Chava’s Birthday!

92 years ago, Eva Ginz (Chava Pressburger) was born!

She is the younger sister of Petr Ginz (1928–1944)

Eva (Chava) is an exceptional artist in Israel. She is an amazing mother, teacher, and the younger sister of Petr Ginz.

Born on February 21, 1930 in Prague, The Czech Republic, Eva was the baby of two children. Her older brother, Petr was born a few years before and she adored him. She said that when they were kids, Petr called her Slecna Brecna, which means cry baby. She said he called her this because she was always crying, but as she remembered, Petr never cried.

Just like Petr, she grew up in a traditional Jewish home.

Petr and Eva lived in an apartment in Prague. They went to the synagogue on Jewish Holidays and they went to a Jewish elementary school.

Her parents met at an Esperanto conference, and both had liberal views. They believed in promoting world peace by having a common language to all humankind. They often hosted people from all around the world in their home.

Petr and her remained close, and rarely fought. She looked up to her brother. She knew he was talented and she read his stories.

When they were not in school, they went to the mountains or the countryside. Eva Remembers:

“It wasn’t the custom to eat in restaurants, we ate at home, but my parents often went to coffee shops with their friends. There weren’t many cars yet in those days, and so every car ride was quite a big experience. For me, unfortunately, a bad one, because during every ride I suffered from car sickness and would be nauseous. On the contrary, riding on the train wasn’t anything special for us. We didn’t have our own car.”

Eva had a happy childhood, but all that was to change when the Nazis came to power in the Czech Republic in March of 1939. They annexed the Czech Republic.

In October of 1941, the Terezin Ghetto was established. When the Anti-Jewish laws were placed, Petr and Eva were labled Mischlinge (Children of a mixed marriage).

In October of 1942, Petr was deported to the Terezin Ghetto. In May of 1944, Eva found herself in the same situation. Like Petr, Eva brought with her a diary, in which she wrote about her time in Terezin. She had hoped she would be out of there in three months, but when that did not happen, she began to worry. She lived in a girl’s home in L410. There were lots of girls who were her age and her cousin, Hanka Ginzova was there too.

Shortly after she arrived to Terezin, she got sick. She said Petr came to visit her twice, even three times a day. While she was sick in the infirmary in Terezin, Petr insisted he improve her English. He thought of English as a language for the future. He wrote her notes in English and asked her to reply in English for her to practice. He also taught her shorthand. He found a textbook and they learned it together.

Eva got sick many times from the filth and diseases that were spreading around the Ghetto. She suffered from diphtheria and scarlet fever. She was also starving. She remembers that in Terezin there was hunger. She was starving. She wrote in her diary about the filth in her barrack. She wrote in her diary about how she and her cousin Hanka caught bed bugs.

Eva felt alone and scared in Terezin. She saw Petr and that made her feel better. But Petr was about to leave and she would be alone.

On September 27, 1944, she noted in her diary that there was going to be a transport of males ages sixteen to fifty. She heard that Petr was going on this transport and when it was confirmed she wrote how she cried her eyes out. Little did she know that this transport was on its way to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

She would not know until after the war that Petr was sent to die in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Eva was the only one of the two of them to survive.

Her father was sent to Terezin on February 15, 1945. Eva’s mother was able to stay home and was able to send a few letters to the both of them. Eva’s father lost all his siblings( there were five of them all together, two sisters and three brothers), his mother, his uncles and aunts, cousins and of course, his son, Petr.

Eva continued writing in her diary until the end of the war. She wrote that when Petr comes back she would make a note of it. In 1947, she made one note in her diary, “Petr hasn’t returned.” By the time she wrote that, Petr was already dead.

After losing so many years of not being able to study in school, she was eager to study anything: history, literature, mathematics, art, secretarial work, driving and anything she could fit into her day. She then went to the School of Applied Arts on Narodni Avenue for two years.

When she was in high school, she learned French, which she took full advantage of. She was supposed to graduate in 1948, but she left for France with future husband, Jindrich (Abraham) Pressburger. They had met during a ski trip in the Zionist Youth grop “ Hashomer Hatzayir”. He was born in 1924 and from Slovakia. He was a Zionist. Zionism is about the pursuit of an independent Jewish state.

After they were in France, they wanted to move to the Holy Lands, Israel. They arrived in the fall of 1949. She did not know the language and she was learning English, as Petr had taught her. When she arrived in Israel, she chose her Hebrew name, which is Chava. Chava is what she goes by.

Petr was always on her mind and she said it was a terrible loss for her not to have known Petr as an adult. She is sure that given his many talents, he could have been something great.

Eva’s parents stayed in Prague until 1956, when they too moved to Israel. Their mother was a supporter of the Zionist movement. Her parents had a hard adjustment in Israel.

Her father died in 1975, but her mother lived to be ninety-three.

For the past fifty-three years Chava and Abraham lived in Omer. They have two children, Yoram and Tamar. Chava also has three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Eva (now Chava) became a renowned artist in Israel .She taught and then directed the Visual Art Center in Ber-Sheva for ten years.

She thought she had lost Petr’s diaries for years but then they resurfaced.

A man from Prague contacted Yad Vashem offering to give them what he thought was Petr’s diaries. The museum then contacted Eva and she looked at them and they were Petr’s!

Chava is an artist. She had exhibits in Europe, Israel and The United States. Her style changed through the years. She began with realism, and then abstract, and sometimes she would mix both together. In 1993, she received the Sussman Prize for her Holocaust related artwork. Chava taught art and created art for many years. In 2016, the art historian Dr. Ilka Wonschik published a book on her art work.

When I was doing research about Petr, with Yad Vashem’s help, I was able to email Chava. She was the sweetest thing and was kind to answer all the questions I had about Petr and her story. I had written about Petr in a school newspaper and wanted to get the full story. She was kind enough to tell me what I needed to know. I also included her story in the article.

She published Petr’s diaries in 2004. She and Petr’s diaries are featured in Salvaged Pages by Alexandra Zapruder.

Eva still has her diary that she wrote in Terezin.