King Charles has paid a personal tribute to Eva Schloss, the stepsister of Anne Frank and a Holocaust survivor, who has died at the age of 96.
The King, who said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Eva, was pictured dancing with her and other Holocaust survivors while visiting a Jewish community centre in 2022. Queen Camilla also worked with Eva as a patron of the Anne Frank Trust UK, which Eva co-founded in 1991.
In a statement released by PA Media Agency, the King said: “My wife and I are greatly saddened to hear of the death of Eva Schloss.
“The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding and resilience through her tireless work for the Anne Frank Trust UK and for Holocaust education across the world.
“We are both privileged and proud to have known her and we admired her deeply. May her memory be a blessing to us all. Charles R.”
© Getty ImagesWho was Eva Schloss?
Eva was born in Vienna in 1929 and in 1942, much like Anne, Eva went into hiding before later being captured by Nazi forces. Her father and brother did not survive the concentration camps, while she and her mother barely made it out when they were freed by Soviet troops in 1945.
When they returned to Amsterdam, Eva’s mother, Elfriede, reconnected with Otto Frank, the father of diarist Anne Frank and her sister Margot, and the pair married in 1953.
Eva herself married Zvi Schloss, and the pair became British citizens after settling in England. In 2021, Eva took up her Austrian citizenship once more, becoming a dual citizen in a gesture of reconciliation.
© AFP via Getty ImagesEva Schloss’s work
Throughout her later life, Eva spread awareness of her family’s devastating experiences of the Holocaust, speaking at educational institutions and contributing to the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive project, where she recorded holographic answers to questions about her experiences.
“I have worked very, very hard to change people’s attitudes,” Eva told the BBC. “Each person you convince not to be racist is a positive.”
She also documented her life and survival in several books, including Eva’s Story: A Survivor’s Tale by the Step-Sister of Anne Frank, After Auschwitz and The Promise, which have been used widely in schools and Holocaust education programmes.
© Getty ImagesEva was the co-founder and honorary president of the Anne Frank Trust, an educational charity that teaches young people about the Holocaust, antisemitism and prejudice and of which Queen Camilla is patron.
In 2013, Eva was awarded an MBE for her work in schools and also earned a Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria when she took back her Austrian citizenship.
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