> At a Glance
> – Eva Schloss, Auschwitz survivor and Anne Frank’s stepsister, died Saturday in London at 96
> – She spent decades teaching young people about the Holocaust after decades of silence
> – King Charles III praised her lifelong mission to overcome hatred through education
> – Why it matters: Her story links two of the most powerful voices against genocide, ensuring future generations remember the stakes of prejudice
Eva Schloss, who survived Auschwitz and later became the stepsister of Anne Frank, has died in London at 96. After decades of silence, she turned her wartime trauma into a global campaign to teach young people about the dangers of hatred.
From Vienna to Auschwitz
Born Eva Geiringer in Vienna in 1929, she fled to Amsterdam after Nazi Germany annexed Austria. She befriended Anne Frank, another Jewish girl her age whose diary would become world-famous.
When the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, both families went into hiding. After two years, Eva’s family was betrayed, arrested and sent to Auschwitz. Only she and her mother Fritzi survived liberation in 1945; her father Erich and brother Heinz died in the camp.
A New Family, Then a New Mission
Post-war, Eva moved to Britain and married German Jewish refugee Zvi Schloss. In 1953 her mother married Otto Frank, Anne’s father and the only member of his immediate family to survive. Anne had died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen at age 15, months before the war ended.
For decades Eva stayed silent. “I was silent for years, first because I wasn’t allowed to speak. Then I repressed it. I was angry with the world,” she told the Associated Press in 2004.
Everything changed in 1986 when she spoke at an Anne Frank exhibition in London. From then on she:
- Visited schools and prisons worldwide
- Addressed international conferences
- Authored books, including Eva’s Story: A Survivor’s Tale by the Stepsister of Anne Frank
- Campaigned into her 90s
Confronting Hate in the Digital Age
In 2019 she flew to Newport Beach, California, to meet teenagers photographed making Nazi salutes at a party. The next year she joined a campaign urging Facebook to remove Holocaust-denying content.
> “We must never forget the terrible consequences of treating people as ‘other,'” she said in 2024. “We need to respect everybody’s races and religions. We need to live together with our differences. The only way to achieve this is through education, and the younger we start the better.“
Tributes Pour In
King Charles III called her “a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust,” adding:
> “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding and resilience.“
Her family remembered her as “a remarkable woman: an Auschwitz survivor, a devoted Holocaust educator, tireless in her work for remembrance, understanding and peace.”
Key Takeaways
- Eva Schloss survived Auschwitz and became Anne Frank’s stepsister after the war
- She broke decades of silence to educate millions about genocide
- She kept campaigning into her 90s, confronting modern antisemitism online and in schools
- Her legacy lives on through books, films and the Anne Frank Trust UK, where she served as honorary president
Eva Schloss is survived by her three daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Zvi Schloss died in 2016.
