In the middle of June, the Austrian Ambassador Dr. Michael Zimmermann awarded the Golden Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria to the British-Austrian Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss at the Austrian Cultural Forum London. The Jewish Welcome Service extends its sincere congratulations.
Eva Schloss during the acceptance speech after the bestowal of the Golden Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria
Eva Schloss, Anne Frank’s posthumous stepsister, has been committed to tolerance and respect for other cultures worldwide for years and campaigns against discrimination and prejudice. She was born as Eva Geiringer into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1929, fled from the Nazis to Belgium in 1938 with her parents and brother, then to the Netherlands, where the family was captured in 1944 and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Her father and brother were murdered, Eva and her mother were liberated by Soviet troops in 1945. In 1953, Eva’s mother married Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father.
Eva Schloss is a co-founder of the “Anne Frank Trust” in the UK and reports on her experiences as a Holocaust survivor in books (“Evas Geschichte” (Eva’s story) – with Evelyn Julia Kent, “Amsterdam 11. Mai 1944. Das Ende meiner Kindheit” (Amsterdam 11 May 1944. The end of my childhood), “Dear Anne Frank” amongst others) as well as in interviews with contemporary witnesses. In 2020, ORF broadcasted the documentary “Anne Franks Wiener Stiefschwester. Das Mädchen, das überlebte” (Anne Frank’s Viennese Stepsister. The Girl Who Survived) about Eva Schloss’ life as part of the series “Menschen und Mächte” (People and Powers). In 2018, Eva Schloss spoke about her life at the Kulturforum London. Currently, she is taking part in an important contemporary witness project organized by the Kulturforum and the Austrian Media Library.
