The Leo Baeck Institute London is deeply saddened by the death of Holocaust survivor, author and educator Eva Schloss, who has died in London aged 96. Her remarkable life story, recently featured in the Institute’s film club, offered a powerful window into the experiences of German‑speaking Jews before, during and after the Holocaust.
Born Eva Geiringer in Vienna in 1929, she grew up in an assimilated Jewish family before antisemitic persecution forced them to flee first Austria and then Nazi‑occupied Europe. The family settled in Amsterdam, where they joined a German‑speaking refugee community and lived opposite the Frank family on the Merwedeplein.
In 1944 the Geiringers were betrayed after two years in hiding, arrested and deported to Auschwitz‑Birkenau. Eva and her mother Elfriede survived the camp and liberation in 1945, but her father Erich and brother Heinz were murdered, a loss she would later describe in testimony as emblematic of the destruction of Central European Jewish life. In 1953 her mother Elfriede married Anne Frank’s father Otto, who had also survived the war.
Eva became one of the most prominent witnesses of the Holocaust, publishing memoirs, recording extensive video testimony and addressing audiences across Europe and beyond. As co‑founder and honorary president of the Anne Frank Trust UK, she played a central role in shaping Holocaust education in Britain, bringing a distinctly Jewish and Central European perspective to discussions of antisemitism, racism and human rights.
The LBI London extends its sincere condolences to her family, including her grandson Eric, whom the Institute had the privilege of interviewing last year about his family’s history. May the memory of Eva Schloss be a blessing.
