The Inspiring Story of Eva Olsson

Hate, she told us hate is a strong word, she told us we don't know the damage that hate can do. She lived through hate her whole life, but not once have said it. She was 19 years old when a man walked into the Town Square of Szatmar, Hungary and they were told they were going to go work in a brick factory. Her and her family all 17 of them walked 7 kilometers and were forced to be put in a boxcar. The car only contained 1 pail of water and 1 pail used for the toilet, for 110 people, for four days. they were taken to Auschwitz, an extended family of 17 along with the other 430, 000 jewish families. On the train Eva was approached by a prisioner which told her to give her niece to her mother, and survived, because women with children were executed right away. they arrived to a gate were guards of death were to decide if you had a nice body, if so, you were sent to the right, the others were sent to the left, he was evil because he got to choose who was to live and who was to die. "by the time I turned my head to the left , I couldn't see my mother, and for that moment I couldn't see my mom I had wished I was to hold her in my arms forever and never let her go and tell her I love her always. but for me it was to late. I hope for you it's not to late. do it while you can". Eva was selected to work as a worker in the barracks, she had to sleep sitting up in a small cubicle with 8 others. she sat there while she heard loud trucks driving by collecting 2000 prisioners per night, headed for the gas chambers. As a person she should never had felt the pain of getting used to the feeling of death - gas chambers, screaming, and the silences that came 20 minutes later. "My father was sent to butchenwald. he worked there for carrying heavy things 7 months later he died of starvation in that december of 1944. people die. people die of old age, people die of sicknesses. people die of accidents sometimes, and we are given the strength to deal with it. What I have not been able to deal with, 11 million people died and the cause of their death was hate". "racism is a learned attitude". "In every European countries that the Nazis has occupied were good people. Many of those good people were also murdered. Catholic Priests in Poland were hung for trying to help Jewish people. But something was missing in some of those countries and that was compassion. Had there been compassion in those nations I wouldn't be standing here. In Bulgaria and in Denmark they wouldn‟t allow the trains to leave. They prevented the Jewish people from being transported to the death camps. They protected the Jewish people. And why?They weren't going to be bystanders. Bystanders are as guilty as the perpetrators.” Eva was selceted a second time along with 2000 young people Eva and her sister Fradel were taken to Dusseldorf to unload ships, then later, to work with 500 others in a Krupp factory. "If we had healthy bodies we were blessed. We became slave labours". Bergen - Belsen was were Anne Frank died. 104, 000 died at Bergen - Belsen. There was no bunks, no chairs and all prisioners had to lie on the floor, that floor was covered in diarrhea and lice. They had no water, no food and everyone was sick. They took away the water and the food ratios to speed up the deaths. Eva fell ill withTyphoid. "how did people survive? I can only share with you how I survived. I didn't want to give up. never. never to give up. I kept hope alive, and I was responsible for my sister. she was three years younger and I had to take care of her. so I couldn't die. If I were to have died the nazis would have won". On April 15th 1945 at 11:00 the British and Canadians liberated Bergen-Belsen. They found Eva lying on the floor amongst the dead, and marked her forehead with a red cross She was taken out of the hut and disinfected prior to evacuating her to a hospital. In spite of massive efforts 13,944 inmates died after the camp was liberated. “It's not about the challenges we face. It's about how we deal with them: the choices that we make. Only together as a people can we make a difference, so that this generation will never experience the horrors… never shall a child die by the power of hate. I cannot change the past, nobody can, but the future lies in your hands. You need to ask yourselves what example will you leave behind for the generations that follow you. I cannot make those choices for you. They are Eva relocated to Sweden after her recovery. She married Rude Olsson and they immigrated to Canada in 1951, settling first in Montreal and later to Richmond Hill. “My husband was a Swede and a Christian, he was educated and I was not, but he understood that it‟s about being different and accepting being different. My husband had a short journey. He died at 37, the victim of a drunken driver. He showed me unconditional acceptance of another human being. It‟s not religion or education or colour or culture that makes us different. What makes us different is our attitude. Unconditional acceptance, and love. Pass this on. It‟s the only thing worth having. The things that you can buy depreciate in value very quickly… the way we treat other human beings, with respect and dignity, will never, ever depreciate in value. This is the only thing I have to bring into your school, and the only thing I have to give away. Pass it on.”

-Paige Carloni


This touched my heart so much, she came to my school and she was the most loving person I have ever meet, she told us about her mother and how she wasn't going to let go of her arm, but if she had held on she wouldn't have been her today. she told us she went back to the gas chamber the one her mother had died in, it was a way to forgive her past, she's a strong women with a lot of passion. She's one of my true hero's! <3

in someone else‟s life.”

yours. I can ask you however to not be a bystander, but to be one of those who make a difference