The Final, Heartbreaking Truth
For months after the war ended, Otto Frank clung to a desperate hope that his daughters, Anne and Margot, had survived. On July 18, 1945, that hope was shattered. While checking the Red Cross lists, his eyes fell upon two names: Annelies Marie Frank and Margot Betti Frank. Beside their names were the dreaded symbols of crosses. The girls were dead.
Soon after, Otto met the Brilleslijper sisters, Janny and Lientje, who had been imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen with Anne and Margot. They told him about his daughters’ miserable last months and their deaths, confirming the terrible news. “Now I know the whole truth,” Otto wrote to his cousin on July 27, 1945, his words a quiet, powerful testament to his profound grief.
With the truth now known, Otto visited Miep and Jan Gies, who had risked their lives to protect his family. Miep, in turn, gave him a bundle she had kept safe for two years: Anne’s diary, her notebooks, and all of her writings.
At first, Otto could not bring himself to read them. The thought of confronting his daughter’s words, her dreams, and her hopes was too painful. But when he finally found the courage to open the diary, he was “gripped by her writing.”
Anne’s diary was more than just a book; it was a voice from the past, a final gift from a daughter to her father, a gift that would not only help him grieve but would also ensure that his daughter’s spirit, and her story, would live on forever.