A Story of Triumph

A group of more than 90 Friends Seminary community members attended a historic evening with Anne Frank’s stepsister and childhood friend, Mrs. Eva Schloss, on October 25 at the NYU Skirball Center. The event, which Friends Seminary proudly co-sponsored with New York Hebrew, Leman Prep and Avenues, commemorated 80 years since Kristallnacht.

Mrs. Schloss is a prominent Holocaust survivor who travels the world speaking and advocating for Holocaust education. While she is famously known as Anne Frank’s stepsister (Frank's father, Otto, married Schloss’ mother Elfriede Geiringer after the war), the 89-year-old also has her own compelling story of survival—one that she shared with more than 800 attendees at the event.

 

During a Q&A portion of the evening, Friends Seminary student Amnon '20 was chosen to interview Mrs. Schloss on stage. He asked, "I’m aware that the Holocaust is a very difficult topic for anyone to discuss, especially survivors; however, I was curious as to why you decided to not speak about the Holocaust for so many years and what caused you to change your mind?"

It was only after Otto's death in 1980 that Mrs. Schloss felt compelled to take on the responsibility of keeping Anne Frank's name alive. Since then, she has given talks, visited schools and written books: Eva's Story in 1988, The Promise in 2006, which was aimed, like her stepsister's diary, at younger readers, and After Auschwitz in 2013. "I'd written about life in the camps before, but nothing after that," she said. "It might sound ridiculous, but I found real life much more difficult. It took me a long time to find peace."