Eva's Story [Mass Market Paperback]

Eva Schloss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1997

Refugee in 1938, betrayed and arrested in 1944, Eva was 15 years old when she was sent to Auschwitz -- the same age as her friend Anne Frank -- only now, over 40 years later, has Eva felt able to tell her story...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1944, on her 15th birthday, Schloss, a childhood playmate of famed diarist Anne Frank, was captured by the Nazis in her Amsterdam hiding-place and sent, with her mother, to Birkenau concentration camp in Poland; both miraculously survived, though Schloss's father and brother, imprisoned in nearby Auschwitz, did not. After the war, Eva's mother, Fritzi Geiringer, married Anne Frank's father, Otto (making Schloss the posthumous stepsister of Anne Frank, as the subtitle indicates). This heartbreaking and inspirational account of personal triumph over genocidal madmen, with its graphic portrayal of the hell of Nazism, is told with incredible modesty made even more powerful by an unembellished and understated writing style. Schloss's harrowing testament includes her encounter with Dr. Joseph Mengele, who nearly selected her for his sadistic experiments, and her mother's recollections of the family's ordeal. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Almost 50 years now separate the children of today from the generation of Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust. Perhaps this is one factor that compelled two women, both now grandmothers, to record the painful years they spent as young girls in the death camps of Poland. Libraries probably will find more demand for Eva's Story , since Schloss is the posthumous stepsister of Anne Frank, whom she knew in Amsterdam. With her family she was able to rely on a network of Dutch Gentiles to hide her through the first years of World War II. On her 15th birthday, however, informers betrayed her, her mother, father, and sister. Deported to Auschwitz, she survived thanks to a combination of luck and the fierce love she and her mother shared. Graf, a Polish Jew, was a university student when the German invasion shattered her world. She survived the first years of the German occupation by fleeing to Soviet-occupied sections of Poland. But, like Schloss, her luck ran out. Her camp, Plaszow, equaled Auschwitz in terrors. Again, like Schloss, Graf relied upon the deep affection and support of her sisters to survive. Both books are recommended for their demonstration that courage, familial love, and an inner resistance still flourished even in the deepest horrors of the Holocaust.
- Ann H. Sullivan, Tompkins Cortland Community Coll. Lib., Dryden, N.Y.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Evelyn Kent Associates (1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0952371693
• ISBN-13: 978-0952371694
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #918,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lighting a Single Candle: Eva's Story, March 3, 2001

By 

Alfred J. Nicolosi (Penns Grove, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eva's Story (Mass Market Paperback)

They say it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness and Eva's Story does just that. Out of the ashes of Auschwitz comes this remarkable testament to the healing power of love triumphing over hatred. Eva's family, like Anne Frank's, were German-speaking Jews who sought refuge in Amsterdam and went into hiding until they were betrayed and sent to Auschwitz in May, 1944. Eva and her mother, Fritzi, survived against incredible odds; her highly intelligent father, Erich, and talented brother, Heinz, did not, though their visual diaries -- the paintings they created while in hiding--did. Some of these are reproduced in the book and help the reader see the Holocaust from a different perspective than Anne Frank's writings. Eva and Fritzi's accessible and compelling narrative of their ordeal is rich with examples of how a mother's love for her daughter saved both their lives. For example, upon their arrival at the selection platform at Auschwitz, Fritzi told Eva to put on a heavy coat and hat which made her seem older than fifteen, saving her from the gas chamber. Eva's father had taught her never to succumb to fear, a principle that allowed her to find a way to save her mother when Fritzi, starving and sick, was selected for death. Today, Eva continues to fight against racial discrimination and persecution by touring Europe and America with the play, "And Then They Came For Me," based on her experiences and those of Ed Silverberg, Anne's first boyfriend. Highly recommended for teachers and students of literature of the Holocaust!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eva's Lives On, January 14, 2012

By 

a mydellton - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eva's Story (Mass Market Paperback)

Eva Geiringer and Anne Frank experienced many similar events in almost parallel lives up to the end of the war in 1945. Whilst they were friends, they were also very different characters. Some people hold an interposal view that Eva, who became Anne Frank's posthumous step sister, continued with a life that Anne could have had. But I cannot agree with that as it is too simplistic.

This is Eva Schloss's (nee Geiringer) autobiography. It is the next best thing to a diary written in private, but is no less honest or powerful for that. In fact, I wonder what Anne Frank's diary would have been like had she been able to live those extra three weeks until the Allies' liberation. Would it have been significantly different to this?

In the next 20 years or so, this generation will pass on, leaving us with no more new first-hand accounts of the Concentration Camps that played a central part in the Holocaust. So it is important to read these living experiences before they are all consigned to `history', as they could well be read in a different light. Fortunately this is not a sensationalist book that makes great claims or uncorroborated accusations. All of the incidents are credible and come from the author's own experiences. It is also a down to earth account of what actually happened to many people, seen from a young person's perspective, but written by an adult.

I can recommend this book, unless of course, you are a racist, Nazi or a holocaust denier. Then it is best to give this autobiography a wide berth and move on as there is little, if anything in it for you. However, for those readers who wish to know more, there is a play based on Eva's Story entitled `And Then They Came for Me'.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, December 5, 2007

By 

KessikaKuska "Jess" (St. Cloud, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eva's Story (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. I picked it up for a school project, and didn't set it down until I was reading the epilogue. It is fabulously written, and very easy to relate to.