Eve Kristine Vetulani was born to a Catholic family in Cracow, Poland, an administrative and cultural city where industry grew rapidly. Her father was a professor at Jagiellonian University and her mother a homemaker. Prior to the war Eve studied a number of foreign languages in gymnasium (high school). After the war began the family adopted a Jewish woman, saving her from the Nazis. Eve was sent to work as slave laborer. She first worked at Hamewacker Chewing Tobacco in Nordhausen, Germany and was later sent to Schmidt, Kranz & Co., an ammunition factory. Eve was outstanding with languages. She worked as kitchen help for a private building company and as an interpreter. She was also a maid in the household of the company owner before she was liberated.
After the war Eve worked as a translator for the U.S. Army intelligence and attended Frankfurt University in Germany. She immigrated to the United States, settling in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1951 where she attended Washington University. She worked as a teacher of French, German and Spanish. Eve volunteered for the Red Cross Tracing Service and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum doing translations of archival documents from Polish to English.
Two Polish women carry wreaths of flowers at a memorial observance after the war. Pictured on the right is Eve Kristine Vetulani. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of E. Kristine V. Belfoure
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Listen to or read Holocaust survivors’ experiences, told in their own words through oral histories, written testimony, and public programs.