

“ My father told me that no matter what happened to us, he wanted to stay with us. But they didn't let him. »

The day Eva Kuper and her mother were taken to the train station, her father called for help, Regina, her mother's cousin, who was not in the convoy. Regina ran to the station. Amidst the crowd, as women and children piled into the carriages, she saw Eva in her mother's arms. She started screaming, "Stop! It's my baby ! »

Eva's mother heard her and turned around. And she knew it was her only chance. "Holding me at arm's length, my mother lifted me above the crowd. I was carried from hand to hand into Regina's arms. This is the first miracle that allows me to be here to tell my story. »

Eva Kuper often thinks about when her mother had to make that heartbreaking choice. " No one on this train survived. I think of this moment. Think about it... what would your mother do if you were in danger? »

Eva Kuper also often thinks of Regina's courage. Regina who, finally, also died shortly afterwards in Treblinka. "She risked her life. She didn't think of it. Can you imagine how brave that was of him? »

Thanks to her, Eva Kuper was able to find her father in the Warsaw ghetto. "My father knew that sooner or later we were going to die in the ghetto. Together, they fled using the only possible escape route: the sewers. Her father carried her for two and a half hours over a river of excrement.

They took refuge with friends for a while. But Eva's father felt it was too dangerous for them. “To help a Jewish person or family was to expose oneself to the death penalty. »

Moving underground with a 2-year-old child was also very risky. This prompted Eva's father to entrust her to Hanka, a Polish woman who was already caring for a war orphan named Sophie. Hanka took care of Eva for four months. Suffering from tuberculosis and finding it increasingly difficult to care for the two girls, she begged nuns she met at the station to take them in.

The sisters agreed. They took Eva and Sophie to a farmhouse where they stayed until the end of the war. "My first memories are there. I remember the fields, the small hill and the village nearby... ”

From time to time, someone from the village came to warn the nuns: " The Nazis are coming! Nobody knew that the sisters were hiding a little Jewish girl. They had dug a hole in the cellar for her to hide in, under a wooden plank covered with a carpet. She was ordered to remain silent in the dark. " I was a child of war. I did not grasp the horror around me. But I grasped the fear, the anxiety... And I understood that I had to do what I was told to do. »

At the end of the war, Eva Kuper was able to find her father. She was 5 years old and had forgotten everything about him. " I hadn't seen him since I was 2 years old. »

Feeling that it was still risky to be Jewish in Poland, Eva's father hid his true identity from her. " We lived in Poland as Catholics. I was going to mass. I made my first communion at 6 years old. »

It was only in the boat that, in December 1948, transported them to Canada that Eva's father revealed his secret to her. " Eva, I have something important to tell you: we are Jews. »

Having assimilated the anti-Semitism of the time herself, she found it difficult at first to accept it. " I was angry with my father. I said to him, "Maybe you're Jewish, but I'm not!" It took me a long time to accept my identity. And even more time to be proud of it. »

***

Eva Kuper grew up peacefully in Montreal. " I had a good life. For years, she never thought about the Holocaust. She hardly ever asked her father questions. She knew that if she did, he wouldn't sleep for two days. "But in reality, I didn't ask questions because I didn't want to know. I didn't want this burden on my shoulders. »

She went to school. She became a teacher. She got married and had three children. And it was her youngest daughter Felisa, whose first name recalls that of her grandmother Fela killed in the Holocaust, who, at 18, pushed her to research her story.

When she retired in 2005, Eva Kuper traveled to Poland to trace her past. She learned that sister Klara Jaroszynska who had saved her life was still alive. She was 94 years old. She was blind. But she had all her head.

This is how 60 years after the end of the war, Eva Kuper showed up one day, with a bouquet of flowers in her hand, at the Institute for the Blind in Laski where Sister Klara lived. When her presence was announced, the nun opened her arms wide. " She hugged me. She cried. I was crying too. »

Eva Kuper wanted to know why this woman had risked her life to protect a little Jewish girl. Sister Klara told her that she had no intention at first of agreeing to take her under her wing. It was too dangerous. But the moment Hanka begged her to do so, Sister Klara saw this little girl running towards her, putting her arms around her legs and looking up at her saying, "Hug me, please. please. "His heart melted. She took me in her arms. And I snuggled up on his shoulder. »

That answer changed his life. "I realized that she had given me two gifts: the gift of life and the gift of love. I was 2 years old and I had no one to love me. She taught me love. »

***

At this point in history, in the conference room of the Holocaust Museum, some were crying their hearts out.

Knowing these stories is good. Learning from it is better, insisted Eva Kuper. "You are the last generation of young people who can hear the stories of Holocaust survivors. It is important. If these things are not remembered, they are more likely to repeat themselves. And unfortunately, collectively, we haven't learned much. There are still today communities that are victims of genocide. »

18,220 visitors were welcomed to the Montreal Holocaust Museum in 2017-2018.

17 survivors shared their testimonies with 12,026 people.

She mentioned Syria where people are dying every day. She mentioned the Rohingya massacre. When she looks at our world which still gives in to hatred and fear, which is looking for scapegoats, when she thinks of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, Eva Kuper feels "a bit pessimistic". "Our only hope is that young people like you take responsibility. »

“ You are all witnesses of injustice in your life. You see people who are ridiculed and excluded for their appearance, the color of their skin, their religion, whatever... When you want to ridicule someone, you find an excuse. »

“ I would never want you to risk your life. But I expect you to take responsibility and try to get help for these people. Because if we sit there and say nothing, it makes us almost as guilty. »

They stood up, moved. Transformed by this inspiring lesson. Eva Kuper walked up to two young students who were crying silently. She hugged them. Something in their eyes told me they would never forget it.

* On December 9 at 2 p.m., on the occasion of the 70^th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Eva Kuper will participate in a panel organized by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) at Concordia University and the Montreal Holocaust Museum.