Shpaner Eva
Updated: Apr 21, 2024
RelatioNet project
Address: RelatioNetEVSH38CLRO
Last Name: Shpaner
First Name: Eva
Date Of Birth: 1938
Place Of Birth: Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Current Address: Kfar Saba.
List of places:
Before the war
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
During the war
Ocna Mures, Romania
Tarnaveni, Romania
Targu Mures, Romania
After the war
Dimona, Israel
Petah Tikva, Israel
Kfar Saba, Israel
Cluj-Napoca
Before the war
Cluj-Napocais is the fourth most populous city in Romania. The city was officially founded in 1213 as Clus. Geographically, it is close to Bucharest, Budapest and Belgrade.
Before the war, 13500 jews lived in the city. They were 12% of the total population.
During the war
Until the end of the war, Cluj Napoca was a part of Hungary.
In 1940 the city was arbitrated by nazi Germany and fascist Italy but was still under Hungarian control.
During march 1944, the German army occupied the city.
Sadly, for the jews that lived there it was not good. The Nazis enforced antisemitic measures in the city. The authorities started to relocate jews in Ghettos and 16,000 jews were deported to auschwitz. Despite facing severe sanctions from the Hungarian administration, some Jews escaped across the border to Romania, with the assistance of intelectuales. On 11 October 1944 the city was captured by Romanian and Soviet troops.
The jews from Cluj and the surroundings were taken by the Nazis to a ghetto and then relocated yo auschwitz. Most of them were Killed.
After the war
It was formally restored to the Kingdom of Romania in 1947,then it became a part of Romania after they declared independence. Hungarians remained the majority of the city's population until the 1960s. Then Romanians began to outnumber Hungarians, due to the population increase as a result of the government's forced industrialisation of the city and new jobs. During the Communist period, the city recorded a high industrial development, as well as enforced construction expansion.
Cluj today is the unofficial capital of Transylvania and is a popular tourist attraction. The city is a cosmopolitan and multicultural one. It is enlivened by the over 100000 students, who come from all over the country, and even from abroad.
A number of jews that survived returned to the city and were Joined by other jews. In 1947 almost 6750 jews lived in Cluj. By 1970 1100 jews were left. Most of the others made aliyah and at the end of the 20th century just 550 jews were left.
Evas’ story
Eva before the war
Eva was born in 1938, in Cluj-Napoca, a big city in Romania. She lived with both of her parents and her brother, who is two years older than her.
Eva during war
Her parents decided to leave the city and go to a small town. The war “got” there in 1940. The fact that her parents chose to leave the city saved their lives. Although they left the city, the war moved on and “got” to the small town too, Ocna Mures.
After some time in the town, the Jewish people of the area were taken and concentrated in a part of the town. Her father was taken to a labor camp. After a while, they were told that they had to abandon the town and to go to the north of Romania, Tarnaveni.
Everyone was scared, with no place to go to. They managed to go to a familiar house. The place was very small, her family lived in a room.
The food was reparted by coupons. The Jews got less food than everyone else. Everyone in her neighborhood was facist, so her brother and her did not have anyone to play with. But there was one family that helped them a lot, they bought food for them. When they did not have food, they had dinner in their neighbor's house.
When the Hungarians got to their place, they had to run away again. They left in a train to a place in which the Hungarians had no power, Blaj. They had to be very careful and silent so no one would hear them move. After some time, they went back to a city close to Ocna Mures, Targu Mures.
Eva after the war
Her family and her returned to Cluj with her cousin and her aunt who were still alive. She didn’t know that there was a new school, or other new things, and her parents didn’t know as well, so they didn’t sign her up for the new school. She went to school to check and they told her that she was already automatically signed up. They spent close to 10 years there until they decided to move to Israel, for her this was a long period of time, from fourth grade until two years after graduation, all that time waiting for the green light to come to Israel. Although from the day that she was told:”go to live in palestine”, they fantasized about coming to Israel.
All that time she and her family kept their jewish identity. Finally she got to Israel and got sent to Dimona. At that time Dimona was undeveloped and they lived in a small apartment. As she saw Dimona was undeveloped and she wouldn’t have a good future there, she went to Petah Tikvah to her uncle and they rented a small apartment. At the start she wanted to become a math teacher and take classes to do that because in Romania she didn’t have the chance to. In order to do that she took Hebrew lessons. But soon after she gave up on becoming a math teacher. So Later she got a job at an accountants office, she worked there until she got married at age 30.
She came to kfar saba 22 years ago with her sister. Today she has two children, Sarit and Yoel who are both very successful in their fields of work. Also she has six grandchildren. Her message to future generations is that “you shouldn’t leave israel just to make a couple bucks”, this message refers to the younger generations who leave israel in pursuit of money. Instead she insists that they should stay in Israel as this is their home land and that they should help Israel prosper.
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