A Holocaust Survivor

For more than a month our community has been promoting an evening with a holocaust survivor and step-sister of Anne Frank. I bought two tickets right away and was really looking forward to hearing Eva Schloss and her holocaust experiences. I knew it would be more meaningful since we visited Dachau and that experience was very moving and memorable.

The event was scheduled to begin at 7 PM. We left the house at 6. We did not have reserved seats, but I knew we would have to get there 'early' to have a choice. I knew the location for the event was on the college campus and I was aware it was in the sports venue, BUT, I was surprised to learn we'd be on bleachers. Only the $250 and $150 tickets got chairs with backs on the arena floor. That's okay as Hubby and I did find bleacher seats along the top so we'd have a back rest, a cold, brick back rest, but a back rest. At 6:15, there weren't many of those spots available.

2500 tickets were sold. The audience included middle school and high school students, many Augustana students and the rest of us, ages 22 to 100.

Eva told about growing up in Vienna, Austria and shared photos of her home and family.  She told how her family of four fled to Belgium and then Amsterdam during the Nazi's invasions of European countries. Eva talked about meeting Anne and other children and their families who had escaped their homes. She shared her memories of being confined, having to hide from the Nazis and moving from one safe location to another. She talked about the capture of her family and the train ride to Auschwitz and the initial experiences at camp.

As she talked with her thick German accent and soft voice, I could visualize and feel her shame of standing naked before the German soldiers, her fear as she and her mother were separated from her father and brother, her despair when sleeping with seven other women on a 6 foot piece of wood...I was with her because I had visited Dachau and I had seen what the Jews, gypsies, political dissidents, homosexuals, and others had to endure during interment. I felt what those million souls had endured.

Eva Schloss is 90 years old, living in London. Her husband of 63 years passed away 3 years ago. She started sharing her concentration camp experiences in 1980 after Otto Frank, her step-father passed away. Eva's mother survived her time at Auschwitz but her father and brother did not. Otto Frank survived his time at Auschwitz, but his family did not. In 1953 Otto and Eva's mother married and moved to Switzerland where he shared his daughter Anne's diary of experiences leading up to their capture. When Otto passed away, Eva continued Otto's mission, of sharing not only Anne Frank's story, but her story and stories of other holocaust survivors. She has written two books.

The down-side to the evening was the sound system. Because we were sitting on one of the side set of bleachers, the amplification was less than desirable. Hubby said he heard very little of Eva's talk, even with his hearing aids. I felt I heard maybe 1 of every 10 words. Eva talked for 90 minutes, in an interview format, but once she got started with her story, the words flowed and flowed, with humor and heartbreak. Never Forget, Never Again.