April 20, 1944 – Eva Heyman

Eva Heyman’s diary began on February 13, 1944, her thirteenth birthday. This was just a few weeks before German forces occupied her home country of Hungary. The destruction of the Jewish community began immediately. Eva wrote an entry in her diary about her friend Marta who had just been deported to Poland. 

Eva had a friend named Marta who was also Jewish, but not of Hungarian nationality. As a foreigner, she was deported to Poland with her family before the German invasion and was murdered. Eva was terrified that she would eventually suffer the same fate. On April 20th, she wrote, “If Marta had known what was in store for her when she went with her father, would she still have gone? Dear diary, I admit that I very much want to live. If I were given the same choice as Marta, I would stay even without Papa and Agi because I want to stay alive!” One of the tragedies of the Holocaust is that people were often forced to separate from their families in order to try to survive.  No one should ever have to make such a choice!

You may read more of Eva’s diary in the book We are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust.  

You may also discover more about Eva.