Holocaust survivor Evelyn Banko visits South, speaks to IHS sophomores.

Evelyn Diamant Banko, 89, was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1936. Her family fled Europe to escape rising antisemitism, and she arrived in the U.S. in 1940 at just four years old.

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, Banko visited South. Civics teacher Julia Von Holt organized the visit for IHS sophomores who recently finished their Holocaust unit. I had the opportunity to hear Banko speak, and to chat with her beforehand. 

Born to a well-off Jewish family in Austria, her father was an engineer, and her mother a housewife. They lived comfortably for the first years of Banko’s life, but that all changed when the Nazis rose to power in Germany, which annexed Austria in 1938. The family fled to Riga, Latvia, with tourist visas, where they lived for two years. Then, they were able to take the train to Moscow, eventually getting to Japan, where they boarded a ship for the U.S.

Banko was very young through it all. She spoke about how she has just a handful of memories from fleeing Europe, including a warning from her friend Alice’s mom when they were on the train from Riga to Moscow. The Trans-Siberian railroad went through Soviet military bases, and the windows had to be covered. “If you look out you could be killed,” she had told the girls. 

“I remember that,” Banko told us, the intensity of the conversation having made the memory a lasting one. She also spoke fondly about her friend Alice, whom she met on her journey to the U.S. Though Alice currently lives in Connecticut, the two remain good friends and speak on the phone regularly.

Though Banko and her parents were able to safely make it to America, many of their relatives could not. She told the story of her uncle Max who was killed in the Holocaust, explaining the impact it had on her family.

“My mom never got over the fact that her brother died,” Banko said. “Her younger brother.”

Banko’s mother received dozens of letters from Max while he was in concentration camps. She showed us copies of one of the letters, explaining how, “everything was censored.” Max couldn’t say exactly what was going on, but used the weather as code, and would write things like “a storm is on the horizon” to signal worsening conditions. Max survived years in concentration camps including Jurs, but eventually died in Auschwitz, just before liberation.

“I remember as a child, grandma had [a large] portrait of her brother,” said Michelle Lacaden, Banko’s daughter. “That was meaningful to me, to see relatives I didn’t have, mom didn’t have.” 

Banko’s father also lost close family during the Holocaust. His sister, her husband, and their daughter were all murdered by Nazis. Their son, Banko’s cousin Walter, survived, and Banko and her mother were able to meet him in Israel, years after the war. 

Banko recounted how her parents dealt with their immense grief very differently.

“Mom talked about it all the time, dad kept it inside,” Banko said. “My son once asked my dad to tell about his sister. He started crying.”

Banko worked as an elementary school teacher in Portland, and began traveling to tell her story of surviving the Holocaust after retiring 32 years ago. She is part of the speaker’s bureau for the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.

In my conversation with Banko, I asked what she hoped students would take away from her story. Her central message is one of kindness and understanding. 

“You have to be careful to speak up when people are making fun of somebody,” she said. “Whether it’s about their tennis shoes or haircut, or because they look different, or have an accent.”

You can read more about Banko’s story and the Holocaust on the Oregon Jewish Museum website, ojmche.org.

Article by Aria Lynn-Skov