Unger, Eva (born Warburg)

Eva Unger (née Warburg) was born on 31.12.1912 in Hamburg and died on 24.11.2016 in Rehovot in Israel. She was a member of the well-known Warburg family, and Anna and Fritz Warburg were her parents. She trained to be a kindergarten teacher, and following her graduation in 1933, she worked in that field until her dismissal from her position because she was Jewish. She immediately founded her own, Zionist-oriented children's home in Hamburg. After the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, she immigrated to Sweden, taking with her all the children entrusted to her and placing them with Jewish families. In Sweden, she worked for the Association of German Jews and, at the request of Henrietta Szold, took on the responsibility for the Youth Aliyah organization in Sweden. Consequently, she succeeded to help transport about 450-500 Jewish children to Sweden. Meanwhile, she founded Kibbutz Hälsinggården in Dalecarlien, Sweden, and another children’s home in Norrkoeping, Sweden. In 1946, she immigrated to Palestine and married Naftali Unger. They first lived in Givat Brenner, where they had two children (born in 1948 and in 1950). In 1950, Eva and Naftali joined the new Kibbutz Netzer Sereni, where Eva worked with traumatized children until moving to Rehovot with her husband in 1969. Even after World War II, Eva continued her efforts to save Jewish children and get them to Palestine, including a group of over1.000 children interned in Cyprus. In addition, Eva engaged in employment counselling and worked for the Youth Aliyah organization. Later in life, she ran arts and crafts classes and a library for the neighborhood in which she lived.