Your Friends & Neighbors

{ YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS } Telling A Holocaust Story

Montclair filmmaker Steve McCarthy has tackled many subjects, but none more compelling than a teenage painter and poet who, like Anne Frank, was a victim of the Nazis.

Generations grew up with the Holocaust tale of Anne Frank and the diary that detailed her perilous days hiding in an attic from Nazis. Yet few know of Heinz Geiringer—murdered at age 18—and the promise he asked his sister Eva to make on a train to Auschwitz.

Eva Schloss is still alive. For years it proved too painful for her to speak about the promise, but today her story is in good hands. The newly released film Eva’s Promise was produced and directed by 63-year-old Montclair resident Steve McCarthy, an Emmy winner who was formerly with 60 Minutes and Dateline. He’s also known for documentaries, including HBO’s Breslin & Hamill: Deadline Artists about two news legends, which he co-directed and co-produced.

While McCarthy has “traipsed around the world filming stories,” as he puts it, his wife of 39 years, Kathleen, has “held down the fort” in Montclair, where the couple raised four children.

Here McCarthy shares thoughts about his new movie—and his career.

Tell us about Eva’s Promise.

It just premiered at the Montclair Film Festival in October. It’s a film we shot a year ago in London and Amsterdam. Eva Schloss is the posthumous stepsister of Anne Frank. Anne Frank’s father married Eva’s mother after the war. The families’ stories are intertwined.

Why did this strike you as a must-tell story?

This is probably one of the last chances, if not the last chance, that I will get to work with a survivor of the Holocaust. They’re passing away, so I realize this is an important documentary—to never forget what happened.

What was Eva’s promise?

Eva and her family had to go into hiding, like the Frank family, in Amsterdam after the Nazis invaded. Her brother Heinz was an excellent musician, but wasn’t able to play music in hiding, so he began to paint and write poetry. The family had hidden separately: Eva with her mother and Heinz with his father. When they were betrayed and captured, the family was reunited on the train to Auschwitz. Heinz told Eva he hid his paintings and poems under the floorboards in the attic of the house where they were hiding. He asked her to promise him that if he didn’t make it, she would get the material and share it with the world.

Why did this story take so long to get told?

For 40 years Eva never spoke about the Holocaust. Once she started, she began to heal. In 2006 Heinz’s art and poetry were donated

to a museum in Amsterdam, so since that time she’s been talking about him. What this film represents, near the end of her life, is making one effort to share the story of her brother Heinz with the world.

How did the film come to be made?

A colleague of mine at Montclair State University, Susan Kerner, is a theater director. She came to me with this idea of a film because she had a 25year relationship with Eva Schloss. She commissioned and directed a play about Eva and Anne Frank’s boyfriend, Ed Silverberg. The play is And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank. Susan became a co-producer of the film, and it made my job so much easier.

How is this film relevant for today?

Look at what’s going on in the world today—a lot of hate, a lot of antisemitism. It’s important to remind people how the Jewish people were persecuted.

What challenges did you face in filming Eva’s Promise?

It was done on a micro budget. But luckily my sons Ryan and Justin came with me, and we shot in London for three days and Amsterdam for three days. It was originally to be a short film. When I returned to the United States, I realized I had much more material and could make an hour documentary out of it. My son Ryan edited the film and was a tremendous help putting it together. My daughter Alison designed the graphic look of the film.

Were there any surprises?

We returned to the house where Heinz had hidden the poetry and art outside of Amsterdam. We did not have a number to call, so we took the train out and knocked on the door. The people knew the story, were very warm and allowed us to film in there. It was an amazing feeling to know that Heinz was there and had created the poetry and art that I had been working with and studying the last few months.

What can you tell me about Heinz and what happened to him?

We know he was taken to Auschwitz. When the Russians freed Eva, she went to the men’s side of the camp to look for her father and her brother. She ran into Otto Frank, Anne’s father. Otto told Eva that her father and brother had left a few weeks earlier with the Nazis. We know they took them to Austria, where they were from originally, and we know that they were killed there.

How did Eva’s Promise fare at the recent Montclair Film Festival?

It was scheduled for two screenings. They sold out immediately; a third one was added; and that sold out too. The next screening, we hope, will be in London with Eva. I want her to get the recognition and applause she deserves for the life she’s led.

What’s next for Eva’s Promise?

I just found out there’s interest in a European film festival. We hope that one of the streaming channels in America will license it. It’s a very difficult process, as there’s so much stuff out there. We also may just show it in theaters. Eventually we hope this is in every school in America and the world.

What do you learn from your students at Montclair State University’s School of Communication and Media?

I bring projects that I do professionally into the classroom, and I was really heartened to know my students knew the Anne Frank story because it’s law in New Jersey to study the Holocaust. My students are very accepting of people of other races, cultures, genders, sexual orientations. It makes me feel good about the future. They care.

What’s the most exciting story you ever covered?

Probably when I interviewed Muammar Gaddafi. That was in 1996 for 60 Minutes. It was regarding the bombing of Pan Am 103. I also met one of the men convicted of bombing the plane.

What story had the most impact?

Probably my stories about my friends who were firefighters who died in 9/11. My very first independent documentary was about my friend Captain Patrick Brown.

Can you describe where your work has taken you and what it was like having your family involved?

Traveling to 55 countries and 49 states has been very meaningful and fun. My eldest son, Ryan, graduated from college and became my editor and cameraman. Justin and then Alison followed and started traveling with me. Ryan went to Turkey with me to interview Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Justin went to Peru with me to track Joran van der Sloot, the man who murdered Natalee Holloway in Aruba. Alison went on a tour across the United States filming a commercial for Hartford Insurance. Then all of them and my youngest daughter Madeline helped me co-direct and film HBO’s Breslin & Hamill: Deadline Artists [2019], which won a national Emmy.

Working on stories about your friends, the firefighters killed because of 9/11, must have been very emotional. How did you cope?

On 9/11/01 I knew Paddy (Captain Patrick Brown) would be there. He and his company, Ladder 3, made it up to the 70th floor in the North Tower. We know from radio transmissions he was tending to injured people when the tower collapsed. My father, Thomas Aquinas McCarthy, was dying of cancer at that time. His obituary and Paddy’s were in the New York Daily News on the same day. Their funerals were one day apart. I did the only thing I knew how to do well—tell the story.

How did you decide to become a director/producer?

I was born into an NYPD family—my dad and uncle were on the force. We lived in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. When I was a teenager, I began developing film in our basement. This led me to study television in college. I graduated from the State University of New York in 1981 and got a job as an office assistant at CBS News. I began my training as a journalist. I found out I really like to tell stories.

What was your greatest challenge in achieving that goal?

I competed against people who had, for the most part, gone to better colleges than I did. They came from better neighborhoods. But I used my background to my advantage. I could talk to people on a loading dock, in a police car or in a firehouse. I would tell the stories of these people.

Has it been worth it?

I know I made the right choice because of the impact I had on those whose stories I told. —Donna Rolando

This page: Eva Schloss with her brother Heinz Geiringer. Opposite page, clockwise from top: Eva with the team from Eva’s Promise team; Eva is interviewed for the Eva’s Promise film, director Steve McCarthy with his sons Justin and Ryan, McCarthy’s film premiered at the Montclair Film Festival.