The Night the Names Were Called On the night of September 2, 1944, the air in the Westerbork transit camp was heavy with dread. In the punishment barracks, an OD…
The Bold Introduction In the fall of 1941, Jacqueline van Maarsen was walking home from the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam when she was approached by a stranger. This girl, "short,…
A Terrible Discovery The Westerbork transit camp was a place of temporary imprisonment, but its conditions were far from uniform. Some prisoners lived in the "free" camp, where they were…
A Heartbreaking Friendship In the dehumanizing environment of the Westerbork transit camp, small acts of human connection were a lifeline. Lenie de Jong-van Naarden recalls the moment she and her…
The Fear of a Long Face On September 16, 1943, Anne Frank wrote a diary entry that reveals the deep psychological toll of living in hiding. She confessed to a…
The Journey to Aachen For Anne and Margot Frank, a trip to Aachen, Germany, was a journey home. It was where their grandmother, Rosa Holländer-Stern, and their uncles, Walter and…
The Final Journey At dawn on September 3, 1944, a silent and somber procession began at the Westerbork transit camp in Holland. The guards roused 1,019 prisoners from their barracks,…
The Swiss Sanctuary Before the world shrank to a few hidden rooms, Anne Frank's world was one of sun-drenched holidays and carefree days. In September 1935, a six-year-old Anne spent…
A Shared Grief In 1945, in the wake of the Holocaust, Alice Frank wrote a letter to her son, Otto, that captures the profound sorrow of their family's loss. Her…
The Hell of the Scabies Block In the brutal reality of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a new nightmare began for Anne Frank. After a few weeks in the camp, her body, already weakened…