To mark the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, the Hong Kong Holocaust & Tolerance Centre and the Asia Society Hong Kong Center were honoured to host Eva Schloss for an evening of student-centered learning, where she shared her remarkable story of life before the war, how she survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and rebuilt her life afterwards.

Eva Schloss is a Holocaust survivor, peace activist, international speaker, teacher, author and humanitarian, recognized by Queen Elizabeth II with an M.B.E. and for whom the play And Then They Came For Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank was written by James Still in 1999. She is also the stepsister of Anne Frank, whose diary possibly is the most famous work to emerge from the horrors of that event.

Eva Schloss’ story is one of heartbreaking loss, determination, betrayal and, ultimately, the survival and triumph of the human spirit against all odds: among her many ordeals, she survived escape from Austria, two years in hiding in Amsterdam, capture on her 15th birthday, nine months in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the death of her father and brother, and repatriation to Holland. 40 years after the end of World War II, Eva Schloss started to share her story. She has since written three books and spoken all over the world about her experiences.

To accommodate overwhelming demand, the program took place in Jockey Club Hall, with live video stream in Miller Theater. The programme was be conducted in English. English-to-Cantonese simultaneous interpretation was available in Jockey Club Hall.

Holocaust survivor and distinguished guest Ms. Eva Schloss spoke to a packed auditorium of nearly 600 students at the Chinese International School. Following her moving remarks, many of the students stayed after the talk to ask Eva about her connection with Anne Frank, her story of hiding and what it was like to be liberated from Auschwitz.

Anne Frank’s posthumous stepsister and Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss MBE has arrived in Hong Kong on 12 January 2020. Eva has just kicked off her first Hong Kong full-house talk on stage with HKHTC Executive Director Simon Li at the Tsim Sha Tsui Baptist Church. Eva is the keynote speaker of this year’s United Nations Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration at City Hall. Welcome, Eva!