History
Surviving the Holocaust: Anka’s Story
A photo of Auschwitz Birkenau, taken after it was liberated by allied forces in 1945.
By Ben Shahrabi
Near the 80th anniversary of the breakout of WW2, Eva Clarke tells college
students of her mother’s experiences of life in concentration camps, and
her survival.
Eva Clarke visited the Sixth Form College on 19th September 2019 to give a talk to students
about her family’s life under Nazi persecution, and to describe the horrifying experiences faced
by her mother, Anka Bergman.
Anka was a Czechoslovakian Jewish woman, who met her German-Jewish husband - Bernd
Nathan - when he left Germany in 1933 to move to Prague. They married in 1940.
Numerous members of Bernd’s family had already fled Germany, and the increasingly harsh
treatment of Jewish people - including Eva’s uncle, Rolf Nathan. Rolf went to Holland, then
Switzerland, before joining the US Army.
In Prague, Bernd got a job building film sets at a film studio, while Anka became apprenticed
to a milliner (hat maker). They felt safe from Nazi persecution.
It was during this time that Nazis imposed rules on Jewish people, known as the Nuremburg
Laws. These included: loss of citizenship, Jews being thrown out of professions, Jewish children
were expelled from mainstream schools, curfews were imposed, and Jews were banned from
going to parks, cinemas, concerts, or theatres.
Anka Bergman broke this last rule when she went to watch a film at the cinema. During the
film, the Gestapo stopped it, and began to inspect the audience’s identification papers. Anka
was terrified at what the Gestapo would do to her. Fortunately, they stopped - just one row