0:00:02 > 0:00:06This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Eva Clarke was born into a world that did not want her to exist.
0:00:17 > 0:00:23Under the Third Reich, all Jewish babies were to be killed.
0:00:23 > 0:00:29We had to sign a paper that the babies will be taken away -
0:00:29 > 0:00:32that's first time I heard the word "euthanasia".
0:00:32 > 0:00:37By the time of Eva's birth, her mother Anka weighed just five stone
0:00:37 > 0:00:40and was on the brink of starvation.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42I was getting thinner and thinner
0:00:42 > 0:00:44but my stomach was getting bigger and bigger.
0:00:45 > 0:00:52Eva was born at Mauthausen, a Nazi death camp, where hundreds of thousands lost their lives.
0:00:55 > 0:01:00But remarkably both Eva and Anka survived.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07Now for the first time on television they tell their full story.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31Anka Bergman was born 94 years ago in Czechoslovakia.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35Her birthday, the 20th of April - the same as Hitler's.
0:01:35 > 0:01:43In 1936, she was a carefree 18 year old, studying law at the Prague Charles University.
0:01:43 > 0:01:49I found out that you don't have to go to the lectures if you do law, that you can do it at home.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51So that suited me to the ground.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55I wanted company and boyfriends and to enjoy myself, which I did.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00I didn't know that Hitler was coming but somehow I filled it
0:02:00 > 0:02:05with only cinema and theatres and concerts and parties.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08My father was German, German but Jewish.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13When Hitler came to power he came to Prague in 1933.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16He thought that was far enough to be safe. It wasn't,
0:02:16 > 0:02:18but if he hadn't, he wouldn't have met my mother.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24She met him in a night club where she was with a group of friends.
0:02:26 > 0:02:32I was in the company of, well, let's say, ten mixed girls and boys and he joined us.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35That was it, you know.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37I think it was love at first sight.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43When I saw him I thought, "I don't see right",
0:02:43 > 0:02:47because he was the best-looking man I have ever seen in my life
0:02:47 > 0:02:50and until today I haven't changed my mind, I must say.
0:02:52 > 0:02:58I've heard it from people other than my mother that my father really was something of a stunner
0:02:58 > 0:03:03and people would literally walk down the road and turn around, you know.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06But I think they both look equally good.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12We started dating but it was all very, very hectic and we got married
0:03:12 > 0:03:15and everything looked sort of as well as it could,
0:03:15 > 0:03:19because we still didn't realise what the Germans were doing.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24Anka and Bernd were to enjoy a just a few months of happiness
0:03:24 > 0:03:28before their blissful days of freedom would come to an end.
0:03:30 > 0:03:31EXPLOSION
0:03:31 > 0:03:36In 1939, the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43On March 15th, the tanks rolled into Prague.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51It was snowing and it was like the height of winter.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56It was a catastrophe to see.
0:03:56 > 0:04:01COMMENTATOR SPEAKS GERMAN
0:04:01 > 0:04:05They marching through the main square, Wenceslas Square, in Prague
0:04:05 > 0:04:11and we were all deadly desperate because we knew, well, this is it, what's going to happen?
0:04:11 > 0:04:15COMMENTATOR SPEAKS GERMAN
0:04:16 > 0:04:21The Nazis began to impose new rules and regulations on all Jews,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25removing freedoms previously taken for granted.
0:04:27 > 0:04:33The rules against the Jews started slowly, gradually.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38You weren't allowed to go to the theatres and cinemas
0:04:38 > 0:04:41and there was a curfew after eight.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44You had to do it, but it was bearable.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49She would also test these restrictions, or people did
0:04:49 > 0:04:51and she did certainly,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54and she did go to the cinema once when it was forbidden.
0:04:54 > 0:05:00And I thought, "Blow it all, I must see this film", and I went to the cinema.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05And she was sitting in the cinema watching the film when the Gestapo came in
0:05:05 > 0:05:08and they started to go through the audience row by row,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11looking at their ID papers and my mother was terrified
0:05:11 > 0:05:14because she had no idea how they would react when they got to her
0:05:14 > 0:05:17and when they saw the large "J" for Jew on her papers.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21I was in the middle of the cinema in the middle row.
0:05:21 > 0:05:28If I had stood up it would have been worse than waiting there, what's going to happen?
0:05:28 > 0:05:31And they go through every row
0:05:31 > 0:05:34and they stop the row in front of me.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37I don't know why.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39And they went.
0:05:39 > 0:05:45And I sat there till the end because I didn't want to draw attention to me.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Then I came home and told my husband where I had been.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53I thought he would kill me because he didn't know.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56I didn't... They could have shot me, they could...
0:05:57 > 0:05:59I don't know.
0:06:01 > 0:06:08At this time most people had no idea about the lengths that Hitler and the Nazis would go to.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Faced with increasing discrimination, some Jews did choose
0:06:17 > 0:06:22to leave Czechoslovakia, but the majority stayed.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26We knew they were going to do something but...
0:06:26 > 0:06:32as long as you don't experience it, you just think everybody is panicking.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36I don't know. I really can't explain it to you.
0:06:36 > 0:06:42But most of the Jews...
0:06:42 > 0:06:43didn't leave.
0:06:47 > 0:06:52In 1941, the Nazis implemented the next stage in Hitler's plan
0:06:52 > 0:06:57and started transporting all Jewish people out of Prague.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02In the November, Anka's husband received a card
0:07:02 > 0:07:06instructing him to report to a warehouse near the railway station.
0:07:08 > 0:07:14And a fortnight after him, I got a sort of postcard that I should come,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18on that day, with 50 kilos of luggage.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21And when she left, not only was she carrying her handbag
0:07:21 > 0:07:27and her suitcase, she was also carrying a large box, a very large box.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30I said to her, "What did you have in the box, didn't you have enough to worry about?"
0:07:30 > 0:07:34I had a box with 50 doughnuts,
0:07:34 > 0:07:39ordinary, plain doughnuts with jam in the middle.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42I said, "Why doughnuts?" She said, "Because your father liked doughnuts."
0:07:42 > 0:07:48My husband was very keen on them and I thought I would bring it for them, bring it to him.
0:07:48 > 0:07:54There was one young German soldier, he could see that she was having difficulty carrying all her luggage,
0:07:54 > 0:07:56well, mainly carrying the doughnuts,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00and he said to her, "Es ist scheissegal, ob die Schachtel mitkommt",
0:08:00 > 0:08:05which means, "I couldn't give a shit if that box goes with you or not."
0:08:05 > 0:08:08He said it terribly, really.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11He would have been no older than 20 years, but anyway.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14But I managed to get it on the train.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17I brought it to Terezin and my husband enjoyed them.
0:08:20 > 0:08:25Anka had arrived at Terezin concentration camp.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29The rest of Anka's family were also sent to Terezin,
0:08:29 > 0:08:33as were thousands of Jews from all over Europe.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Anka and her husband Bernd had remained together,
0:08:36 > 0:08:42but they were about to experience first-hand the brutality of the Nazi regime.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50The primary function of Terezin was
0:08:50 > 0:08:56as a transit camp for the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp,
0:08:56 > 0:09:01a grim truth successfully disguised in a Nazi propaganda film.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11The reality of the camp was far more severe than the pictures suggest.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15Food was scarce and living conditions tough
0:09:15 > 0:09:21and those who were weak and not able to work were quickly transported on to Auschwitz.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Because my parents were young, strong and well capable of work,
0:09:26 > 0:09:29so they remained in Terezin for three years.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36And at the beginning we all thought it isn't too bad, we can take it,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39and the Germans thought, we will show you how you can take it
0:09:39 > 0:09:43and suddenly they took about 15 young men and hanged them
0:09:43 > 0:09:48because they tried to smuggle a letter to their parents
0:09:48 > 0:09:52and they caught one of them and 15 were hanged.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57Sleeping arrangements at Terezin were strictly controlled.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Men and women were forced to live in separate barracks
0:10:01 > 0:10:06but Anka found a way to meet regularly with her husband.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11I managed to get pregnant. That was the biggest sin
0:10:11 > 0:10:17we could have committed because there were segregation of sexes.
0:10:17 > 0:10:23And I mean, one finds, one finds ways and means how one does the various things.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28My mother stayed in the same barracks as I did.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33She look at me, how and where?! ANKA LAUGHS
0:10:33 > 0:10:39She laughed actually because in all that misery there,
0:10:39 > 0:10:41she had a sense of humour.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47And when I was a young teenager about, I don't know, 12, 13,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50no doubt when it would have been at its most embarrassing,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53I asked her how, how come she got pregnant?
0:10:53 > 0:10:55She replied in a very clever way.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59She said, "Under such circumstances you find comfort where you can
0:10:59 > 0:11:01"and to hell with the consequences", end of story.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08But to be Jewish and become pregnant under the Nazi regime
0:11:08 > 0:11:13was a serious crime and there was a devastating consequence.
0:11:13 > 0:11:21There were five couples in the same position as we, that they found out that we were pregnant
0:11:21 > 0:11:27and we had to sign a paper that the babies, when they are born, will be
0:11:27 > 0:11:32taken away and that's the first time I heard the word "euthanasia".
0:11:35 > 0:11:40But we did sign it that the children will be taken away.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45The children were born...
0:11:46 > 0:11:51..but nothing happened and nobody knows why we had to sign it
0:11:51 > 0:11:53and nobody knows why nothing happened.
0:11:54 > 0:12:00My little boy was born in February 1944
0:12:00 > 0:12:05and he died of a natural death two months later of pneumonia.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09But he wasn't killed, but on the other hand,
0:12:09 > 0:12:15his death saved my life and Eva, of course, because I wouldn't be here to tell you the story.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22Anka and Bernd's time at Terezin was running out.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26At the end of September 1944, Anka discovered she was pregnant
0:12:26 > 0:12:33for a second time but before she was able to tell her husband about the pregnancy, he was taken away.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39Bernd was being sent to Auschwitz.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44The next day, Anka volunteered to follow him.
0:12:45 > 0:12:51They told us if you want to see your husbands so you can come of your own free will
0:12:51 > 0:12:54and you will see them in a different ghetto.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58I was one of the first ones to go voluntarily.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06But I never saw him again.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12She heard from an eyewitness, quite soon after the end of the war
0:13:12 > 0:13:18that my father had actually been shot dead in Auschwitz on the 18th January 1945.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22- He never knew about you?- No, he never knew that she was pregnant.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29Although Anka had endured five years of Nazi brutality,
0:13:29 > 0:13:36she was completely unaware of what was taking place behind the electric fences of Auschwitz.
0:13:37 > 0:13:45I knew you were sent east, Auschwitz probably but I didn't, I didn't know any more. It didn't mean anything.
0:13:45 > 0:13:52It meant it's in Poland and it can't be all that marvellous as Terezin was but we didn't know...
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Nothing.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05And so we arrived on the famous ramp,
0:14:05 > 0:14:10we saw the chimneys spouting the smoke
0:14:10 > 0:14:17and fire and the smell and it looked like hell.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19We didn't know what was happening there.
0:14:19 > 0:14:27Just the picture of those chimneys and those fire, I can't describe it.
0:14:27 > 0:14:33It is unbelievable and indescribable and we all got frightened
0:14:33 > 0:14:35and didn't know what of.
0:14:36 > 0:14:42Our heads were shaved and they took all our clothes and we were naked there.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47We slowly were sent into a barrack where they were showers
0:14:47 > 0:14:52but we didn't know anything about any other showers,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55so it didn't worry us and they were real showers
0:14:55 > 0:14:59and we washed in the cold water and no towel and nothing
0:14:59 > 0:15:04and we ran around there like naked and the men looking at us.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08No, it was awful, that beginning.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13We were frightened but we still didn't know of what.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17And then we were sent to some other barracks where there were already other people,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20it was cold and windy and horrible
0:15:20 > 0:15:23and a friend of mine who was standing next to me
0:15:23 > 0:15:28asked one of the girls who were there, "When will I see my parents?"
0:15:28 > 0:15:31And they all started laughing like mad.
0:15:31 > 0:15:37"You stupid cow", or who knows what not, "they are in the chimney by now",
0:15:37 > 0:15:41and in that moment you knew what was happening there,
0:15:41 > 0:15:48not how and what, but you knew they were burning the people in the chimneys.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21My mother was in Auschwitz for ten days which was, you know,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24although a short space of time, she said it really was hell on earth.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27She said it was like Dante's Inferno.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42People there, everybody...
0:16:42 > 0:16:46stopped looking human somehow.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56Anka's parents, her sisters, her brother-in-law and her nephew
0:16:56 > 0:16:58had all been sent to Auschwitz
0:16:58 > 0:17:01a long time before Anka and her husband.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07And when they arrived there they were able to keep their luggage, they kept their clothes,
0:17:07 > 0:17:12they weren't shaved, they weren't tattooed and they were sent to what was called a familienlage.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15One or two of the wooden huts in Auschwitz-Birkenau
0:17:15 > 0:17:19had families together and there was just one very cynical reason why.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23And that was so that they could be forced to write postcards home.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27And my aunt, my mother's oldest sister Denna,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31she wrote a postcard to her cousin who still happened to be in Prague.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33Shall I translate?
0:17:33 > 0:17:40"My dear ones, I am here with my husband and sister and her son
0:17:40 > 0:17:43"and we are all fine.
0:17:43 > 0:17:51"I hope that you are all well and happy. Best wishes to...
0:17:51 > 0:17:54"Yours, Denna" and so on.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58The postcards had to be written in German so the Germans could censor them.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02And my aunt was desperate to get a message out in code.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07And the code word is in the address, in the first line of the address
0:18:07 > 0:18:11where the lady to whom it was sent, her first name was Olga.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14Well, the word "Olga" doesn't feature in the postcard
0:18:14 > 0:18:16and where the word "Olga" should be is the word "Lechem".
0:18:16 > 0:18:21The word "Lechem" is not German, it's Hebrew and it means "bread"
0:18:21 > 0:18:24and my aunt was telling her cousin that they were starving.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32Olga did receive the postcard, understood the message and sent a parcel.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36But by the time the card had been posted, Anka's parents, sisters,
0:18:36 > 0:18:40brother-in-law and nephew had all been killed.
0:18:43 > 0:18:50Anka had arrived at Auschwitz pregnant with Eva and her life was in grave danger.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55The Nazis assessed all inmates and decided who would live and who would die.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01We went through these so-called selections where they picked people
0:19:01 > 0:19:06who were most capable of eventually doing some war work.
0:19:07 > 0:19:13Pregnant women were routinely sent straight to the gas chambers.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17But, for now, Anka's pregnancy would go undetected.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20She was selected to live.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24We were given some food and some better clothes
0:19:24 > 0:19:29and we were put on a train and sent away from Auschwitz.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31And that was just marvellous.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39The feeling that we were leaving Auschwitz alive, you just can't imagine.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41It was heaven.
0:19:42 > 0:19:48In October 1944, Anka was just three months into her pregnancy.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54If discovered, she would be sent straight back to Auschwitz to a certain death.
0:19:54 > 0:20:02But for now, the greatest threat to Anka and her unborn child was the lack of food and warmth.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05We were like sardines again in that train and there was only one bucket
0:20:05 > 0:20:11and it all started overflowing pretty quickly and no food and no water.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16Anka was on her way to an armaments factory.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29We went up a hill to a huge factory
0:20:29 > 0:20:33and it opened the door and it was warm there.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38And we saw and smelt the bed bugs.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42I don't know if you have ever seen one, but they are little beetles
0:20:42 > 0:20:47which wouldn't matter so much but they have that certain smell,
0:20:47 > 0:20:49sort of sweet. Never mind!
0:20:49 > 0:20:54I never saw it since and I hope, I hope not to smell it again,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58but there were thousands of them and that meant warmth.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03Anka was to spend the next six months riveting the tail fin
0:21:03 > 0:21:09of the V1, the unmanned flying bomb, the notorious doodlebug.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12Compared to Auschwitz the factory was a haven,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16but Anka's life was still at risk.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19I was getting thinner and thinner
0:21:19 > 0:21:23but my stomach was getting bigger and bigger.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30Discovery of her condition would have meant her immediate return to the gas chambers.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35I perhaps am the only person, idiotic as I am,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39who thought that I would get through it and I will come home,
0:21:39 > 0:21:41never doubted it.
0:21:41 > 0:21:48And seeing all these people going in the gas every day and every day and so on and so on
0:21:48 > 0:21:52and being pregnant and the baby, I knew I was coming home
0:21:52 > 0:21:54which is totally stupid.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57But I lived with this idea.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03By the February of 1945, Anka was seven months' pregnant
0:22:03 > 0:22:08and was now in great danger of being discovered by the Nazis.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12Miraculously, she would be spared the fate of the gas chambers.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18At the end of the January, Auschwitz had been liberated by the Russians.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23But there was now a new threat to Anka's life.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28The Nazis had started to evacuate the camps and factories
0:22:28 > 0:22:33to annihilate all living witnesses to the holocaust.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Anka was put on yet another torturous train journey,
0:22:36 > 0:22:40heading south away from the advancing allies.
0:22:41 > 0:22:48There was no food and no water and no nothing and we were in open coal wagons.
0:22:49 > 0:22:56The train journey lasted three weeks and during this time many people lost their lives to hunger.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02Anka was on the brink of starvation
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and by now was nine months' pregnant.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08Finally the train arrived at its destination...
0:23:10 > 0:23:12..Mauthausen Death Camp.
0:23:12 > 0:23:18At this very moment, Anka went into labour.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22When my mother saw the name "Mauthausen" at the station
0:23:22 > 0:23:25she was very shocked because as opposed to when she'd arrived in Auschwitz
0:23:25 > 0:23:28not knowing what that was, this time she knew
0:23:28 > 0:23:32because she had heard about this appalling place from very early on in the war.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41And she says the shock was so great that she thinks it provoked the onset of her labour
0:23:41 > 0:23:46and she started to give birth to me on that coal truck.
0:23:46 > 0:23:52We went up the hill and I was sort of starting to give birth to the child
0:23:52 > 0:23:58and there I stopped just before the opening of the main doors of Mauthausen
0:23:58 > 0:24:04and then I had to climb down from that wagon and nobody helped me.
0:24:04 > 0:24:10There was this Russian doctor who was with us and who you knew slightly, the prisoner.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12And she was just passing.
0:24:12 > 0:24:18I begged her to help me and she turned round and went.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20I mean, a doctor.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26The baby came out and we were still going for ten minutes, I think,
0:24:26 > 0:24:31and then they called a doctor from the camp, the prisoner,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35and he was a gynaecologist by pure fluke and he cut the baby off
0:24:35 > 0:24:42and smacked its bottom and it was a healthy baby and I was in heaven.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48Her arms were like my little finger.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50I mean, she was tiny.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52You didn't dare to touch her.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55They think I weighed about three pounds.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57I was wrapped in paper.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00My mother just held me all the time.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06Despite all odds Anka's baby had made it into the world
0:25:06 > 0:25:08but at the worst possible moment.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15The Nazis were desperately getting rid of all witnesses to their crimes.
0:25:15 > 0:25:22In the dying days of the war, thousands were shot, gassed and starved to death.
0:25:22 > 0:25:28Anka and her new-born baby were on their way to the gas chambers of Mauthausen.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31But then, another miracle.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36The Germans disappeared.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40Nobody threw them out, no-one, suddenly they were gone.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50There are two reasons why we survived and the first
0:25:50 > 0:25:53is that on the 28th April, 1945,
0:25:53 > 0:25:58the Nazis had dismantled the gas chamber in Mauthausen.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00Well, my birthday is the 29th.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04So presumably had my mother arrived on the 26th or 27th,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06again, I wouldn't be sitting here today.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10The second reason we survived was because a few days after my birth
0:26:10 > 0:26:12the American Army liberated the camp.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17My mother reckons she wouldn't have lasted much longer.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23Anka's four years of Nazi imprisonment were finally over.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30When she was strong enough she and baby Eva returned home to Prague.
0:26:31 > 0:26:36Anka was free at last, but she and Eva were now alone in the world.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40CELEBRATORY MUSIC PLAYS
0:26:47 > 0:26:52That was the worst moment of the whole war for me, to arrive in Prague
0:26:52 > 0:26:56which I wished all through the time, "When will I be home?"
0:26:56 > 0:26:58and there was no home.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05I come from a big family and there was nobody, nothing.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09I didn't know where my next meal will come from because
0:27:09 > 0:27:14I had no money, no clothes and a little baby.
0:27:14 > 0:27:21But nevertheless she still had a vestige of optimism in the back of her mind and she asked somebody
0:27:21 > 0:27:23to give her some money to go on the tram.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28She thought that if anybody had survived, there was a chance it would be her cousin.
0:27:30 > 0:27:36I ring the bell and the door opens and the whole family waits for me there
0:27:36 > 0:27:41and say, "Where have you been? We heard you are coming to us."
0:27:41 > 0:27:45And they were just marvellous.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47Now I'm going to start to cry.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57I can't...
0:28:11 > 0:28:16Well, I asked them if I could stay a few days and they said, "Of course."
0:28:16 > 0:28:20And a few days ran to three-and-a-half years
0:28:20 > 0:28:24and it was just, I found a new family.
0:28:27 > 0:28:33Other survivors returned home to discover they had lost everything and everyone.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36Many committed suicide.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41All my other friends, whom I met in the road, sort of street,
0:28:41 > 0:28:48they walked about like flotsam because there was nobody nowhere for many of them.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52And I had this fantastic, growing thing.
0:28:54 > 0:28:59It's unbelievable how much it gives you and how much you can take
0:28:59 > 0:29:02for somebody else.
0:29:02 > 0:29:08She was the greatest help of all, without knowing it.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10A mother's love and all that.
0:29:10 > 0:29:17It's the most potent thing in life, I find.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21You get over everything.
0:29:26 > 0:29:32In 1948, Anka remarried and the family moved to Britain.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36Today the woman who gave birth in a concentration camp
0:29:36 > 0:29:38has two grandsons...
0:29:39 > 0:29:41That is lovely.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44..and three great-grandchildren.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd