Holocaust survivor Eve Kugler dies, aged 94

Eve Kugler, a Holocaust survivor who became a journalist and later one of the UK’s most active speakers on Holocaust education, has died aged 94.

Born Eva Kanner in 1931 in Halle an der Saale in Germany, she was the middle of three daughters in a Jewish family that owned a department store. In 1938, aged seven, she witnessed Kristallnacht and the Nazi rampage that devastated Jewish communities across Germany and Austria.

Her father, Salomon, was arrested and sent to Buchenwald; their store was destroyed and their home ransacked.

“I lived through the nightmare that was Kristallnacht when I was seven years old... My father felt the danger of the Nazis, as posters shouting ‘Juden Verboten’ appeared in store windows, cinemas and public parks all over our city,” she later wrote.

“He shrugged off as Nazi stupidity the time an SS man scooped me up – a fair, blue-eyed girl – and congratulated my terrified mother on having such a beautiful Aryan child.”

Eve Kugler has died, aged 94 (Photo: Holocaust Educational Trust)[Missing Credit]

After securing forged visas, the family fled to Paris in 1939, taking only one suitcase each and 40 Deutschmarks which was the maximum allowed under Nazi restrictions.

Following the German invasion of France, her father was interned as an enemy national and the children were placed in care under the OSE (Ouvre de Secours aux Enfants), a Jewish welfare organisation.

In 1941, when the United States issued a small number of visas for Jewish children in France, Eve and her sister Ruth took the place of two girls who had fallen ill.

She recalled: “I remember nothing of the long, hazardous train journey through France and Spain, nor of sailing across the U-boat infested Atlantic Ocean.”

Eve Kugler (right) as a young girl with her sister, Ruth, travelling to New York as a refugee (Photo supplied by AJR)[Missing Credit]

She arrived in New York and was placed in three successive foster homes. “I did not believe that I would ever see my parents again... But the guilt I felt for securing a place of safety at the expense of a sick child never left me.”

Her sister Lea had survived in hiding with the help of the French Resistance. Both parents endured four French concentration camps and were twice narrowly spared deportation to Auschwitz. The family was reunited in 1946.

Eve studied at the University of Pennsylvania and worked as a journalist. She later married Simon Kugler and moved to London in 1991.

It was in adulthood that she began actively piecing together her early life, which she found she could not remember in detail. The memoirs of her mother, Mia Kanner, published in the book Shattered Crystals, helped fill in the gaps.

Eve became a regular speaker on the Holocaust, addressing schools, synagogues and civic groups in the UK and abroad.

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She was a frequent participant in the March of the Living, the international Holocaust education programme that takes students to former Nazi camps in Poland and also to Israel.

The organisation paid tribute to Eve following her death, saying: “The March of the Living family are devastated by the loss of our dear friend. Eve has been travelling to Poland with March of the Living UK since the very beginning. She has spoken to thousands of participants and her testimony has inspired generations.

“Her zest for life was infectious and she lit up every room she was in. There is an ache in our hearts that words cannot fill, but our commitment to telling her story will remain at the forefront of everything we do.”

Eve also worked closely with the Holocaust Educational Trust, through which she addressed thousands of students and teachers.

Karen Pollock CBE, the Trust’s Chief Executive, said: “Eve was the epitome of strength and determination and lit up every room – she had an infectious smile and a cheeky wit. She was always interested in people and displayed a strong sense of humility, somehow not acknowledging just how special she was. She was gentle, warm and vulnerable but always showed the world her bravery, resilience and fearlessness.”

Eve Kugler and Chelsea footballer Lauren James on Holocaust Memorial Day 2024 (Photo: the Holocaust Educational Trust)[Missing Credit]

Eve recorded her testimony as part of the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) Refugee Voices.

AJR chief executive Michael Newman said: “It’s with a heavy heart that we grieve the loss of treasured AJR member, Eve Kugler.”

He described her as “a powerful Holocaust educator, who dedicated much of her later life to telling her story”, and said that her legacy would “help preserve the record of the darkest period of Jewish history and shine a light on its universal lessons”.

Eve regularly attended Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors’ Centre in Golders Green, where she was a member of the advisory committee.

Jewish Care CEO Daniel Carmel-Brown, said: “She gave her time, energy and heart to everything she was involved in. A valued and vibrant participant in many groups, Eve contributed immensely to the centre’s community and joined countless trips and activities over the years. Eve was deeply passionate about Holocaust education helping to ensure that future generations would never forget.”

Eve was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in 2020 for her contribution to Holocaust education. She continued speaking publicly well into her 90s and maintained a website documenting her family’s story.