Eva Heyman (1931–1944)
Author of The Diary of Eva Heyman: Child of the Holocaust
About the Author
Image credit: Éva Heyman
Works by Eva Heyman
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Heyman, Eva
- Birthdate
- 1931-02-13
- Date of death
- 1944-10-17
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- diarist
- Relationships
- Zsolt, Bela (stepfather)
- Short biography
- Éva Heyman was born in Nagyvárad, Hungary (present-day Oradea, Romania) in 1933. Her parents Ágnes and Bela Heyman divorced when she was very young and she went to live with her maternal grandparents, while maintaining occasional contact with both her mother and father. Her mother remarried to a famous Hungarian author, Béla Zsolt. Éva began her diary at age 13 in February 1944, as Nazi Germany invaded Nagyvárad, and ended it on May 30. Three days later, she was deported to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau and murdered in the gas chamber in October 1944. Her mother and stepfather survived World War II. Ágnes found Éva's diary in 1945 and had it published in Hungarian. It was translated and published in English as The Diary of Éva Heyman in 1974.
- Nationality
- Hungary
- Birthplace
- Nagyvárad, Hungary
- Places of residence
- Nagyvarad, Hungary (now Oradea, Romania)
- Place of death
- Auschwitz, Poland
- Burial location
- Auschwitz
- Map Location
- Romania
Members
Discussions
WP:List of posthumous publications of Holocaust victims in Collaborative work (April 2012)
Reviews
Alexandra Zapruder, editor of Salvaged Pages, a collection of children's Holocaust diaries, believes this diary isn't genuine and was in fact mostly or entirely authored by Eva's mother, Agnes Zoldt, who committed suicide after the war. I respect Ms. Zapruder's scholarship and thus read this diary with a jaundiced eye, but I can't find anything that leads me to believe it was written by anyone other than Eva. The voice sounds like an intelligent thirteen-year-old girl to me. Zapruder cites show more inconsistencies in the style and content as the reason for her belief that the diary is fabricated, but these inconsistencies can be explained by the fact that she was reading a translation of a translation of the book. (From Hungarian to Hebrew to English. The original diary was lost shortly after its publication.)
Though the diary only covers a few months, the entries are very detailed, and you can see Eva's life -- and the lives of all the Jews in Hungary -- crumble all to pieces. Recommended.
Fact of note: Eva's stepfather was Bela Zsolt, a well-known Hungarian writer and politician, who wrote his own Holocaust memoir, Nine Suitcases. show less
Though the diary only covers a few months, the entries are very detailed, and you can see Eva's life -- and the lives of all the Jews in Hungary -- crumble all to pieces. Recommended.
Fact of note: Eva's stepfather was Bela Zsolt, a well-known Hungarian writer and politician, who wrote his own Holocaust memoir, Nine Suitcases. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 2
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 43
- Popularity
- #352,015
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 1
- ISBNs
- 7
- Languages
- 4
- Favorited
- 1