I WAS NO. 20832 AT AUSCHWITZ

Eva Tichauer was born in Berlin at the end of the First World War into asocialist Jewish family. After a happy childhood in a well-offintellectual milieu, the destiny of her family was turned upside-down bythe rise of Hitler in 1933. They emigrated to Paris in July of that year,and life started to become difficult." "Eva was in her second year ofmedical studies in 1939 when war was declared, with fatal consequences forher and her family: they were forced to the Spanish frontier, then returnedto Paris to a flat which had been searched by the Gestapo. Eva was thencompelled to break off her studies owing to a quota system being imposedon Jewish students." "Her father, a respected lawyer among the immigrants,was arrested on 12 December 1941 and deported with the first convoy leavingCompiegne, while Eva and her mother were victims of the 16 July 1942 'Veld'Hiv' Round-Up. Following detention at Drancy with her mother, both weredeported to Auschwitz. Eva was the only member of her family to surfacefrom this hell. In I Was No. 20832 at Auschwitz she catalogues the stagesof her survival, telling her story with great clarity. Throughout herordeal Eva remained a positive, resistant person whose generosity andhumour never failed her.