Eva's Story: A Survivor's Tale by the Step-Sister of Anne Frank

by Eva Schloss

Hitler and the Nazis had come to power in Germany in 1933, when I was four years old, bringing waves of anti-Semitic demonstrations. In Germany attacks on Jews and their property were actively encouraged. On 12 March 1938, amid great rejoicing by the Austrians, the Germans marched into Austria and the atmosphere in Vienna changed overnight. Non-Jewish acquaintances suddenly became openly hostile to us. Many Jews now realized the danger they were in and hurriedly left for Holland, Britain or the USA.

9 November 1938 Krystal Nacht, the burning of 7,500 Jewish shops and synagogues in Germany

15 March 1939 Germany invades Bohemia and Moravia (Czechoslovakia)

1 September 1939 Germany invades Poland 3 September Britain declares war on Germany 4 September France declares war on Germany

The country was now under the total control of the Nazis. German soldiers were everywhere. Although the Germans announced at first that nothing was going to change, each week new regulations to restrict us were announced over the radio and on posters. Hitler decreed that Jewish children had to go to Jewish schools that were to be opened specially for them. They were not to be allowed to mix with other children in Dutch schools and Jewish teachers had to be found as Christians were not allowed to teach us.

All Jews now had to be inside their homes before eight every evening and were not allowed to attend cinemas, concerts or theatres. We were not allowed to use the trams or trains. We could only do our shopping between the hours of three and five in the afternoon and we could only use Jewish shops. All Jews had to wear a bright yellow Star of David (Magen David) on their clothes so that they were instantly recognizable.

To our dismay, we began to hear rumours that a large transport of gypsies was to be taken to Auschwitz on the following Sunday and as there were still a few cattle trucks to be filled, Jews would be loaded to make up the cargo. Since we were amongst the newest arrivals Mr Hirsch had not had a chance to secure work for us. We felt we were bound to be among the unlucky ones. We then realized that this was the step into the abyss. Auschwitz was in Poland, far away in enemy territory. We had heard on the BBC that it was known as an extermination camp.

The railway track ended at Birkenau near the women’s concentration camp. The main Auschwitz men’s camp was four or five kilometres away.

Birkenau was the largest of the Auschwitz camps – a vast complex of barrack buildings divided and subdivided by barbed wire and electrified fencing. Some of the buildings had originally been designed as stables, others had been built by former generations of inmates. The entire camp held tens of thousands of prisoners and the compound we were taken to contained about twenty barracks, each housing approximately 500 to 800 women.

We were being treated like animals – rather worse, because we were not even fed or watered.

My recovery gave me a new view of life and helped make the unbearable bearable. I told myself that it was now up to me. I was determined to survive the war no matter what they did to me.