Follow the stories of Anne Frank and Eva Schloss, whose young lives paralleled one another’s, and whose surviving parents, Otto Frank and Elfriede Geiringer, eventually married. Had Anne survived the Holocaust, she and Eva would have been stepsisters.
This illuminating documentary features extensive interviews with Eva herself. Eva has an incredible story of survival, grit, loss, and ultimate triumph of the human spirit against all odds. She escaped from her homeland in Austria, survived two years in hiding in Amsterdam, nine months in Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, repatriation to Holland, and the death of her beloved father and brother, as well as the poison of bitterness, the burden of grief, and the integration of loss.
Learn about Eva’s brief friendship with Anne, their lives in hiding, and Otto’s thinking after Auschwitz’s liberation and ultimately learning of Anne’s diary. The film examines who Anne Frank was as a person, Otto’s decision to publish the diary, and the way his efforts promoted Anne Frank’s ideals and her legacy. Eva would be one of the first people to hear Otto read extracts from Anne’s diary, a feat which he couldn’t manage to do without crying. Eva witnessed the publication and dramatization of The Diary of Anne Frank and became involved in the Anne Frank Foundation, set up by Otto in 1963.
Eva’s participation brings extraordinary power to a program that adds depth and dimension to our understanding of the young woman who authored The Diary of Anne Frank.
On CPTV: Monday, April 22, 2019 at 10 p.m.