Holocaust Project Gallery — Tami Rae Weiss

The Holocaust Project: Anne Frank’s Home

The Holocaust Project Gallery.

This webpage includes photography by Tami Rae Weiss from events and engagements of “The Holocaust Project” with survivor, Eva Schloss.

Anne Frank’s Former Home - Merwedeplein 37, Amsterdam

June 12, 2017 - The 75th Anniversary of Anne Frank’s Diary

Merwedeplein, Amsterdam (1931)

1940 school photograph of Anne Frank. © Anne Frank House.

Anne Frank, age 11.

Anne and Eva met at Merwedeplein.

Anne Frank’s family and Eva Geiringer’s family were Jewish refugees living at Merwedeplein in Amsterdam during World War II. Eva Geiringer and Anne Frank were the same age (11), and they played together with a group of friends in the open courtyard between their apartments. Following the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, both families found they had no other option than to go into hiding. From 1942-1944, the Frank family hid in the Secret Annex of Otto Frank’s company at Prinsengracht 263. The Geiringer family split up and spent two years among seven hiding places. The Geiringers were betrayed, captured, and sent to Auschwitz in May, 1944, followed by the Frank family, captured in August, 1944. Anne’s father Otto Frank was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. Only Eva and her mother survived of the Geiringer family. Eva’s mother and Anne’s father returned to Amsterdam, where, over a period of time, they fell in love. Otto Frank and Elfriede Geiringer got married in 1953, making Anne and Eva step-sisters.

1940 school photograph of Eva Geiringer (now Schloss). © E. Schloss.

Eva Geiringer, age 11 .

Merwedeplein, Amsterdam (2017)

Present day Merwedeplein. The Weiss girls (Chloe, age 8; RaeLinne, age 9) pose next to a statue of Anne Frank at age 13 on the day she and her family went into hiding- July 6, 1942. (© T. Weiss, 2017)

RaeLinne and Chloe Weiss stand with Eva Schloss in the living room of the former Frank home. © T. Weiss, 2017.

Tami Rae Weiss and her daughters, RaeLinne and Chloe, traveled to Amsterdam with their close friend and “Oma,” Eva Schloss, for the 75th anniversary of the day Anne Frank received her diary (June 12, 1942 - Anne’s 13th birthday). The media event was sponsored by The Anne Frank House organization, which granted permission to Weiss to photograph.

Thirteen young people, including Chloe and RaeLinne Weiss (Tami’s daughters), were invited to the Frank’s former home at Merwedeplein 37 with special guest, Eva Schloss, for the 75th anniversary of when Anne Frank received her diary (on her 13th birthday- June 12, 1941). The home is not open to the public.

Chloe and “Oma” Eva walking together. © T. Weiss, 2017

Event: 75th anniversary of the day Anne Frank received her diary

Eva Schloss speaks before the thirteen children, as she describes life at Merwedeplein as an 11-year-old, playing in the courtyard and meeting Anne Frank. © T. Weiss, 2017

Eva takes Chloe and Rae’s hands, as they make their way toward apartment 37 Merwedeplein (the Frank’s home). © T. Weiss, 2017

The film crew followed Eva Schloss to the Frank apartment, as she took Chloe and RaeLinne’s hands and walked and talked about what life was like for an 11-year-old refugee at Merwedeplein. Eva described the first time that she met Anne Frank in that open courtyard in the spring of 1940. As Eva was only just learning to speak Dutch when her family emigrated there (German was Eva’s native language), Anne escorted Eva to her house so that Eva could meet Anne’s father, Otto Frank, who would speak German with her.

Outside the Frank home (Merwedeplein 37, Amsterdam).

Just outside of the Frank home, Eva points out to Rae and Chloe the cobblestone memorial (called “Stolperstein”) on the ground, which has the names of Anne, Margot, Edith and Otto Frank engraved.

There are over 75,000 Stolperstein memorials commemorating victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.

Learning that Anne Frank was interested in fashion, Chloe thought that Anne would have appreciated her shoe choice that day.

July 22, 1941. Anne Frank is leaning out of the window of her home in Amsterdam. It is the only time Anne Frank has ever been captured on video. (© Anne Frank House)

Eva, Chloe and RaeLinne at the same window that Anne Frank was filmed. (© Anne Frank House, June 12, 2017.)

Inside the Frank Home.

On July 12, 2017, during the anniversary event of Anne Frank’s birthday when she received the diary, Eva spoke (in Dutch) to the Dutch children, while RaeLinne and Chloe Weiss were permitted to explore the home where Anne Frank had once lived. As they entered each room, they thought about being in the same spaces that Anne had been- the room in which Anne sat at her desk to write; the balcony from which Anne stood; the stairways she climbed; the bedroom that Anne shared with Margo, etc. Chloe and RaeLinne became much more aware that Anne Frank was a young girl just like them.

July 12, 2017. Inside the former home of the Frank family, Chloe and RaeLinne Weiss stand at the same dining room window of which Anne Frank had famously been filmed. © T. Weiss, 2017

Chloe standing in the room in which Anne Frank sat at her desk. © T. Weiss, 2017

Eva shows her tattoo to the children at the former Frank home. Chloe is seen looking in the background. © T. Weiss, 2017

On the way out…

As everyone exited the Frank home, Eva stopped at the platform on the way down the stairs to tell RaeLinne that when she lived at Merwedeplein, she would often climb on and over the railing. RaeLinne was quick to try out the idea, were it not for her mom intervening (and snapping a photo).