|
But she does it, at productions across the country, then answers questions afterward because she believes it is important to educate people about the Holocaust. Telling her family's story has become particularly important to her in the past few years, as she has noticed more news reports about hate crimes and school shootings. "When I see the evil, persecution and hatred, I see that we need to educate our young people to accept each other, to love each other, to not be racists," she said in an interview at the Steven Stoli Playhouse, where she attended a performance of the play Sunday afternoon. She is sticking around through Monday, and will take part in question-and-answer sessions after this weekend's performances. The play blends videotaped interviews with Schloss and fellow survivor Ed Silverberg with live performances bringing some of their memories to life. Both Schloss' and Silverberg's lives brushed against Anne Frank's before her family went into hiding: Silverberg, who is referred to as "Hello" in Anne's famous diary, was her boyfriend, and Schloss and Anne were playmates. After the war, Schloss' mother, Fritzi, married Otto Frank, Anne's father. The play was commissioned mostly as a way to educate teenagers about the Holocaust, but it has been performed for audiences of all ages. The Stoli production has an added dimension with "Paintings Created in Hiding," a small exhibit of paintings Schloss' father and brother painted while hiding from the Nazis in Holland. The show is on display in the World War II Memorial Museum adjoining the theater. Schloss' father and brother died on a forced march out of Auschwitz shortly before the liberation. The paintings help her keep their memories alive. "Our father said, 'Nothing in life disappears. You are a link in the chain of humanity, and you will live on through your children.' And my brother asked, 'What if I die before I have children?' Our father said, 'Nothing gets lost. Something of you will live on.' I feel, with his paintings, I make him live on." She has started talking about her Holocaust experiences in great depth only in the past few years, beginning with her 1989 book "Eva's Story." "After the war, when I wanted to talk about nothing else, people didn't want to talk about it. There were guilt feelings. And also people didn't want to hear about any more suffering, because everyone had suffered. They would say 'never again will something like this happen,' and that was all. So we had to suppress," she said. As a result, though, an entire generation grew up without knowing much about the Holocaust. Through her book and her post-play discussions, Schloss is trying to do her part to make up for that. "I'm an optimist," she said. "I think that through education, we are going to get to a better period." |