She is still alive today, driving herself from her Bracebridge home to speaking appearances across Ontario and Quebec, flying to more distant parts of Canada and the United States, because she has a message to deliver and knows people must hear it.
For a quarter century, Eva Olsson kept silent. As with returning war veterans, mere words could never convey to those not present what really happened. Then some inner switch transformed everything. Since 1970 Eva has given 3,900 presentations – in churches, schools, prisons, police conferences, powwows, and legion halls.
When the Alberta Potato Growers Association invited her to deliver their annual convention’s keynote speech, it puzzled Eva. At the event, she discovered why. Many were from Holland and had suffered starvation during the Nazi occupation. She always tailors her message to an audience. “I am alive and standing before you today because of soup made from unwashed potato peels,” she told the farmers. “You never know whose life you are going to save. So keep growing potatoes!”
At an Ohio prison, addressing a heavily guarded assembly of lifers, Eva spoke about prison life as she’d known it, then said that each man in the room had to decide for himself whether to keep a flame of hope alive. “If what you’ve told us this morning I heard when I was young,” one man rose up and declared, “I wouldn’t be in here now.”
“Who will tell us these truths,” worried another, “after you’re gone?”
While Holocaust survivors are fewer in number each year, Eva gleams when pointing out that this summer one living in Israel had just died at age 114. “He’d addressed the United Nations twice!”
Eva Olsson became a national bestselling author and widely acclaimed speaker – including on bullying, diversity, and compassion – because her message is authentic. Amidst the glib platitudes and aggressive negativity from many quarters these days, the strong clear flame of truth that a single voice can ignite is welcome, essential leadership.
At the Chippewas of Rama’s powwow in August, Eva Olsson spoke about “genocide” as experienced by Indigenous peoples in Canada. “Remember your legacy,” she exhorted, “and never give up hope!”
Eva returned to Rama in September to talk with grade seven and eight students. She’s since been in Ottawa for a full fall schedule. Last weekend she was slated for a regional gathering at Bracebridge Legion. She’s heading to Alberta to speak with students about Ann Frank as part of a school’s student exchange with Dutch students.
Unstoppable Eva Olsson is an optimistic realist, her determination aptly captured in her biography’s title “Stronger than Fire.” Son Jan Olsson, one of Canada’s outstanding principals when at Huntsville High School, embraces his mother’s spirit. His insightful guide on development of student character is entitled “Keep It Simple, Make It Real.”
