Eve Poole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
29 December 1924
Eve Poole | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Poole in 1990 | |
| 41st Mayor of Invercargill | |
| In office 1983–1992† | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Eva Auerbach 29 December 1924 Frankfurt, Germany |
| Died | 26 December 1992 (aged 67) Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Resting place | Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill |
| Spouse |
Vernon Clive Poole (m. 1943) |
| Children | 4 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch | Auxiliary Territorial Service |
| Service years | 1939–1945 |
| Rank | Private |
| Service number | 195779 |
| Conflicts | World War II |
Eve Poole QSO (born Eva Auerbach; 29 December 1924 – 26 December 1992) was a New Zealand politician who served as Mayor of Invercargill from 1983 until her death in 1992. She was the first woman and Jew to hold this position.
Poole was born in Frankfurt, Germany on 29 December 1924 to Polish migrants Hinde and Nachman Auerbach.[1][2] She was named Eva after her maternal aunt. The family moved to Berlin in the late 1920s. Her father was brutally beaten in a Nazi street demonstration against Jews in 1932,[1][3] and thus began a years-long struggle to migrate the family to Palestine. While much of Poole's maternal family also made it to Palestine, her father's family was largely wiped out in The Holocaust. Poole and her sister Pnina would often have to give up their beds to fellow refugees that their family would shelter.
Following in the footsteps of many of her older siblings, Poole enlisted in the British Eighth Army as a driver in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, lying about her age on the enrolment form. She was sent to train in Tell El Kebir, getting engaged to a French officer named Jean there. In 1942 she became a driver for Vernon Poole, who was a tank commander in the 20th Battalion of the 2nd New Zealand Division. In developing a relationship with him, she broke off her engagement with Jean. Vernon had also been engaged to a woman named Francie McGoldrick in Invercargill. Eve married Vernon on 1 March 1943 in Cairo,[4] much to the distress of her parents.
Poole received an honourable discharge upon discovering she was pregnant, and was transported by the MS Wanganella to New Zealand. She moved in with her in-laws in Vernon's hometown of Invercargill. Though she had occasionally been called Eve in the past, she started going exclusively by this name to avoid confusion with Vernon's sister Eva.[5] Vernon was soon discharged and two years later they moved into their own home which Vernon had designed and built. Together they had four children, Helen, Vivienne, Michele, and Clive.[6] Having trained at Habima Theatre,[7] Poole went on to teach drama at Southland Girls' High School.[1] She also worked as a speech therapist for the disabled[8] and was fluent in German, English, French, and Hebrew.[9] Throughout the 1950s and 1960s she grew her public profile as an actor and producer with the Invercargill Repertory Society, including such plays as The Rose Without a Thorn, The Shifting Heart, All My Sons, Dangerous Corner, The Potting Shed, and The Miracle Worker.[10]