Eva Schloss had blond hair and blue eyes, and like her mother, could pass in appearance as non-Jewish. During World War II in Europe, they made the risky choice to hide in the open while Eva’s brother and father’s more ethnic features forced them into hiding in the country.
Eva and her family knew the Franks before they went into hiding. Eva described Anne Frank as mature and self-assured. Anne was just a little older than Eva, but Eva so admired Anne’s confidence and sense of fashion.
It was hard to be in hiding, and heartbreaking for her family to be separated. Sometimes Eva and her mother made the dangerous train trip to the country to visit her father and brother. It was terrifying to make the long journey with German soldiers all around them, often checking their identification papers. Eventually the family was found out – betrayed – and sent to Auschwitz.
It may be difficult, but it is important to read (or listen to) historical accounts of what happened at Auschwitz. First-hand narratives such as this are so horrible it may seem hard to believe they are true. But story after story after story verify these atrocities. May our world never fall to such wide-spread evil again.
After the war Otto Frank and Eva’s mother both came home, but their spouses did not. In time the two married, making Eva stepsister to Anne, who of course did not survive the concentration camp.
Now 90 years old, Eva earlier this year spoke with a group of students who were photographed at a party playing a drinking game with cups arranged in a swastika pattern.
Eva said of the meeting, “I think they have learned a lesson of life.”
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