MY FRIEND ANNE FRANK

Firsthand account of a Holocaust survivor who knew Anne Frank.

Born into a prosperous, middle-class German Jewish family like the Franks, Pick-Goslar fled to Amsterdam after the Nazis came to power in 1933. Born in 1928, the author was the same age as Anne, and since the families lived in adjacent buildings, they quickly became friends and classmates. In the early chapters, Pick-Goslar recounts the carefree activities of two schoolgirls, but the text is imbued with an increasingly ominous background, capped by the brutal German invasion in May 1940. In July 1942, the Franks disappeared, leaving a message that they had moved to Switzerland. In fact, they had gone into hiding in Otto Frank’s warehouse, where they remained until they were betrayed in August 1944. Pick-Goslar’s family was arrested in June 1943, and they spent six months in a filthy Dutch transit camp before being sent to Bergen-Belsen in Germany. Although not an extermination camp, the conditions were so awful that most prisoners died of starvation or disease after months of suffering. That included the author’s entire extended family except a baby sister under her care. During this time, she encountered Anne, already starving and ill, in a neighboring camp. Liberated in 1945, Pick-Goslar moved to Palestine in 1947, became a nurse, and died in 2022 at the age of 93. Co-author Kraft, a journalist based in Tel Aviv, renders a compelling yet disturbing story. Readers will squirm at the Nazis’ loathsome behavior and feel disheartened to learn that all advanced Western governments (the U.S. included) denounced Nazi atrocities but turned away Jews fleeing Germany except for those who were wealthy and famous. Holland was no exception, classifying Pick-Goslar’s family as “temporary refugees,” with the understanding that they would move on.

Painful history but a good choice for readers interested in Anne Frank or Holocaust-era memoirs.