Eva Schloss (right) is the step-sister of Anne Frank. A survivor herself, Schloss shared a message decrying hate Sunday in Minneapolis. (FOX 9)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Eva Schloss, the step-sister of Anne Frank, has dedicated herself to educating people about the Holocaust and promoting global peace.
When Schloss was a young girl, she became playmates with another 11-year-old who would go on to become family and one of the most well-known figures in history.
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Anne Frank's stepsister shares message against prejudice and discrimination in Minneapolis
At 90 years old, there’s no doubt Schloss is a survivor. Now, she is sharing her story in the hopes it prevents another global catastrophe like the one that changed her life.
At 90 years old, there’s no doubt Schloss is a survivor. Now, she is sharing her story in the hopes it prevents another global catastrophe like the one that changed her life.
“I go all over the world because, unnecessarily, there is still so much prejudice and discrimination and, as well, I was a refugee and I suffered really badly through that and now the problem of refugees is very actual,” she said to the crowd gathered at the Univeristy of Minnesota's Northrup Auditorium Sunday night. .
Schloss told a crowd of more than 2,000 people how, as a child, she met another girl her age named Anne Frank while living in Amsterdam.
Both girls’ families went into hiding and both were eventually sent to one of the Nazi's most notorious death camps: Auschwitz. Schloss survived the ordeal while Frank did not.
"Like two little girls we played and skipped and gossiped,” Schloss explained. “There was nothing special at the time. Only through writing her diary of course which was very, very wise was I able to understand what happened to her."
After the war, Schloss’ mother married Frank’s father, even though he was still grieving the loss of his family in the camps. It became his life’s mission to make sure his daughter’s diary was published.
“He always used to say the only thing I possess in this world is the clothes I have on my body,” she said. “But as soon as he got the diary, his life changed because he felt he had a message to the world.”
Schloss says her brother Heinz, who died at Auschwitz with her father, painted pictures to escape the boredom of living in hiding for two years, much like Annie wrote in her diary.
She believes it is her calling to keep both their legacies alive for as long as she can.
“I hope now to make him just as immortal as Anne Frank has become,” she said.
Schloss has written two books and has had a play written about her life. She has told her story in more than 1,000 public speeches about Holocaust education and global peace.