Hannah Pick-Goslar, friend of Anne Frank, has passed away at age 93 in Israel.
Anne chronicled her tragic childhood hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic in The Diary of a Young Girl . The seminal work about the Holocaust was published posthumously in 1947. Once discovered in hiding, Anne was sent the Auschwitz and later to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died tragically from disease not long before the camps were freed. Pick-Goslar was one of Fran’s best friends.
The Anne Frank House museum shared news of Pick-Goslar’s passing.
On their website, the museum shared a touching tribute.
On 14 June 1942, Anne wrote in her diary: ‘Hanneli and Sanne used to be my two best friends. People who saw us together always used to say: “There goes Anne, Hanne and Sanne.”’ Hannah shared her memories of their friendship and the Holocaust into old age. She believed everyone should know what happened to her and her friend Anne after the last diary entry. No matter how terrible the story.
Best of friends
Hannah Goslar was born on 12 November 1928 in Berlin-Tiergarten. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the family moved to London and on to Amsterdam. There, they came to live next door to the Frank family at Merwedeplein. Hannah and Anne were in kindergarten together and attended the 6th Montessori School and later the Jewish Lyceum. They became close friends and were always in and out of each other’s houses. Hannah recounted: ‘My mother described Anne Frank well. She said: “God knows everything, but Anne knows better.”’
Bergen-Belsen
Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in the Secret Annex on Prinsengracht in 1942. In 1937, Hannah had moved to Zuider Amstellaan, where she continued to live until June 1943. Then, she and her father (her mother had died in childbirth), her grandparents, and her younger sister Gabi were deported to Westerbork and, in February 1944, from there to Bergen-Belsen. There she met Anne Frank in February 1945, shortly before Anne died. Hannah and her sister Gabi were the only ones in their family to survive the horrors of the concentration camps.
Hannah Pick-Goslar meant a lot to the Anne Frank House, and we could always call on her. Hannah’s last visit to the Anne Frank House was in October 2012, at the opening of the temporary exhibition ‘So now I’m fifteen.’ Photos, letters, and books of Anne Frank. The exhibition featured photographs of Hannah and Anne. A short video was recorded in which Hannah talked about her friendship with Anne.
We offer Hannah’s relatives and friends our deepest sympathy and sincere condolences.
May her memory be for blessing.
Hannah’s story appeared in the book Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend by Alison Leslie Gold. A film, My Best Friend Anne Frank was based on the book.
After the war, Pick-Goslar emigrated to Israel to raise her family that includes 3 children, 11 grandchildren, and 31 great-grandchildren.
The Anne Frank Foundation shared her thoughts on raising a large family, “This is my answer to Hitler.”
Pick-Goslar was interviewed by Christians in Defense of Israel a few years before her death to share her powerful story.