The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank

210 Pages·1992·3.51 MB·English

by  Willy Lindwer

FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, AUGUST 1992

Copyright © 1988 by Willy Lindwer English translation copyright © 1991 by Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the
United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in
Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United
States by Pantheon, a division of Random House, Inc., in 1991. The Anchor Books edition is published by
arrangement with Random House, Inc.

Originally published in the Netherlands as De Laatste Zeven Maanden: Vrouwen in Het Spoor Van Anne
Frank by Gooi & Sticht in 1988.

Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lindwer, Willy.
[Laatste zeven maanden. English]
The last seven months of Anne Frank / Willy Lindwer; translated from Dutch by Alison Meersschaert.—ist
Anchor Books ed.
p. cm.
Translation of: De laatste zeven maanden.
Originally published: New York: Pantheon Books, C1991.
1. Frank, Anne,—1929–1945. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—
Netherlands—Personal narratives. 3. Holocaust survivors—
Netherlands—Interviews. 4. Netherlands—Ethnic relations.
I. Title.
[DS135.N6F734513 1992]
940.53′18′092—dc20

[B] 92-5407

eISBN: 978-0-307-78078-2

www.anchorbooks.com
v3.1
With special gratitude to the women who
contributed in such a remarkable way to the creation
of the documentary film and this book.
For my grandmother Rivka, who was murdered in
Poland by the Nazis.
Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Historical Overview

Hannah Elisabeth Pick-Goslar (“Lies Goosens”)

Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper

Rachel van Amerongen–Frankfoorder

Bloeme Evers-Emden

Lenie de Jong–van Naarden
Ronnie Goldstein–van Cleef

About the Author
Preface

This book contains the complete interviews conducted for my film documentary
The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank. The film was first televised in May 1988
in the Netherlands. Since then it has been shown in many other countries all over
the world, including the United States in 1989. In the course of my work on the
documentary, I found that only a small portion of each interview could be used
in the film, although every interview contained material of sufficient importance
to be preserved in its entirety. Thus this book not only supplements and rounds
out the film, but it is, above all, a historical record of the admirable courage of
the women who recount their dramatic experiences here.
The research and preparation for the film took more than two years, and many
preliminary conversations were necessary before the interviews could be
recorded. In recounting their experiences, the women underwent great emotional
and psychological stress; yet the need to tell their stories prevailed.
Through the filmed interviews, an attempt is made to reconstruct a period
during the Second World War. The six women all knew Anne Frank in the last
seven months of her life, and although they tell of their own experiences, many
aspects of their stories also reflect the story of Anne Frank.
I developed a special bond of friendship and trust with each of these women.
My admiration for their enormous strength is difficult to express. Through this
work I have come to better understand the burden that each of them—and all
who survived the horrors of the German concentration camps—bears.
Although I belong to the postwar generation, I come from a Jewish family that
suffered heavily during the war. Therefore the material was not unfamiliar to me.
And yet, these interviews with survivors from Auschwitz made it clearer than
ever to me what it meant to be deprived of one’s freedom and to be subjected to
the horrors of the German extermination camps.
Of those who participated in this project, I owe special thanks to A. H. Paape,
Director of the Royal Institute for War Documentation in Amsterdam and Renée
Sanders, free-lance journalist and coworker on this project. I should also like to
express my gratitude to Bob Bremer, program director at TROS television in the
Netherlands, who helped the project along with his active interest and support.
I am grateful to Elfriede Frank and the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel,
Switzerland, for their sympathetic support. In particular I want to thank my wife,
Hanna, who supported me at critically important moments and made substantial
contributions to both the film and the book.
Amstelveen, July 12, 1988
Willy Lindwer