Holocaust survivor shares her memories

EVA Schloss, Ann Frank’s stepsister, shared her experiences and memories of the holocaust with guests at the Durban Holocaust Centre recently.

Eva said she had battled for years to speak about her experiences.

“When I got home from Auschwitz at the age of 15 I was full of hate. My father and my brother were killed. A man who had also lost his wife and daughters, Otto Frank, used to visit us. One day he came and he had a brown parcel, which held Ann's diary, the only thing he had left from her,” she said.

Otto Frank survived his internment in Auschwitz. After the war ended, he returned to Amsterdam, where he was sheltered by Jan and Miep Gies as he attempted to locate his family. He discovered later they had been killed. In July 1945, after the Red Cross confirmed the deaths of the Frank sisters, Miep Gies gave Otto Frank the diary and a bundle of loose notes she had saved in the hope of returning them to Anne.

Otto gave the diary to the historian Annie Romein-Verschoor, who tried unsuccessfully to have it published. She gave it to her husband Jan Romein, who wrote an article about it, titled “Kinderstem” (“A Child’s Voice”), which was published in a newspaper in April 1946. His article attracted attention from publishers and the diary was published in the Netherlands in 1947, followed by a second run in 1950.

It was first published in Germany and France in 1950 after being rejected by several publishers. It was published in the United Kingdom for the first time in 1952. The first American edition, published in 1952 under the title Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, was positively reviewed. The book was successful in France, Germany, and the United States, but in the United Kingdom it failed to attract an audience and by 1953 was out of print. Its most noteworthy success was in Japan, where it received critical acclaim and sold more than 100,000 copies in its first edition.

“People didn’t want to know about the war so soon afterwards, survivors were quiet. It took me 40 years, until the late 80s to speak about my experiences. I was asked to speak to Israeli security guards in London. I spoke of how I almost lost my mother in a concentration camp, and by some miracle she escaped being gassed. She lived 57 years after the war. People didn’t know the unbelievable cruelty and pain we experienced, and I realised from that day it was my job to teach about the holocaust,” said Eva.

Eva’s mother and Otto Frank grew close and eventually married. She said Otto never seemed to get over the loss of Ann. Eva said she had lived in the shadow of Ann, as Otto’s ‘third daughter’ which was very difficult.

“My brother, Heinz, was a wonderful person and an amazing musician, it took me years to get rid of the hatred I felt at his loss. He wrote many poems, which I have put together in a book and his paintings, created while in hiding, are on display at the Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam. He will never be forgotten, he said the last time we spoke, in a cattle truck on the way to Auschwitz,” she said.