The Thirteenth Birthday
On June 14, 1942, just weeks before her family went into hiding, Anne Frank celebrated her thirteenth birthday. It was a day of celebration that, in retrospect, feels heartbreakingly poignant. Anne, ever the social planner, took the event very seriously, carefully selecting a list of guests from her Jewish Lyceum class, her neighborhood friends, and her new friend, Helmuth “Hello” Silberberg. Her parties had a reputation for being “exceptionally exciting and entertaining.” The day was filled with all the small, simple joys of a childhood party. Her mother, Edith, served strawberry cake and milk, while her father, Otto, helped with the games. But the highlight of the day was the film. They first watched the popular movie “Rin Tin Tin – Lighthouse by the Sea,” and then Otto proudly showed an advertising film for his own company, Opekta.
The party was a beautiful, final glimpse of normalcy for Anne. The photo you provided from her tenth birthday in 1939, showing her with her friends, is a powerful reminder of a life that was filled with joy and friendship before it was so cruelly cut short. The girls in the photo, Lucie van Dijk, Sanne Ledermann, Hannah Goslar, Juultje Ketellapper, Kitty Egyedi, Mary Bos, Ietje Swillens, and Martha van den Berg, were her world, a world that was about to disappear forever.
