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Eva Kristine Vetulani-Belfoure
Eva Kristine Vetulani-Belfoure
Born	October 1, 1924; Kraków
Died	March 25, 2004 (aged 79); Baltimore
Citizenship	Polish; American
Occupation(s)	translator; teacher; writer

Eva Kristine Vetulani-Belfoure (October 1, 1924 – March 25, 2004) was a Polish teacher, translator, activist and writer who emigrated to the United States in 1950.

Biography

Europe

She was born in Kraków, the daughter of Adam Vetulani and Anna Szewczyk,^[1] she was a half-sister of Jerzy and Jan Vetulani. Raised in a Catholic family, by the age of five she lived in the country. Then she moved to the city to start education in the elementary school. Once World War II started in 1939, she attended underground classes. She studied several foreign languages, first French, and later German, as her son said, heeding her father's advice: “Learn your enemy's language”.^[2] During the war her family adopted a Jewish woman, saving her from the Nazis.

In 1942 she was taken to Germany to work as slave laborer in the Nazis' factory. She first worked at Hamewacker Chewing Tobacco in Nordhausen and was later sent to the ammunition factory Schmidt, Kranz & Co. She worked as kitchen help and as an interpreter. She was also a maid in the household of the company owner before she was liberated in 1945.^[3]

Vetulani started studying romance philology at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, but she did not graduate from the university.

U.S.

Anticipating another German-Soviet war, she decided to leave Europe. In 1950 she emigrated to the United States, settling in St. Louis, where she attended Washington University.^[3]

After moving to Maryland, she graduated from Frostburg State Teachers College in 1962. In 1966 she earned a master's degree in French and German from Middlebury College in Vermont.^[4]^[5] Shortly after graduating from Frostburg College she began work at Woodlawn High School, where she taught French, German and Spanish. She retired in 1988.^[2]

After she retired from teaching, Vetulani worked as a volunteer for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., where she translated historical documents. She also worked in the Tracing Bureau of the American Red Cross, attempting to reunite Holocaust survivors with their families.^[2]^[6]

She continued an active letter correspondence with her father in Poland (until Adam Vetulani's death in 1976).^[7]

She published three memoir books in Polish.

Eva Kristine Vetulani-Belfoure died on March 25, 2004, of heart failure at Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown, Baltimore. Her son remembered that despite the fact "she had seen the absolute worst in life, people executed in front of her eyes, she had an amazingly cheerful disposition and outlook on life."^[2]

Private life

She was married to Charles William Belfoure (1913–1997), a second class yeoman of the U.S. Navy, who was in service during World War II, Korean and Vietnam War.^[8] Their son Charles Belfoure is an architect and writer.

Works

W małym niemieckim miasteczku (In a Little German Town, published by Tasso, Kraków 1993). A German translation titled In einem deutschen Städtchen was published in 2000;
Z Ziemi Egipskiej, z domu niewoli… (From Egyptian Land, From the House of Slavery…, Czuwajmy, Kraków 1997);
Ameryka. Marzenie a rzeczywistość (America. Dream and Reality, Czuwajmy, Kraków 2000).

Family tree

* the list is incomplete

Michał Vetulani

Franciszka (née Śliwińska)

Jan

Matylda
(née Pisz)

Roman

Elżbieta
(née Kunachowicz)

Franciszek
Latinik

Franciszek

Katarzyna (née Ipohorska)

Eugeniusz

Kazimierz

Zygmunt

Tadeusz

Maria
(née Godlewska)

Wanda

Grażyna
(née Świerczyńska)

Krystyna

Jerzy

Maria
(née Pająk)

Witold

Agnieszka

Maria

Charles

Tomasz

Notes:

References

^ "Oral history interview with Eva Kristine Belfoure". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. February 2, 2001. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Eve K. Belfoure, 79, survivor of Nazi labor camp, teacher". The Baltimore Sun. March 29, 2004. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
^ ^a ^b "Eve Kristine Vetulani (Belfoure)". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
^ "Degrees Conferred in Middlebury Summer Schools Summer 1966 – Master of Arts". Middlebury College Buletin. Catalogue Number 1967–1968. Middlebury College. 1967. p. 154.
^ "Graduate and Language Schools Alumni". Middlebury College Magazine. 66 (4). Autumn 1992.
^ Hawks, Ellen. "She helps people find out about their lost loved ones". The Baltimore Evening Sun.
^ Adam Vetulani. 1901–1976. Kraków: Polish Academy of Learning. 2005. ISBN 83-60183-08-2.
^ "Charles W Belfoure". findagrave.com. Retrieved April 7, 2020.