Eva Clarke was born in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, one week before its liberation by United States troops under President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s command.
On Feb. 25, Clarke met Eisenhower’s great-grandson at a March of the Living event in Washington, D.C., to thank him for the role that American troops had in liberating her and others.
“I am the infant your great-grandfather and the American soldiers saved,” Clarke told Merrill Eisenhower upon meeting him. “Had they not arrived in time, I would not be standing here today.”
The meeting marked the launch of the International March of the Living Eisenhower Family Initiative. March of the Living is an educational program that annually brings participants to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Holocaust, according to its website.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Merrill Eisenhower will join the 2025 March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau concentration camps on April 24 in a reversal of the “death marches” that tens of thousands of Holocaust victims endured.
Eisenhower, who will march alongside Clarke and 8,000 participants from across the world to honor the victims of the Holocaust and the courage of those who fought to end the Nazi regime, spoke to the importance of upholding his great-grandfather’s legacy.
“General Eisenhower ensured that the world would never forget the atrocities committed by the Nazis,” Eisenhower said. “To walk in the March of the Living is both an honor and a duty. We must continue to share survivors’ stories, combat Holocaust denial and stand against antisemitism.”
Clarke, a resident of Cambridge, England, told Washington Jewish Week that she was “very honored” for the opportunity to walk alongside President Eisenhower’s great-grandson in April. March of the Living also invited Clarke to travel to Mauthausen to speak with a group of Austrian students in March.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and philanthropists Josh and Marjorie Harris spoke at the Feb. 25 event to the dozens of community members in attendance.
Josh Harris highlighted the heroism of the American soldiers who gave their lives — the “ultimate sacrifice” — to end Nazi tyranny and to preserve the memories of the six million Jewish lives taken by the Holocaust.
“Tonight we gather to remember the Allied Forces who liberated the concentration camps 80 years ago, victims of the Holocaust and survivors who carry their stories forward,” he said at the event. “Among the most important of those heroes was the Supreme Commander, later president, General Dwight D. Eisenhower.”
‘Bearing Witness’
Josh Harris said the general had “insisted on seeing every part” of Birkenau in April 1945. Horrified by what he saw, Eisenhower “ensured that the horrors were documented,” fearing that one day, people would try to deny the events of the Holocaust.
“[Eisenhower’s] commitment to bearing witness reminds us that history only disappears when we allow it to,” Josh Harris said.
Merrill Eisenhower discussed his experience visiting the site of a concentration camp to emphasize the importance of witnessing history firsthand.
“The first time, I was OK with seeing the gas chambers. I understood it; I read about it. ‘This is terrible’; I get it,” Eisenhower said at the event. “When I turned the corner and I saw those children’s shoes, I wept like no grown man should.”
Clarke has returned to Mauthausen several times with her mother.
“I think it does make a difference if people actually visit the sites,” Clarke told Washington Jewish Week. “Even though people might know the history, it enhances the experience by physically being at these sites.”
Eisenhower said people today should learn those stories to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself.
“Global citizens have a responsibility to make sure that we are talking about, that we are working through and that we are bearing witness [to Holocaust history],” Eisenhower said. “That’s why the Eisenhower family is proud to support [the March of the Living].”
Clarke has related her mother’s story for 25 years, feeling that it’s her duty to keep Holocaust memories alive. Before Clarke was born, her pregnant mother and two other pregnant women weighed under 70 pounds; the three infants born at the concentration camp had each been only three pounds. All three mothers and all three babies survived, a miracle of life that is documented in Wendy Holden’s book “Born Survivors.”
“I believe no one can identify with the number six million, but everyone can identify with one family,” Clarke said. “Telling a personal story can enable history to come alive.”
