Bozeman Magazine

Eva Schloss, a Holocaust survivor and stepsister of Anne Frank, will speak at Montana State University this fall.

Schloss will participate in a Q&A session to be held as part of "A Historic Evening with Eva Schloss" at 7:00pm on Sunday, November 3, in MSU's Strand Union Building Ballrooms. Also participating in the Q&A will be Rabbi Chaim Bruk, executive director of Chabad Lubavitch of Montana. MSU President Waded Cruzado will lead the session.

Schloss was born Eva Geiringer in 1929 in Vienna, Austria, to a Jewish family. According to Schloss’ autobiography, shortly after the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938, her family emigrated to Belgium and finally to the Netherlands. She lived in the same apartment block in Amsterdam as Anne Frank, and the girls, only a month apart in age, were sometimes playmates from ages 11 to 13. In 1942, both girls went into hiding to avoid the Nazi effort to capture the Jews of Amsterdam. In 1944, Schloss's family was captured by the Nazis and transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camps. Her father and brother did not survive, but she and her mother were freed in 1945.

They returned to Amsterdam. In 1951, Schloss moved to London, where she later married and raised a family. In 1953, Schloss’s mother married Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father.

Forty years after the end of World War II, Schloss began to share her story. She has since written three books and spoken to more than 1,000 audiences about her experiences. She is a trustee of the Anne Frank Educational Trust.

“We are deeply honored to welcome Ms. Eva Schloss to Montana State University,” Cruzado said. “As a survivor of the Holocaust – and as someone who knew Anne Frank, who provided a powerful voice for those who did not survive – she has an important and courageous story to share. It is one that must be heard.”

"It’s historic for Montana to host any Holocaust survivor as, sadly, there aren’t many left, especially when that survivor is a relative of Anne Frank and can take us deep into Anne's incredible story," Bruk said.

Tickets to the event, which are $5 for students and $18 for the public, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 20. Tickets are available at the Bobcat Ticket Office, all TicketsWest Outlets and ticketswest.com.

Schloss’s visit to MSU is sponsored by the MSU Leadership Institute and Chabad Lubavitch of Montana, as well as the MSU Office of the President, MSU Office of the Provost, MSU Diversity and Inclusion Office, Associated Students of MSU and Holocaust Museum of Montana. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available; more sponsorship information is at evaschlossmt.com.