Eve Balfour, a world languages teacher in Maryland, helped save a Jewish woman’s life when the Nazis occupied Poland during World War II. Photo credit: US Holocaust Memorial
Throughout history, there are many remarkable educators who have performed deeds of heroism. One of these Chalkboard Champions is Eve Kristine Vetulani Balfour, a world languages teacher in Baltimore, Maryland. During World War II, she helped save a Jewish woman’s life from the Nazis when they occupied Poland.
Born a Catholic in Krakow, Poland. Her father was a professor at Jagiellonian University and her mother was a homemaker. As a young girl, before the outbreak of WWII, Eve studied several foreign languages in gymnasium, the European equivalent of high school.
Eve was born into a family that abhorred the Nazi regime. During the war, the Vetulanis adopted a Jewish woman, thereby saving her from the Nazis. In 1942, after the Germans invaded and occupied Poland, Eve was captured and forced to work in Nazi slave labor camps. Although her life there was difficult, her knowledge of languages saved her life, because she was more valuable to the Germans as a translator and interpreter than as a slave laborer. Fortunately, she was liberated from the Nordhausen labor camp by the Allies in 1945.
After the war, Eve became a displaced person. She was able to secure a position as a translator for US Army intelligence and was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. She also enrolled in classes at Frankfurt University. In 1950, she immigrated to the United States. Upon her arrival, she first enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. After moving to Maryland, she graduated from Frostburg State Teachers College in 1962, and in 1966 she earned her Master’s degree in French from Middlebury College, Vermont.
For over 25 years Eve worked as an instructor of French, German, and Spanish at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland. She retired from the teaching profession in 1988. Able to speak Polish, Russian, German, Spanish, French, and Italian, Eve translated historical documents for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, after her retirement. She also worked for the Red Cross at their Tracing Bureau, assisting efforts to re-unite Holocaust survivors with their families.
Eve Balfour passed away in 2004 at the age of 79, but she will always be remembered as a true Chalkboard Champion. To read more about her, see this article about her published by the United States Holocaust Memorial.
