Eva Hirschenstein Appelbaum survived the Holocaust
in Yugoslavia, moved to the United States and has written
a book on how Italian soldiers helped save Jews during
World War II. She will read from her book at 5 p.m.
March 8 at the Highland Beach Library. Photo by Tim Stepien
In 1941, a little Yugoslavian girl watched from her window as German tanks rolled down the street in Zagreb, where her family lived. Eva Hirschenstein was 7 and had no idea about the haunting events to follow.
It wasn’t long before her family was on the run from Nazis, managing to escape death camps through strokes of luck and with help from many kind souls along the way — particularly, she said, the Italian army.
Before her mother packed their two suitcases, she pulled apart the seams of her daughter’s teddy bear, hid money inside, and sewed it back together. As the family moved from place to place, the money was never discovered.
She and her parents made it through WWII, despite several close calls, but her grandmother, uncle and stepfather died in an extermination camp close to Zagreb. Many family friends also perished.
Dr. Eva Hirschenstein Appelbaum chronicles those events in her book, Free Confinement: Survival in Europe 1942-1945 (available at Amazon.com).
“It’s about how my parents and I, a Jewish family, escaped from Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia and were protected by [members of] the Italian army by whatever means necessary,” the Highland Beach woman said. She wants to let people know how Italian soldiers risked their lives to save Jews.
“My memoir took many years to complete,” she said. “It is a very emotional subject for me. I write several days a week, usually in the evening, for an hour or two. I am now writing the sequel about growing up in Rome as a refugee.”
A third book will cover her move from Rome, where she went to medical school and met her husband, Dr. Jerry Appelbaum (an oncologist) to New York, where she worked as neurologist and teacher until a few years ago.
She began making notes for the booking the early 1970s, when Holocaust recollections surfaced.
The story was worth telling, she wrote in the book’s introduction, “first, because my parents and I managed to escape death …; second, to relate how a young child experienced these harrowing events, often finding more adventure than fear; and third, to preserve these memories for my children and grandchildren.”
When she went to medical school there were few women studying to become doctors, but Appelbaum graduated with honors.
She and her husband, who is also retired, spend winters in Highland Beach, where she enjoys leisurely strolls on the beach, sculpting and writing. She speaks five languages.
Appelbaum, 77, still has the teddy bear that stored her family’s cash during those difficult times seven decades ago. “I call him by the Serbo-Croatian equivalent of teddy bear, which is medek,” she said. “He sits high on a small bookcase in my Manhattan apartment.”
— Mary Thurwachter
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
A. After my parents and I escaped from German-occupied Yugoslavia, I grew up in Rome, Italy, where I went to school and graduated from medical school.
Q. What are some highlights of your life?
A. The birth of my three children and my two little granddaughters.
Q. How did you choose to make your home in Highland Beach?
A. My husband and I came to visit relatives and, driving along A1A, I fell in love with the beachfront. Delray reminded me of summer resorts in Italy.
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Highland Beach?
A. Warm weather, friendly people, walking on the beach, collecting seashells and pretty stones. Also, barbecuing and looking at the beautiful sunsets.
Q. If someone made a movie of your life, who would you like to play you and why?
A. Helen Mirren; I watched her in Prime Suspect and [portraying] Queen Elizabeth and find her very versatile.
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. Mostly classical music, Mozart, Beethoven.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. “To thyself be true.”
Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. My art teacher in high school, my parents, a professor in medical school and Bruno, someone I talk about in my memoir.
Q. What’s the last book you read and would you recommend it?
A. The Tiger’s Wife, by Tea Obreht. It is by a very young American writer from Serbia who illustrates the 1992 war in Yugoslavia with magic realism and stories within stories. I recommended it to all my friends.
Q. Who or what makes you laugh?
A. My favorite movie — Arsenic and Old Lace — and Saturday Night Live.
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