Eva’s Family
Here are some of the characters from ‘The Winter of Whispers’ with details about what happened to them after 1944.
Eva
Name: Born Ewa Alina Juer
Changed name in Australia to: Eve Alice Yuer
Married name: Eve Addis
Born: 1938 in Cernăuți, Romania (Eva’s age was changed for the book)
Died: 2024 in Melbourne, Australia
Live in Romania from 1938 – 1944
Live in Poland from 1944 – 1947
Emigrated to Australia in 1947
Schooling:
Canterbury primary school, Blackburn Primary school, East Camberwell Girls School (now Canterbury Girls) Years 7–10, MacRobertson High school years 11/12
Melbourne University studying medicine.
Work
St Vincent's Hospital in the drug and alcohol department
Life
Eve lived a rich and varied life, always striving to make a positive difference to the world and the people in it. She worked tirelessly for the rights of refugees (being one herself).
She was a doctor, environmentalist, poet, avid reader, bushwalker, traveller, singer, dancer, dear friend to so many and mother/grandmother extraordinaire.
She returned to Chernivtsi once and found the train station much less scary than she remembered it.
Regina Yuer with her final class at Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne.
Regina, Eva’s mother
Name: Regina Hausmann
Married name: Regina Juer
Changed name in Australia: Regina Yuer
Born: 05/08/1905 in Mościska, Poland.
Nationality: Polish
Life
Regina was a well-respected maths, chemistry and physics teacher. Descended from the Lauterbach and Hausmann family of Polish Jews, she used her intellect and wits to keep the family safe during WW2. Her mother, aunt, uncle and many other family members perished in the Holocaust.
In Australia she taught at a range of schools, including St Catherine’s, Blackburn High School, Ruyton and finally at MLC.
Professor Adrienne Clark, first female chair of CSIRO, credits Regina with her development in the sciences.
https://www.infinite-women.com/women/adrienne-clarke/
Regina was also a keen wool spinner, knitter and weaver, with many of her weavings winning prizes at the Royal Melbourne Show.
Aunt Stefa
Name: Stefania Dretler-Flin (born Stefania Juer)
Dates: 1909 – 1994
Nationality: Polish
Life
Stefa was a well-known Polish artist.
Her first husband was Julian Dretler, (called Krystof in the book) who died in the Warsaw uprising. She then remarried Zygmundt Flin (formerly Flintenstein) who was a fellow artist and survivor of Auschwitz.
Stefa worked for the home army (a resistance group) during the war, using her art skills to produce fake documents. She once described how a Nazi officer came into her home, picked up a children’s book that had documents hidden in its uncut pages. He flicked through the book, missing the documents and left her alone.
She went on to have a long and productive careers in the arts, specialising in linocuts and ceramics.
Julius at his desk in Cernauti.
Julius, Eva’s father
Name: Juliusz Juer
Changed name in Australia to: Julius Yuer
Born in Krakow
Date: 15/06/1904 – 1988
Nationality: Polish
Life
Julius had a PhD in chemistry but was unable to get work in Poland, so he moved to Romania in 1934 to work at the Caurom rubber factory. While there he patented the recyling of car tyres.
On his return to Poland , he had his arm broken when Russian soldiers drove onto the footpath and knocked him over. He later became general manager of a rubber factory in Warsaw.
In Australia he was told that, despite his qualifications and experience, Australians wouldn’t want to work under a foreigner. So he started at Dunlop Rubber on the bottom rung.
Uncle Artek
First name: Artur (Artek)
Surname: Hausmann
Born: 04/12/1906 in Mościska, Poland
Nationality: Polish
Life
Eva's uncle was a doctor, first for the Russian army, then the Polish army. After the war he was chief surgeon at the military hospital in Warsaw.
His first wife, Lusia (Emilia Katz), along with their newborn son, Pawel, were murdered by the Nazis in 1941 in Stanisławów.
He remarried after the war to Irena Petrusewicz and had a daughter, Marta.