Commentary: Eva Schloss visited Las Cruces recently. She left wisdom and hope, and took with her hundreds of hearts.
When Eva's eleven, her family escapes Nazi-controlled Vienna and arrives in Amsterdam. A neighbor girl, Anne Frank, befriends her. Eva has just arrived. She's shy. Anne isn't. They become friends. Anne, already interested in boys, is curious about Eva's older brother, a talented musician.
They are safe. Holland did not participate in World War I, and was not invaded.
But now, suddenly, the Nazis come. At first, this makes little difference. Soon there are annoying restraints, but nothing life-threatening. Then that changes. In 1942, they all go into hiding. Anne keeps a diary. Eva's brother cannot play music. He takes up painting. His paintings survive, hidden under floorboards.
In 1944, they are betrayed. Both families are arrested and transported East. That means death camps in Germany and Poland. They know this from listening to BBC reports, each starting with the famous first chords of Beethoven's Fifth. For once, the situation warrants those dramatic chords.
Auschwitz. Bergen-Belsen. They line up five-by-five. Dr. Mengele glances at each person and makes a sign. Healthy enough to live, to the left. Otherwise, right, to the showers that are not showers.
Guards joke about the showers. Eva's mother has given her a coat and hat. The hat's wide brim keeps Mengele from noticing Eva is but fifteen. She lives. For now.
Separation by sexes. Men part from wives and daughters, mothers from sons.
Heads shaved. Piles of clothing. Take a dress, or an overcoat, something. No underwear. Grab two shoes from a pile. They are not in pairs. No time to try 'em on.
Wooden bunks. No pads or pillows. Each morning, foul-tasting water. All day, work. At night, bread. Some try saving bread for morning. But there's nowhere to hide it. Sleep on it, someone steals it and eats it.
They are skeletons. If you run, your shoes fall off. Eva goes barefoot for weeks, even in snow.
Her mother is taken away, does not return; she must be dead.
Then the Nazis are gone, fleeing the Russians. Eva finds her mother! Anne's father, Otto, is alive! But not Eva's father or brother – or Otto's family. They do not leave the camp. Her mother can barely walk.
The Russians come. There is soup. Eva gorges herself – and “never had a worse night on a bucket.” Many die. There's still fighting. The Russians remove them to Odessa, on the Black Sea.
They return to Amsterdam. Otto Frank, alone, visits often. Eva is “full of hatred.” Otto, who had lost everyone, says, “If you hate people, they won't know, but you will feel it.”
A German Jewish refugee asks Eva to marry him and move to Israel. She says no; she cannot leave her mother. Then Otto and her mother decide to marry. Eva says yes. They move to London. They're happily married until his death in 2016.
Eva cannot have children. That foul water contained bromide, and “our female things didn't work properly.” But treatment succeeds. Eva says her three daughters saved her.
Eva speaks not only for Jews. She speaks for blacks, for brown refugees, even for Muslims. She speaks against hatred. Because we haven't learned, and ethnic prejudices are on the rise again. She has seen the worst of life – and would spare everyone that.
She is hopeful. The flowers are blooming.