Polish-born writer and activist Chawa Złoczower, also known as Eva Kotchever and Eve Adams, was (possibly) BOTD in 1891. Born in Mława in Congress Poland (then part of the Russian Empire) to a working-class Jewish family, she was a gifted student, and became proficient in seven languages. In 1912, aged 20, she emigrated to the United States, adopting the name Eve Adams, dressing in men’s clothes and befriending prominent left-wing radicals including Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Ben Reitman and Henry Miller. She became a travelling saleswoman, selling left-wing periodicals including Mother Earth and The Liberator, making her a surveillance target of FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover. She settled in Chicago in 1921 with Swedish painter Ruth Norlander, opening a tea room and literary salon named The Grey Cottage, which became a haven for the city’s queer community. She is thought to have been the model for several of Norlander’s nude studies. In 1923, she returned to New York, signing a declaration of intention to become an American citizen. Perhaps unwisely for her citizenship application, she wrote a lesbian-themed collection of short stories, published privately as Lesbian Love. She opened a nightclub called Eve’s Hangout in 1925, which became a central venue for New York City’s lesbian community. The club was raided by the police vice squad in 1926, who discovered copies of Lesbian Love. Kotchever was convicted of obscenity and disorderly conduct and imprisoned, leading to the club’s closure. On her release from prison in 1927, she was deported to Poland. She moved to Paris in 1930, befriending James Joyce, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin and D. H. Lawrence and making a living by selling banned copies of their works. She formed a relationship with Jewish singer Hella Olstein Soldner, living together even after Soldner’s marriage. With the rise of Fascism in Europe, they attempted unsuccessfully to emigrate to Palestine or the United States, eventually moving to Nice in 1940. Kotchever and Soldner were arrested by Nazi forces in 1943, and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Both women are thought to have been executed shortly after their arrival at Birkenau in December 1943. Kotchever was 52.