Eva Ida Benjamine Kantor was the second of three children of Hugo Kantor and his wife Wilhelmine Sofie Hedwig, née Preyss von Steinbühl. The family lived in a large company apartment on the first floor of Kantor, Pollack & Co, a cotton mill and bleachery in Schwadorf near Vienna, where Hugo Kantor was a partner and from 1924 director. After completing her studies at the former Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst (Academy of Music and Performing Arts) in 1932, Eva Kantor taught guitar at various Viennese institutions and gave private lesson. Directly after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938, Hugo Kantor was dismissed with immediate effect on account of his Jewish origins, the company handed over to a provisional director and the family's apartment sealed. The family moved to relatives in Vienna. In early May 1938 Hugo and Hedwig Kantor were arrested on suspicion of tax fraud. In the meantime Eva and her younger brother Stefan took care of their parents' Vermögensanmeldungen (declaration of assets). After Hugo and Hedwig had been released, the family prepared to leave. The removal goods were handed to Spedition Johann Oberndorfer, which applied in February 1939 to the Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz (Central Monument Protection Authority) on behalf of Eva Kantor for export authorization for "20 watercolours, 10 oil paintings, 1 print, 2 drawings, 14 carpets, 1 pastel". The export was authorized, except for a landscape watercolour by Josef Kriehuber, whose whereabouts are unknown today. Eva had earlier sold two drawings by Rudolf von Alt to the Albertina. Hugo and Hedwig Kantor were able to leave Vienna for Britain in May 1939. In August of that year Eva and Stefan Kantor also escaped to Britain. Around a year later Eva followed her elder brother Theodor to Buenos Aires. He had already escaped to Argentina via Britain in early July 1938. She worked initially as a governess and then as a music, English and German teacher. Her parents also came to Buenos Aires in February 1942, where Hugo Kantor died in September 1945 and Hedwig in February 1971. Stefan Kantor emigrated in 1939 from Britain to Sydney. The drawings by Rudolf von Alt sold to the Albertina were recommended for restitution in 2013.