EVA SCHLOSS
Who is Eva Schloss?
Eva Schloss is the ‘posthomous’ step-sister of Anne Frank.
Eva Geiringer was born in Vienna, Austria in 1929, the younger sibling to her brother Heinz. Her mother, Fritzi and father Erich came from assimilated middle class Jewish families. After the Germans marched through Vienna in 1938, Eva’s family immigrated to first to Belgium, then to Holland. It was there that Eva came into contact with Anne Frank for the first time. Anne lived in the neighbourhood as well and Eva remembers Anne with her friends Sanne and Hanne as an “inseparable trio” who like to whisper about boys and look at movie magazines.
The Nazis began to enforce many restrictions on the Jewish community and Eva’s father Erich began to discuss the possibility of the family going into hiding. He thought that they would have a better chance to survive if the family split up into two groups.
Like the Frank family, Eva’s family went into hiding in 1942 when Heinz received a notice to show up for labour camp detail, he was the same age as Margot Frank. The Dutch underground helped the families finalise the arrangements for their hiding places with a teacher taking in Eva and her mother.
Eventually after two years of hiding the Geiringer family was captured and sent to Westerbork and then Auschwitz. Only Eva and her mother survived.
On returning to Amsterdam, Eva introduced her mother to Otto Frank. On November 10th, 1953 they married and moved to Basel, Switzerland.
Eva now lives in North London and has been married to Zvi for over fifty years. Eva regularly visits schools, universities and other institutions to talk about her experiences during the Holocaust.
A play, And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank by James Still deals with the lives of Eva and her posthumous step-sister, Anne Frank and other teenagers in the Holocaust. In 2005 she wrote The Promise with Barbara Powers (http://www.annefrank.org.uk/shop/index.php/fuseaction/shop.category/category_id/4). It includes a strong message about a chain of goodwill that has been appreciated by people of all ages.
Eva is a founding trustee of the Anne Frank Trust UK.