Eva Schloss, the stepdaughter of Otto Frank, with the students during a discussion on the Holocaust several days after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 30, 2018. Photo courtesy
Eva Mozes Kor. Credit: Courtesy of CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
By DANICA DAVIDSON
JNS
After my deputy managing editor told me it “wasn’t a big deal” to refer to Jewish people as Nazis (and I conveniently lost my journalism job two days after I refused to agree with her), I began to realize how much Holocaust education is lacking for the general populace. I wanted to do something to rectify that, which eventually led me to write books for young readers that I coauthored with two survivors.
In some ways, Eva Mozes Kor and Eva Schloss were similar: They were both young when they were in Auschwitz; they’re both named Eva; they were both passionate about Holocaust education; and I met each of them at different events at Western Michigan University.
The Book Idea
Kor survived Auschwitz at 10; Schloss was a teenager. Kor lost her entire family, except her twin sister; Schloss lost her whole family, except for her mother. I think that still having a parent gave Schloss more stability than Kor felt after the war ended.
With Schloss, I pitched an idea of a book to her. Her presentation had, in part, been about her beloved older brother, Heinz, and his beautiful paintings. A teenager, he had been a musical prodigy who had to find a quiet pastime in hiding, and he turned to painting. His colors and proportions were amazing.
I interviewed Schloss for a magazine after her talk and later asked if she liked the idea of turning her story into a graphic novel. This would make her family’s story more accessible to many readers who prefer the comic format, and it would allow her brother’s artwork to be shown to a large audience. She was enthusiastic. She tended to call it “an animation” book as opposed to a graphic novel.
Reaching Children
Kor was the one who pitched the idea of doing a children’s book to me. I told Kor after her speech that I wanted to interview with her. And not wanting her to think I was wasting her time since I didn’t have any place set up for an interview, I mentioned that I wrote children’s books so she’d know that I was a professional.
She wanted a children’s book.
“Holocaust education in America starts too late,” she would tell me. It usually starts at age 12 or older in public schools, if it’s even taught at all. Eva Kor was adamant that by the time Holocaust education is usually taught, it’s too late to do much good. “You have to reach the kids before their prejudices are formed,” she said.
Thinking about my boss and other experiences, I had to agree with her.
Since Kor’s and my book, I Will Protect You, is prose and there wasn’t a need to get an artist, it came together quite quickly. I met her in the fall of 2018 and interviewed her multiple times over the phone (and once in person). Since the book was meant to fill a historical gap and introduce upper-elementary-school children to the Holocaust and World War II, I suggested that we interweave history and context with her personal story.
Unpublished
The rough draft spilled out in a matter of weeks. In June, we got an offer from Little, Brown and Company for the finished manuscript. Just 15 days later, on July 4, 2019, Kor died unexpectedly at age 85 in Krakow, Poland, while on an educational trip to Auschwitz. She had said that as soon as she returned, she was going to start plugging the book. I found myself standing alone with I Will Protect You.
Schloss lived in England, and I’m in the United States, so we mainly communicated through e-mail and WhatsApp. Sometimes, she would have a friend peering in on the screen. In the midst of working with her and right after selling the Kor book, my agent died, also unexpectedly.
Some drama in life ensued, and then I was back to submitting to new agents. Another agent fell in love with the finished script of Schloss’s and my book, What Lies Hidden. After a year of arranging to submit the material to publishers (this is often a slow business), she had to leave the agency for family health reasons. As it is, our graphic novel remains unpublished but ready to go. I’m determined to make sure it sees print.
Both women took these projects very seriously, understanding how they fit into the broader framework of Holocaust education. Both had been to hell and back and found catharsis in educating young people.
Kor returned to Auschwitz repeatedly; she seemed to find power in being able to go back and face her demons. Schloss mentioned that she had been invited to Auschwitz for some sort of event, and as she told me via WhatsApp, she literally shuddered at the thought. She rubbed her arm and said maybe she could go … maybe.
Schloss died in London on Jan. 3 at the age of 96.
As I’m writing this, I’m feeling the loss of both of them. I’ve tried my best, but I feel guilty that I didn’t get their books out during their lifetimes, so they could hold them. There’s something about holding a finished, published book and knowing it really happened.
What I can do is carry on their educational interests through the books we worked on together, I Will Protect You and What Lies Hidden. And let young readers get to know two amazing women and the strength they had against the impossible.
