The day I met Anne Frank’s Step-Sister: Then The Synagogue Was Violently Attacked!

Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?

The daily writing prompt for November 11th, 2025 on WordPress is “who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?” and I thought about that for several minutes then decided I had no other option but to take time this morning to respond. There is someone I have met who will forever be in my memory and I want to share that experience. In today’s political climate I think this person’s story is more relevant then ever. She survived the holocaust. Nobody knows more than her how hate, division, and terrible leadership can destroy lives.

Eva Schloss is the step-sister of Anne Frank and a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Her family was arrested in 1944 and spent the year imprisoned until Soviet troops liberated them in 1945. I met her in 2019 in San Diego California at a synagogue just ten minutes from my old home where she told her story. Now I know some of you are probably thinking: Anne had a step-sister?

Yes. She did; however, not while she was alive. Otto Frank was the sole survivor of his family who perished away during the war. Otto’s wife Edith and his two daughters Margot and Anne did not survive the camps. Edith died in January 6th, 1945 at Auschwitz due to exhaustion, starvation, and illness. The girls died similarly in early March of 1945 at Bergen-Belsen of Typhus infection. Otto lost his entire family.

After being liberated, Otto reunited with Eva’s mother Elfriede Geiringer shortly upon returning to Amsterdam after the war. The Frank and Geiringer families had been neighbors in Amsterdam before the war. The girl’s grew up going to school together and knew each other well. Frank and Elfriede had lost their spouses and eventually would form a strong connection after the war through mutual grief and community ties. The two would marry in 1953. They did their best to rebuild their lives after the horror and tragedies they endured at the hands of Hitler.

Eva Schloss and Anne went to the same schools and had a friendly connection growing up despite not being entirely close. Schloss has spent her adult years writing about her experiences and giving talks to educate young people about the Holocaust believing that is important to prevent history from repeating itself. I remember her saying that “You must speak up when you see injustice done, It is the only chance to change the world and make it a safer place for everybody.” and I just cannot see that being more truer especially with today’s world how it is.

The one thing that really stands out from her experience is how much things changed over night. Life changed dramatically. Eva and other Jewish families began living with increasing restriction. They were unable to use public transportation, had new curfews, and lost their employment. Then eventually got the notice that they were to be deported to Germany in order to work in factories for the Nazi regime.

Eva’s family spent two years in hiding before being betrayed by a Dutch Nurse. At the age of fifteen, Eva was arrested, interrogated, and beaten by Nazi officers before being put on a train to Auschwitz. “I was in shock. I realized this might be the end of my life.” When she cried, the officers would beat her again and threatened to kill her brother Heinz. The cruelty was unimaginable. I remember sitting in the synagogue listening to how she was treated and just being in awe of the strong woman sitting before me talking about horrors I’ve only seen in movies not real life. There is nothing more sobering then being in the presence of someone who lived through history most of us only read about.

I didn’t expect to feel so much just by being in the same room as her. She is a living bridge to a world that tried to erase her. There she stood with grace being composed, articulate, and deeply human. Eva could have made the choice to live her life quietly but decided to tell her story anyways in order to give a voice to the millions of people who never got to tell their stories. Eva chose courage at every turn given her.

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Eva Schloss wrote a book titled Eva’s Story that she was kind enough to sign a copy for me the night I met her. The book goes into way more detail about her experiences. It was an incredible read. When I met her back in 2019, it was at a synagogue called Chabad of Poway. A congregation that was founded in 1986. I grew up near this synagogue and its community. The night I attended Eva’s event I met Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, and many members of the congregation. Everyone was so welcoming that evening and their was this eagerness to hear what Eva had to say. That is not a night I’ll ever forget. Eva struck a stark realization in my soul that night. Life is to be cherished.

Less than a month later the truth of her words would make me cry because she had spoken about hatred and history repeating itself. Then it happened. Eva had been right. Much to my horror, my community faced a heartbreaking tragedy due to hate. On April 27th, 2019, less than a month later, a shooter would enter the very same synagoe where I had met Eva. The shooter was nineteen year old John Earnest. He shot and fatally killed Lori Gilbert-Kaye and injured three others. The injured were Rabbi Goldstein, an eight-year old girl, and another worshiper. According to eyewitness accounts and the community, Lori jumped in front of Rabbi Goldstein to shield him from the gunman.

The shooting occurred at 11:30 AM. This tragic event took place on the last day of Passover. A major Jewish holiday. He opened fire during the morning service. My heart literally sunk when I heard the news. I had just been at the synagogue. The attack was not an isolated act of violence. It was the modern manifestation of the same anti-Semitic ideologies that once fueled the Holocaust. In the face of this continuity of hate, Eva’s message remains a powerful message. To remember is to resist and that education is armor. Each of us has a role in breaking the cruel cycle of hate. it is a societal illness that corrodes the moral fabric of any community that tolerates it.

The Poway shooting was a tragedy, but it was also a call to action, a moment that demands we listen more closely to survivors like Eva, not just to honor the past, but to protect the future. There is no choice in the matter. In today’s world where hate is growing and discontent is brewing faster then we can blink. There is only one option. I repeat Eva’s words: ” “You must speak up when you see injustice done.”

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