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 Julius, lived. From an early age, Anne had a special bond with her family in Aachen. As her mother, Edith, noted in Anne’s baby book in September 1929, she was delighted to see her Uncle Julius and loved to “clown around” for him.
The family’s trips to Aachen became a lifeline during a time of great transition. At the end of 1933, while Edith and Otto were settling into their new life in Amsterdam, Margot and Anne spent a couple of months with their grandmother. Margot joined her parents in December, but Anne stayed until February 1934, showing the close relationship she had with her grandmother.
Even after the family had moved to Amsterdam, they continued to visit Aachen. But as the 1930s drew to a close, these trips became increasingly dangerous. The rise of the Nazi regime made crossing the border a perilous act for Jewish families. In early 1938, Anne and Margot made their last visit to their grandmother. It was a final moment of shared joy, a last trip to a place that had been a sanctuary for them. The physical distance between them was growing, but the emotional bond remained. This story is a poignant reminder of a family that was forced apart by a world they could not control.
