A sold-out crowd was captivated by the endearing and heart wrenching evening with Eva Schloss, the stepsister of Anne Frank. At 90 years young, Schloss was inspirational as she vividly recounted specific details of her childhood growing up during the holocaust. The Chabad of Coronado hosted this special evening in the Coronado Performing Arts Center Theater and Rabbi Eli shared the introductions with Father Mike Murphy and Pastor David McElrath to show the camaraderie and shared values of different faiths in our community. Mayor Bailey presented her with a City of Coronado Challenge Coin.
Carrying her purse as she was given chocolates and escorted onstage by Adelaide Weiner, whose father was a Navy SEAL commander, the diminutive Eva was interviewed by Zeldi Fradkin and spoke for more than an hour. She was planning to return home to England the next day. She vividly recalled details of the prejudice, cattle car train ride to Auschwitz, the humiliating and devastating process of having her family separated, her survival, and life after the war.
After the war, she wanted to talk about her experiences, but the world wasn’t ready to listen. She never even spoke about it with her three daughters. In 1986, she discovered that the world was ready to listen when she was asked to speak at an Anne Frank travelling exhibit in Amsterdam. “It was a relief to finally tell my story even though it was difficult for me being a shy person. Thank God people want to know the story and learn, so the same mistakes are not made again,” she comments. Since then, she has done over 1,000 speaking engagements, written several books and a play; she says her message is straightforward and one of “tolerance and love.”
She grew up in Vienna, Austria with her mother Fritzi, father Erich and brother Heinz Geiringer, who was three years older. She wants his legacy to continue as she tells about his accomplishments as a talented pianist. When they were in hiding and had to remain quiet, their father encouraged him to paint and he exhibited true artistic flair. He hid 30 of his paintings in the floorboard of the attic where they were hiding, and Eva went back to reclaim them after the war ended in 1945. She wants her brother’s legacy to live on and shared one of his insightful poems; and reproductions of his paintings, which showcase a Holocaust family’s life in an Amsterdam attic, are for sale. A theater company in Minneapolis will soon perform a play based on his life story.
She remembers in 1938 when Austria was invaded by the Germans, her father went to Holland and she moved with her mother and brother to Belgium. Later in February 1940, they moved to Amsterdam where she met Anne Frank and her family. The girls played hopscotch, marbles and other games together. She fondly recollects that Anne was mature and liked to talk a lot and it sometimes got her in trouble at school. “Even then, she liked to tell stories,” Eva recalls. In 1942, at the age of 13, Eva fully realized that this was a matter of life and death when her family was forced to split up and went into hiding to survive. Fortunately, she looked Dutch with her blonde hair and was actually able to visit her father and brother. They moved six or seven times before her 15th birthday in May 1944 when she got an egg as a special treat. It turned out they were betrayed by a double agent, and the Germans came to take the family away to Auschwitz on an excruciating train journey. She hauntingly remembers Dr. Josef Mengele overseeing the selection process of who lived or died as the Jews arrived. Typically, children her age were not spared, but thankfully her mother had loaned her a big frumpy hat, so she appeared older and was sent with her mother to Birkenau, the women’s camp at Auschwitz. She recalls having to register, being paraded around with no clothes and having her head shaved. As hard as it was, she recounted a few of the miracles that occurred when she got to see her father twice while in the camps, and she found out that after she thought her mother died, she was actually alive and they were released together. Sadly, her father and brother perished.
They reconnected with Otto Frank after the Russian liberation and made the arduous journey to Amsterdam together. He showed them Anne’s diary which he intended to publish. It was not well received in Europe at that time, but in 1952 it became a bestseller in the U.S. Later, Otto married her mother, who lived at be 97. Eva was married to Zvi Schloss for 63 years and they have three daughters and five granddaughters. At first, she turned down his proposal because he wanted her to return with him to Israel and she couldn’t bear to leave her mother, but when he agreed to stay in England she gladly accepted. She lives in London and previously worked as a studio photographer and ran an antique shop.
One of the few remaining holocaust survivors, she continues to share her insightful story to help educate and end violence and bigotry around the world. She echoes the famous words of Anne Frank by saying, “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”
My friends and I, and I’m sure everyone in the audience, was deeply moved by this message of difficulty and hope. We can’t wait to read the autographed book we purchased Eva’s Story. She brought this story to life in a very personal way that won’t be forgotten. I also just learned about the KPBS film “A Tale of Two Sisters: The Diary of Anne Frank,” which airs this week. Check local listings for times.
