Supercentenarian Profile

Eva Grafunder

Born:

1903-06-17

Stopki, Warmian–Masurian Voivodeship

Poland

Died:

2013-07-14

Brampton, Ontario

Canada

Eva Grafunder was a German-born Canadian supercentenarian.

BIOGRAPHY

Eva Grafunder was born in Stopki, Warmian–Masurian Voivodeship, Poland (then Stolzenfeld, German Empire), on 17 June 1903.

She married and had a daughter, Hannelore Steinmetz. Hannelore was 12 when the family—Eva, her daughter, her mother, and her sister—fled their home in East Germany during the Second World War to escape the advancing Russian Army. One winter night, Grafunder, then a widow, packed her family’s belongings into a heavy knapsack, gathered her family, and set out on a perilous journey. Their escape included crossing a frozen bay, where they watched as wagons full of refugees plunged into icy water when the ice gave way. Although they managed to reach the opposite shore, their three-month ordeal was far from over. Hungry and exhausted, they camped in the woods for weeks and walked miles in ill-fitting boots provided by German soldiers, all while stepping carefully around the bodies that lined their path. During the journey, Grafunder contracted typhoid and became gravely ill. Not long after, the family secured passage aboard a German minesweeper bound for Denmark.

Conditions in the Danish refugee camp were equally harsh. The family lived in cramped, barbed-wire–enclosed barracks with 40 other people and slept on bug-infested straw mattresses. Relief finally came two years later, when Grafunder was reunited with her brother, a soldier who had been searching relentlessly for his family. They resettled in Kassel, a city in West Germany, where they slowly began to rebuild their lives.

At the age of 95, she moved to Brampton, Canada, to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Karl.

Eva Grafunder passed away in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, on 14 July 2013, at the age of 110 years, 27 days.