Step-sister of Anne Frank will speak

Jewish organizations, schools and Chabad centers in the greater Monmouth County area are set to host an evening with Eva Schloss of London.

Schloss will share her experiences as a childhood friend of Anne Frank, including accounts of the publishing of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” The presentation will be suitable for teenagers and families of all faiths, according to a press release.

Schloss will speak in the Marlboro Middle School, Route 520, Marlboro, at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13. Doors will open at 7 p.m. VIP seats are $90 per person and include a “meet and greet” and front row seats. Adult admission is $18 per person and teens and students are $10.

According to the press release, in 1938, Germany invaded Austria, causing many Jewish families to flee Austria to avoid persecution. Among the emigrants was 8-yearold Eva Geiringer, who with her mother, brother and father moved first to Belgium and then to Holland, where one of her neighbors was a German Jewish girl of the same age.

The girls became friends and playmates. Ultimately, both girls and their families were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Later they would become stepsisters.

Strauss survived her concentration camp experience and made her way to England, where she married Zvi Schloss and raised three daughters. She worked as a studio photographer and ran an antique shop.

Her step-sister perished after she was shipped from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen. Yet the diary she kept survived and has become one of the most widely read holocaust stories. Strauss’ step-sister’s name was Anne Frank.

Since 1985, Schloss has devoted herself to holocaust education and global peace, according to the press release. She has recounted her wartime experiences in more than 1,000 speaking engagements. She has written three books and has had a play written about her life.

In 1999, Strauss signed the Anne Frank Peace Declaration along with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the niece of Raul Wallenberg, a legendary figure who rescued thousands of Jews in Budapest, according to the press release.