Anne Frank’s Stepsister Shares Memories from Auschwitz-Birkenau, How Trump Reminds Her of Hitler in Blunt Interview
EVERT ELZINGA/AFP via Getty Images.
Eva Schloss has seen a lot in her 91 years, surviving the Holocaust but losing many family members, now awaiting the end of the pandemic at her home in London, and she shared her thoughts in a blunt and unfiltered interview with The Daily Beast.
Schloss’ family fled Vienna, Austria when the Nazis took control and eventually ended up in Amsterdam and befriended the family of Anne Frank, who would become posthumously famous for her heartfelt diary written during the war.
Both families went into hiding, were betrayed to the Nazis, and sent to concentration camps. Only Schloss and her mother survived from their family; Otto Frank was the only one from his family left. Schloss’ mother married Otto Frank in 1953 and she and her daughter would go on to assist him with the creation and management of the Anne Frank Foundation. Schloss has continued this work, traveling around the world to give educational speeches and support the Foundation’s mission.
The Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern talked with Schloss to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day. A selection of quotes:
On the uptick in anti-Semitic hate crimes during former President Donald Trump’s term:
Trump wasn’t just against the Jews—he was against the Mexicans, and many others. He was a racist. Full-stop, he was a racist. His son-in-law is a Jew, and his daughter converted to Judaism. You know, he’s said so many silly things. I’ve compared him to Hitler. I even heard that he studied Hitler’s speeches and things like that, so he obviously admired Hitler and just copied him with his anti-Semitism. The Muslims are hated as well. This is what’s so wrong in our society—white supremacy. We should all treat each other as equal. We’re just one human race—different colors, different religions, different opinions, but all human beings who should have the same opportunities and should be measured equally.
On arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau:
We were not treated like humans. We were not given proper water to drink, any hygiene, and you could go once in the morning or once in the evening in a toilet in a separate block. If you had to go [to the bathroom] at night, you would have to walk ten minutes in the dark in the freezing cold. We were treated like animals. They even tattooed us and said, “You are now marked like a sheep or a cow with a stamp. Forget you have a name.” And they really, really intended to kill everybody.
On comments by some Republicans comparing vaccine passports to the yellow stars that the Nazis forced the Jews to wear:
“That is silly.”
On recent anti-Asian violence in America:
“We need to teach people that we’re all human beings. It doesn’t matter what color or what religion we are. We are all human beings, and we have to be treated equal.”
Read the full interview here, including more of her harrowing experiences at Auschwitz-Birkenau and interactions with the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele.
