In Memoriam – Eva Schloss (1929–2026)

The USC Shoah Foundation mourns the passing of Eva Schloss, a London-based educator, author, and Holocaust survivor who devoted more than four decades to sharing her experiences and confronting hatred, prejudice, and indifference. Schloss passed away on January 3, 2026, at the age of 96.

Over the course of her life, Schloss spoke to thousands of audiences around the world about surviving Auschwitz-Birkenau as a child and teenager. Through her testimony, writing, and public engagement, she was deeply committed to instilling respect for differences and advancing the belief that education is essential to building a safer and more humane world.

“Eva Schloss shared her testimony with the USC Shoah Foundation with remarkable generosity and purpose. Over many years, she helped ensure that future generations would learn not only what happened, but why it matters. We extend our deepest condolences to her family and to all those around the world who were moved and transformed by her words.” — Dr. Robert Williams, CEO, USC Shoah Foundation

Schloss recorded her first testimony for the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive in 1996, preserving her firsthand account for future generations. In 2015, she also participated in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony initiative. Her interactive biography is now available in museums worldwide, allowing visitors to continue asking her questions about her life, her survival, and her messages for future generations.

Posthumous Stepsister to Anne Frank 

Schloss first became publicly active in Holocaust remembrance and anti-prejudice education through her involvement with the Anne Frank Trust UK, which she helped establish in 1980. The organization develops educational programs based on The Diary of Anne Frank to empower young people to challenge discrimination and stand up to injustice.

After the war, Schloss’s mother, Elfriede (Fritzie), married Otto Frank, the father of Anne and Margot Frank. Otto, who published Anne’s diary and became one of the most influential voices in Holocaust remembrance, was a close family friend and later a father figure to Schloss. Through this connection, Schloss became Anne Frank’s posthumous stepsister, a role that drew public attention without eclipsing her own powerful voice and experiences.

Schloss authored several books, including After Auschwitz: A Story of Heartbreak and Survival by the Stepsister of Anne Frank (2015) and a young adult adaptation published in 2019, offering readers an unflinching yet deeply human account of survival, loss, and moral responsibility.

She often described a pivotal moment in 1985, when she was unexpectedly invited to speak at the opening of an Anne Frank exhibition in London. Until then, she had never spoken publicly about her experiences. As she later recalled in her testimony, the response from young people that day marked a turning point, leading her to dedicate her life to public education.

On the Run, in Hiding, and Survival 

Eva Geiringer was born in Vienna in 1929 to an upper-middle-class Jewish family. Following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, antisemitic laws and violence rapidly upended their lives. The family fled first to Brussels and then to Amsterdam, where Schloss attended school, played in the neighborhood, and formed friendships — including with Anne Frank.

After Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, restrictions on Jews intensified. In 1942, when Schloss’s brother Heinz was summoned for forced labor, the family went into hiding, splitting into two locations. On Schloss’s 15th birthday in May 1944, the family was betrayed and arrested, then deported first to Westerbork and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Upon arrival, men and women were separated. Schloss last saw her father and brother that day. Her mother had insisted she wear bulky clothing, allowing Schloss to appear older during the Nazi selection process and be sent to forced labor with her mother rather than to the gas chambers.

Schloss and her mother endured brutal conditions — hunger, illness, forced labor, and repeated selections. They were later reunited in the camp infirmary as the SS began evacuating Auschwitz on death marches.

Liberation and Aftermath 

In January 1945, Schloss awoke to find the SS guards had fled. She and a small group of women survived in the abandoned camp until Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945.

In the months that followed, Schloss and her mother were displaced across Eastern Europe before eventually learning the war had ended. Schloss was 16. Returning to Amsterdam later that year, they learned that Schloss’s father had died on a death march and that her brother Heinz had perished in Mauthausen just days before liberation.

A conversation with Otto Frank about the publication of Anne’s diary later helped Schloss recover a memory of her brother telling her he had hidden his artwork and poetry before deportation. Schloss recovered dozens of paintings and hundreds of poems, which she later donated to the Resistance Museum in Amsterdam.

Creating a Safer World 

Schloss completed her education in Amsterdam and later moved to London, where she married Zvi Schloss and raised three daughters. For many years, she focused on family and work before embracing her role as a public educator.

From the mid-1980s onward, Schloss became one of the most respected survivor-educators in the world, speaking at schools, museums, and public forums across continents. “I realized the world has to know what happened,” she once said. “We have to create a better and safer world.”

Eva Schloss is survived by her daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Her legacy — preserved through testimony, education, and the countless lives she touched — will continue to shape how future generations understand the past and their responsibility to one another.

May her memory be a blessing.

The testimony of Eva Schloss is available on YouTube and through our Archive.