This Week
Insight
Remember
When
Witness To History
Otto Frank's stepdaughter, Eva Geiringer Schloss, speaks at Meadow Brook Theatre
about Anne Frank's diary and her own history.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
Staff Writer
E
va Geiringer Schloss was born in 1929, just like
Anne Frank. Like Anne, she was an Austrian
child taken to Holland by her family to escape
the Nazis.
But the Nazis followed and, in 1942, all Jewish children
were ordered to turn themselves in for deportation to
Germany.
Like the Franks, the Geiringer family went into hiding.
After two years, both families were betrayed and sent to
Auschwitz, a German concentration camp.
Unlike Anne, Eva survived.
Now 71, she flew in from her home in London last week-
end to see Meadow Brook Theatre's production of The
Dr. Joseph Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor, saved her life.
When Auschwitz was liberated, only the weakest prison-
ers were still there, including Schloss and her mother.
Eventually, they stumbled to the men's part of the camp to
look for her father and brother.
"We came across someone," she says, "and that one was
Otto Frank."
On returning to Amsterdam, Frank found his home
and business had been destroyed. He already knew his
wife had died, and the Geiringers learned of the death of
the men in their family. Schloss and her mother were able
to move back into their furnished apartment, which they
had rented from Christians.
When Frank learned both his daughters had perished, he
was, at age 57, a completely broken man — until he found
Anna's diary and absorbed its contents.
Diary of Anne Frank.
"I came over especially to see this
show, because I have worked with Susan
Kerner [director of the Meadow Brook
production] on another show," Schloss
says. "It's called And Then They Came
For Me: Remembering the World of Anne
Frank, and it is partly my own story."
The Geiringers settled in
Amsterdam in February 1940.
"There were lots of Jews where we
lived and, after school, we would play in
the square," says Schloss, whose voice
retains a sophisticated Austrian accent.
The actress who plays Anne in the
Meadow Brook production, Nicole
Raphael, reminds Schloss strongly of
the girl she called Anna. Eva and Anna
were friends until they went into hiding.
"Anna was very lively, full of ideas, wanted to be popular,"
Schloss says. "She was interested in clothes, film stars and
her appearance. I was more of a tomboy — I had an older
brother and boys were nothing to me. She was quite a flirt."
While the Franks spent two years hiding in one spot, her
own family had no permanent place to stay, Schloss says.
Her father and brother hid in one temporary refuge while
she and her mother hid in another, moving when the Nazis
threatened.
"My mother and I didn't look Jewish," Schloss says. "We
were blonde and blue-eyed and had false identification
papers. About once a month, we went to visit my father
and brother. It was the only time we did go out."
They visited one time too many. The men had been
betrayed, and all four were sent to Auschwitz.
It happened on Eva's 15th birthday, Aug. 15, 1944.
Schloss and her mother stayed in Auschwitz until the end
of the war. They survived only by a combination of
strength and luck, Schloss says.
At one point, the Nazis selected her mother to be gassed.
Only intervention from a cousin, who worked as a nurse for
"Anna was very lively, full of
ideas, wanted to be popular.
She was interested in clothes,
film stars and her appearance.
I was more of a tomboy
I had an older brother and
boys were nothing to me.
She was quite a flirt."
— Eva Schloss
"He was an amazing person," Schloss says. "I was 16 and
I couldn't accept the death of my father and brother. I was
very bitter."
Otto taught her "the message of his daughter: the hope
and belief in kindness and goodness, to see again the better
things in human beings."
Gradually, the three survivors grew close. "We tried to
make a little life all together, but then they really fell in
love," Schloss says.
In 1953, her mother married Otto Frank. Schloss, who
was studying photography in London, had married a young
Israeli economics student the year before. She and her hus-
band have three daughters and five grandchildren.
"Otto was my daughters' grandfather," Schloss says. "And
he would many times call my oldest daughter Anna." 7
The Diary of Anne Frank will be performed through
Nov. 12 at Meadow Brook Theatre on the campus of
Oakland University in Rochester Hills. 524 -537.50.
Performance times yam call(248) 377-3300.
From the pages of The Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
1990
Jerusalem recently welcomed the
100,000th Jewish immigrant for the
year from the former Soviet Union.
A Tel Aviv court is hearing Israel's
first major "right-to-die" case.
The Jewish Community Center
in West Bloomfield opened the
Discovery Room, a hands-on mini-
museum.
1980
The Jewish community of Japan, with
110 families, dedicated its new com-
munal center and synagogue in Tokyo.
-Dr. Sam Stulberg was named the
honoree by the Detroit Alumni
Chapter of Alpha Omega at an
Israel Bonds tribute luncheon.
1970
Samuel D. Popkin, vice president
and chief of architectural develop-
ment for Albert Kahn Associates,
was elected to a nvo-year term on
the Michigan Society of Architects'
board of directors.
Saul S. Chudnow was elected
president of the Oak Park Council
of Community Organizations.
1900
Dr. Bela Schick, pediatrician and
discoverer of the diphtheria test
named after him, received the first
Humanitarian Award of the Jewish
Federation-Council of Greater Los
Angeles.
Rabbi Leon Fram of Temple
Israel represented the Jewish
Chautauqua Society as a lecturer at
Jackson Junior College:-
1950
Sidney J. Allen was elected presi-
dent of Franklin Hills Country
Club in Farmington Township.
Mordechai Namir, Israel's minis-
ter to Moscow, has been relieved of
his duties at his own request.
University of Western Ontario
presented an honorary doctorate of
law to Dr. Ralph Bunche, winner
of the Nobel Peace Prize and a for-
mer U.N. Palestine mediator.
Compiled by Sy Alanello,
editorial assistant