Share
AMSTERDAM โ For Jacqueline van Maarsen, attending Anne Frankโs 13th birthday party in 1942 was a welcome distraction from the grim reality of life in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II.
Enjoying movies and cookies at Anneโs apartment meant โwe didnโt think about it at that moment,โ the 90-year-old Van Maarsen said Wednesday as she and another of Anneโs friends met students from Amsterdam schools at an event to mark what would have been Anneโs 90th birthday.
The 13th birthday party was a fleeting relief for children already suffering from discriminatory, anti-Jewish regulations and forced to wear Star of David patches on their clothes.
Just three weeks later, Anne and her family fled into hiding in the secret annex behind a canal-side house that was made famous in her diary. Less than three years after that, exhausted and suffering from typhus, Anne died with her sister in the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp in February 1945.
Wednesdayโs meeting was at the Frank familyโs former apartment in southern Amsterdam, where they lived before going into hiding.
Anneโs Book Was Published in Dozens of Countries
They hid in the annex for just over two years before being arrested and deported to Nazi-run concentration camps. Anneโs father Otto, the only member of the family to survive the war, later published her diaries. The book went on to be published in dozens of countries around the world and is regarded as one of the most important works of the 20th century.
Like Anne, with whom he attended Amsterdamโs Jewish Lyceum, Albert Gomes de Mesquita, 89, also went into hiding. Unlike the Franks, he moved around the country from one hiding place to another as he dodged arrest and deportation.
Asked what lessons he would pass on to the youth of today, he told students from the International School of Amsterdam: โI think you have to learn things from what happens. Iโve been helped by so many different people and they were Roman Catholic, Protestant, atheist, communist, rich, poor,โ he said.
โIโve slept in 12 different places during hiding and my lesson is: Good people can be found everywhere.โ

Apartment is Now Owned by Anne Frank Museum
Squeezed into the living room of the apartment, which has been painstakingly restored so it looks like it would have when the Frankโs lived there, the students listened intently and peppered Van Maarsen and Gomes de Mesquita with questions.
He was moved by Van Maarsen saying that she sometimes felt like she lost her identity because she was labeled as Anneโs friend.
โI really tried to think about that and tried to think, โitโs not only Anne,โ he said. โSure, we remember Anne because sheโs very important โ and we should remember her โ but there were also many, many others who also faced this time.โ
The apartment is now owned by the Anne Frank Museum, but unlike the secret annex is not open to the public. Fittingly, it is used by a Dutch literature fund to house writers who fear persecution in their own home countries. The current resident is a Kurdish poet and translator, Kawa Nemir, who just finished translating James Joyceโs epic Ulysses into Kurdish.
Van Maarsen, who has written about her friendship with Anne, recalled their โvery good and special friendshipโ that will always endure in her memory.
โI couldnโt forget her because she got so famous,โ she said.
New Plan to Accelerate CA High-Speed Rail Construction Deserves Attention, Support
5 hours ago
CAโs Big Pension Funds Lost Billions in Stock Market Selloff. Can They Recover in Time?
5 hours ago
Kash Patel Has Been Replaced by Army Secretary Driscoll as Acting Head of the ATF
2 hours ago
Dow Surges 2,600 as US Stocks Soar in Relief After Trump Pauses Some of His Tariffs
3 hours ago
Trump Pauses Tariffs on Most Nations for 90 Days, Raises Taxes on Chinese Imports
4 hours ago
Wired Wednesday: Fresno DA Warns New Copper Theft Ordinance Could Clash with State Law
4 hours ago
New Plan to Accelerate CA High-Speed Rail Construction Deserves Attention, Support
5 hours ago
CAโs Big Pension Funds Lost Billions in Stock Market Selloff. Can They Recover in Time?
5 hours ago
Kash Patel Has Been Replaced by Army Secretary Driscoll as Acting Head of the ATF
2 hours ago
Dow Surges 2,600 as US Stocks Soar in Relief After Trump Pauses Some of His Tariffs
3 hours ago
Trump Pauses Tariffs on Most Nations for 90 Days, Raises Taxes on Chinese Imports
4 hours ago
Wired Wednesday: Fresno DA Warns New Copper Theft Ordinance Could Clash with State Law
4 hours ago
New Plan to Accelerate CA High-Speed Rail Construction Deserves Attention, Support
5 hours ago
CAโs Big Pension Funds Lost Billions in Stock Market Selloff. Can They Recover in Time?
5 hours ago
Senate Confirms Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as Trumpโs Ambassador to Israel
23 minutes ago
Categories

Senate Confirms Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as Trumpโs Ambassador to Israel

Wall Streetโs Euphoria Sends Stocks Soaring After Trump Pauses Most of His Tariffs

New Mexico Governor Mobilizes National Guard to Tackle Crime Emergency in Albuquerque

Kash Patel Has Been Replaced by Army Secretary Driscoll as Acting Head of the ATF

Dow Surges 2,600 as US Stocks Soar in Relief After Trump Pauses Some of His Tariffs

Trump Pauses Tariffs on Most Nations for 90 Days, Raises Taxes on Chinese Imports
