Anne Frank's stepsister is using any means including holograms and Justin Bieber to keep the Holocaust's lessons alive
Eva Schloss
Eva Schloss   stepsister of Anne Frank and a Holocaust survivor herself  sits for an interview at George Mason University on Feb. 7 in Fairfax  Va.  Schloss  has been the subject of a play and now a âvirtual realityâ hologram program meant to keep up awareness of genocide survivors years after they die. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
A âdirty Jewâ refugee on the run for two years  a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp  and stepsister to Holocaust victim Anne Frank   Eva Schloss  had dramatic  amazing  horrifying stories to tell.  She  kept them locked inside  herself  for decades  but now the 88-year-old British grandmother is on a tear  diving into everything from cutting-edge hologram technology to controversies about Justin Bieber to keep people thinking about the lessons of the Holocaust.
 The well-coiffed  plain-spoken Schloss  has  her  own nightmarish tales from World War II Europe and the camps. And of overcoming postwar suicidal depression. And of  her  famous stepsister. But in  her  books  work with prisoners and public speaking around the world   she  talks just as much about what  she  sees as todayâs horrors: Syrian refugees on the run  ISIS torture of Christians  the immorality of drone and atomic warfare  environmental degradation  a slipping interest in public education. And what  she  calls the enduring need to pay attention.
âI talk about it and tell people  this is what Germany was. Not everybody was â by no means â anti-Semitic or supported Hitler. They had good Jewish friends  but they took the easy way out and looked the other way. It is the danger of the bystander â  Schloss  said in an interview Wednesday before an evening appearance at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University in Fairfax  Va. âThis is what we have to teach young people â not to be indifferent  but take part; if you see injustice being done  speak out.â
 Schloss  is on a U.S. speaking tour  with the first stop at George Mason  where she appeared for more than an hour.  Schloss  spoke in a matter-of-fact tone as she was interviewed by Eli Rosenbaum  a federal prosecutor who has investigated Nazi cases. The crowd of 1 200 filled two levels  and remained rapt and silent â except for a few standing ovations.
 Schloss  is among those outspoken on a controversial  complex topic: What are the best  most appropriate ways to keep the moral lessons of genocide alive? While for many the story of Frank  who died at 15 in a German concentration camp  is still a simple  tragic tale of a talented  precocious writer; the portrait of her life is increasingly becoming more nuanced and real over the decades as additional details come out.
 Schloss  has long spoken bluntly about Frank  a girl she met in an Amsterdam courtyard when both of their families were on the run. They never lived as sisters  and Schlossâs mother married Frankâs father after the war. During the war  many of their family members â and spouses â had been murdered. On Wednesday  in a Post interview and on stage   Schloss  said Frank was a âleader  outgoingâ â her nickname   Schloss  said  was âquack quackâ because she talked so much â but also sometimes ânaughtyâ and âbossy.â  Schloss  told The Post about the challenge and pressure of becoming part of the family of Otto Frank  who  Schloss  said became ânearly obsessedâ with the legacy of his dead youngest child. She later praised him for saving her with his positive perspective.
On Wednesday   Schloss  said itâs important ânot to put her on a pedestalâ and to consider that Frank â had she been a girl today â may well have been a belieber. Frank loved Deanna Durbin  a Canadian American musical film star in the 1930s and 1940s   Schloss  said. Frank âwould have lovedâ Bieber  she said  noting how positive it is that he visited the historic site.
 Schloss  is also part of a new project by the Steven Spielberg-founded Shoah Foundation  which has recorded nearly 52 000 interviews with Nazi-era survivors  and the Institute for Creative Technologies  both at the University of Southern California. Through detailed  prerecorded interviews with survivors â including  Schloss  â the exhibit creates life-size holograms that can âanswerâ questions that some may be afraid to ask in person. At a time when the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling  the idea is to keep them alive. As time passes  different narratives become accepted until others rise. Some experts warn that the Holocaust not become a âgame â Friedberg said.
 Schloss  has written three books and been the subject of not only the documentary but also a play â much about Frank. But her own story is dramatic.
 Schloss  and her mother never saw the other two again. Her brother  a talented musician  became a painter as a teenager in hiding. After the war  dozens of his paintings and poems were discovered under a floorboard in Amsterdam.
[TGT] stepsister of Anne Frank and a Holocaust survivor  [TGT]   sits for an interview at George Mason University on Feb. 7 in Fairfax  Va.   [TGT] has been the subject of a play and now a âvirtual realityâ hologram program meant to keep up awareness of genocide survivors years after they die. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
 [TGT] had dramatic  amazing  horrifying stories to tell.   [TGT]   kept  [TGT]  locked inside   [TGT]   for decades  but now the 88-year-old British grandmother is on a tear  diving into everything from cutting-edge hologram technology to controversies about Justin Bieber to keep people thinking about the lessons of the Holocaust.
  [TGT] has   [TGT]   own nightmarish tales from World War II Europe and the camps. And of overcoming postwar suicidal depression. And of  her  famous stepsister. But in  her  books  work with prisoners and public speaking around the world   she  talks just as much about what  she  sees as todayâs horrors: Syrian refugees on the run  ISIS torture of Christians  the immorality of drone and atomic warfare  environmental degradation  a slipping interest in public education. And what  she  calls the enduring need to pay attention.
âI talk about it and tell people  this is what Germany was. Not everybody was â by no means â anti-Semitic or supported Hitler. They had good Jewish friends  but they took the easy way out and looked the other way. It is the danger of the bystander â  Schloss  said in an interview Wednesday before an evening appearance at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University in Fairfax  Va. âThis is what we have to teach young people â not to be indifferent  but take part; if you see injustice being done  speak out.â
 Schloss  is on a U.S. speaking tour  with the first stop at George Mason  where she appeared for more than an hour.  Schloss  spoke in a matter-of-fact tone as she was interviewed by Eli Rosenbaum  a federal prosecutor who has investigated Nazi cases. The crowd of 1 200 filled two levels  and remained rapt and silent â except for a few standing ovations.
 Schloss  is among those outspoken on a controversial  complex topic: What are the best  most appropriate ways to keep the moral lessons of genocide alive? While for many the story of Frank  who died at 15 in a German concentration camp  is still a simple  tragic tale of a talented  precocious writer; the portrait of her life is increasingly becoming more nuanced and real over the decades as additional details come out.
 Schloss  has long spoken bluntly about Frank  a girl she met in an Amsterdam courtyard when both of their families were on the run. They never lived as sisters  and Schlossâs mother married Frankâs father after the war. During the war  many of their family members â and spouses â had been murdered. On Wednesday  in a Post interview and on stage   Schloss  said Frank was a âleader  outgoingâ â her nickname   Schloss  said  was âquack quackâ because she talked so much â but also sometimes ânaughtyâ and âbossy.â  Schloss  told The Post about the challenge and pressure of becoming part of the family of Otto Frank  who  Schloss  said became ânearly obsessedâ with the legacy of his dead youngest child. She later praised him for saving her with his positive perspective.
On Wednesday   Schloss  said itâs important ânot to put her on a pedestalâ and to consider that Frank â had she been a girl today â may well have been a belieber. Frank loved Deanna Durbin  a Canadian American musical film star in the 1930s and 1940s   Schloss  said. Frank âwould have lovedâ Bieber  she said  noting how positive it is that he visited the historic site.
 Schloss  is also part of a new project by the Steven Spielberg-founded Shoah Foundation  which has recorded nearly 52 000 interviews with Nazi-era survivors  and the Institute for Creative Technologies  both at the University of Southern California. Through detailed  prerecorded interviews with survivors â including  Schloss  â the exhibit creates life-size holograms that can âanswerâ questions that some may be afraid to ask in person. At a time when the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling  the idea is to keep them alive. As time passes  different narratives become accepted until others rise. Some experts warn that the Holocaust not become a âgame â Friedberg said.
 Schloss  has written three books and been the subject of not only the documentary but also a play â much about Frank. But her own story is dramatic.
 Schloss  and her mother never saw the other two again. Her brother  a talented musician  became a painter as a teenager in hiding. After the war  dozens of his paintings and poems were discovered under a floorboard in Amsterdam.