A HOLOCAUST survivor who was born on the back of a coal truck as her mother entered a Nazi death camp was in Huntingdon last week to speak about her experience.

Eva Clarke was born on April 29 1945 as her mother Anka entered Mauthausen death camp. Eva weighed only 3lb, and her mother had already lost one baby to pneumonia at Terezin, a transit camp for prisoners on the way to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The only reason Eva survived was because the day before she was born the Nazis had dismantled the gas chambers, and three days later the camp was liberated by the Americans.

Eva re-told her remarkable story to an audience of 180 students and staff at Huntingdonshire Regional College last week. Now aged 66 and living in Cambridge with her mother, Eva regularly gives talks to schools, colleges and prisons.

Abigail Howe, head of learning resources at the college, said: “Eva showed a lot of family photos, and told the whole story of everything that happened to her and her mother. The students were very engaged and interested. They asked lots of questions.

“Generally when you are taught about things like the Holocaust, you cannot grasp that six million people were killed. When you hear one family’s story it makes you understand it better because of that personal contact with history.”

The visit was organised through charity Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27 marks the day the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated by allied forces.