Eva Schloss, the stepsister of Anne Frank and a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, told The Daily Beast in an interview published Thursday that there were notable parallels between former President Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler.
“You know, he’s said so many silly things,” Schloss told The Daily Beast. “I’ve compared him to Hitler. I even heard that he studied Hitler’s speeches and things like that, so he obviously admired Hitler and just copied him with his anti-Semitism. The Muslims are hated as well. This is what’s so wrong in our society — white supremacy. We should all treat each other as equal.”
Schloss also acknowledged an uptick in anti-Semitic hate that occurred during Trump’s presidency. In 2019, 2,107 anti-Semitic crimes occurred within the United States, the largest number since the Anti-Defamation League began tracking such attacks in 1979. These included a synagogue shooting in Poway, California, that left one dead and three injured.
Critics of Trump argued at the time that he needed to speak out against anti-Semitism instead of claiming that any Jewish person who voted Democrat was “disloyal” to Israel, which he said in August 2019.
“Trump wasn’t just against the Jews — he was against the Mexicans and many others,” Schloss said. “Full-stop, he was a racist. His son-in-law is a Jew, and his daughter converted to Judaism.”
Schloss, who was born in Vienna and lived in the same apartment block as Anne Frank before her mother married Frank’s father, now lives in London and has publicly spoken about her Holocaust experiences as well as anti-Semitism since 1986.
When asked about Reps. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), who visited Hitler’s Nazi retreat while on vacation, and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who once blamed Jewish people for starting the 2018 California wildfires with space lasers, Schloss said that prejudice and conspiracy theories against Jewish people were unfortunately “nothing new” and would persist ― though other groups, such as African Americans and Asians, were also suffering from racial attacks.
“We’re just one human race — different colors, different religions, different opinions, but all human beings who should have the same opportunities and should be measured equally. ... We have to shake hands with anyone who is racist against anybody and try to change the attitudes of people.”
Read the full interview here.