Eva Schloss, Auschwitz survivor and Anne Frank’s step-sister, dies at 96

Eva Schloss, the step-sister of Anne Frank who survived Auschwitz during the Holocaust and went on to speak about her experiences, has died aged 96.

The Anne Frank Trust UK, the education nonprofit she co-founded, announced that Schloss died in London on Saturday.

UK King Charles said the horrors she endured as a young woman were “impossible to comprehend.”

“My wife and I are greatly saddened to hear of the death of Eva Schloss,” the king wrote in a statement.

“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.”

Born Eva Geiringer in Vienna in May 1929, Eva Schloss and her family fled their native Austria following the Nazi annexation of the country.

They later settled in Amsterdam, where they lived on Merwedeplein — directly opposite the Frank family home.

A message from The King following the death of Auschwitz survivor, Eva Schloss.

Eva was Anne Frank’s step-sister, and co-Founder and Honorary President of the @AnneFrankTrust, of which The Queen is Patron. The Trust works to empower young people to challenge prejudice. pic.twitter.com/8HEC8lrtYp

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) January 4, 2026

Like Anne Frank, Eva was forced into hiding after Nazi persecution of the Jews intensified in the Netherlands.

The Geiringer family went underground in July 1942 and remained in hiding for nearly two years before they were betrayed and arrested in May 1944.

Eva and her mother, Elfriede “Fritzi” Geiringer, were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they endured months of imprisonment.

Her father, Erich Geiringer, and her brother, Heinz, were separated from them on arrival and later transferred to camps in Austria, where both died.

Eva and her mother — emaciated, ill and close to death — managed to survive Auschwitz until the camp was liberated by Soviet forces in January 1945.

After the war, Eva returned to Amsterdam with her mother.

In 1953, Eva’s mother, Fritzi, married Otto Frank — the only member of his immediate family to survive the camps. Through that marriage, Eva became Anne Frank’s posthumous step-sister.

Eva later left the Netherlands for Britain, moving to London to study photography. It was there that she met her husband, Zvi Schloss, a German Jew who had fled Nazi persecution.

For many years after the war, Eva spoke little about what she had endured.

But in the late 1980s, she became one of the UK’s most visible Holocaust educators, co-founding the Anne Frank Trust UK and committing herself to speaking directly to young people about where racism and hatred can lead.

She travelled widely, visiting schools and universities to urge future generations to combat prejudice .

Her work was formally recognized in the UK when she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

In 2021, she regained her Austrian citizenship and was awarded the Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria.

Her husband died in 2016. Eva Schloss is survived by her daughters and grandchildren.