Eva Schloss, Holocaust survivor and stepsister of diarist Anne Frank, dies at 96

Eva Schloss, an Auschwitz survivor who devoted decades to educating people about the Holocaust and later became the stepsister of diarist Anne Frank, has died aged 96, her foundation announced on Sunday. Schloss was widely regarded as a powerful witness to history who transformed personal trauma into a lifelong mission to confront hatred, antisemitism and prejudice.

Born Eva Geiringer in Vienna in 1929, she fled with her family to Amsterdam after Nazi Germany annexed Austria. There, she became friends with Anne Frank, a Jewish girl of the same age. The two attended the same social circles and shared the ordinary experiences of childhood before Nazi persecution reshaped their lives. Although often linked in public memory, Eva Schloss was not part of the Secret Annex where Anne later wrote her famous diary . The two families went into hiding separately, in different locations, after the Nazis occupied the Netherlands.

Anne Frank and her family hid for more than two years in rooms concealed behind her father Otto Frank’s office, where Anne kept the diary that would later become one of the most important documents of the Holocaust. Eva and her family also spent nearly two years in hiding but were eventually betrayed, as were the Franks. In 1944, Eva, her parents and her brother were arrested and deported to Auschwitz Birkenau.

Eva Schloss and her mother, Fritzi, survived the camp until it was liberated by Soviet troops in January 1945. Her father, Erich, was murdered in Auschwitz, and her brother, Heinz, died shortly before the end of the war. Anne Frank did not survive. After being deported from Auschwitz, Anne and her sister Margot were sent to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, where both died of typhus in early 1945, just weeks before liberation.

After the war, Eva returned to Amsterdam with her mother. In 1953, Fritzi married Otto Frank, Anne’s father and the only member of his immediate family to survive the Holocaust. Through that marriage, Eva became Anne Frank’s stepsister , years after Anne’s death. Eva later moved to Britain, married German Jewish refugee Zvi Schloss and settled in London, where she raised three daughters.

For many years, Schloss did not speak publicly about her experiences, later saying the trauma of the camps left her withdrawn and angry. Her silence ended in the mid 1980s after she spoke at the opening of an Anne Frank exhibition in London. From that moment, she committed herself to Holocaust education, determined to ensure that Anne Frank’s story and the wider reality of Nazi genocide were not reduced to symbols or forgotten altogether.

Schloss went on to co-found the Anne Frank Trust UK and served as its honorary president. She spoke extensively in schools, prisons and at international events, using both her own experiences and Anne Frank’s story to explain the consequences of dehumanisation and intolerance. She also recorded testimony for Holocaust archives and wrote several books, including Eva’s Story, The Promise and After Auschwitz, reflecting on survival, memory and moral responsibility.

She remained active into her 90s. In 2019, she travelled to the United States to meet students photographed making Nazi salutes at a school party, choosing dialogue over condemnation. She also campaigned against Holocaust denial online and repeatedly warned that antisemitism and hatred flourish when history is ignored.

Tributes after her death described Schloss as a woman of extraordinary resilience and compassion. Britain’s King Charles III said he was privileged to have known her and praised her lifelong work promoting understanding and challenging prejudice. Her family said her legacy would continue through the books, films and educational resources she leaves behind.

Zvi Schloss died in 2016. Eva Schloss is survived by her three daughters, as well as grandchildren and great grandchildren.