Eva Kotchever (1891-1943)

Chawa Złoczower was born in 1891 in Mława (Poland, then under Russian rule). At 21 she emigrated to the United States, changed her name to Eve Adams and met Emma Goldman and other anarchist activists and intellectuals. In 1925, she opened the Eve Adams’ Tearoom in New York City, a literary café and salon frequented by many women, including lesbians. The police arrest Eve Adams and close the place. Accused of “moral turpitude” and publishing an “indecent book,” Lesbian Love, she was sentenced to eighteen months in prison and deported to Poland in 1927.

Eva Kotchever (her new alias) lived in Paris during the 1930s and became acquainted with Hella Olstein, a Polish Jewish immigrant. In 1943, they were arrested in Nice and deported by convoy No. 63 of 17 December to Auschwitz.

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