Margot Betti Frank—The Forgotten Sister

A few years ago, I was asked to give a speech at my eldest son’s high school graduation as a representative of the Parents’ Council. I ended the speech with a quote from Margot Frank.

“Times change, people change, thoughts about good and evil change, about true and false. But what always remains fast and steady is the affection that your friends feel for you, those who always have your best interest at heart.”

I know most of us have read Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, but I feel that Frank’s family narrative neglects her sister Margot.

I often wonder how much Margot contributed to Anne’s diary. I don’t mean in writing it, but in facilitating Anne by freeing up time for her to write it. Margot was the oldest of the Frank girls, and she must have had a better understanding of what was happening, especially earlier on during World War II.

Margot Betti Frank was born on February 16, 1926, in Frankfurt, Germany, to Edith and Otto Frank. She was the elder sister of Anne Frank, whose diary would later become one of the most famous accounts of life during the Holocaust. Margot was known for her intelligence, diligence, and reserved nature, and she excelled in her studies.

Margot was three years older than Anne. The Frank family lived a comfortable, assimilated life in Germany until the rise of the Nazi regime forced them to flee to the Netherlands in 1933. They settled in Amsterdam, where Otto Frank started a business, and the family tried to build a new life away from the increasing persecution of Jews in Germany.

In Amsterdam, Margot attended the Jeker School and later the Jewish Lyceum. She was known to be a bright student, and she often received high marks. She dreamed of becoming a maternity nurse or a teacher and had ambitions of immigrating to Palestine, which was then a British mandate.

When Margot received a call-up notice from the Gestapo in July 1942 to report for a labor camp, the Frank family decided to go into hiding. They moved into a secret annex behind Otto Frank’s business premises on Prinsengracht. The annex was shared with another Jewish family, the Van Pels and, later, a dentist named Fritz Pfeffer. Margot’s demeanor during the period of hiding was one of quiet endurance and resilience. She spent her time studying and writing in her diary, though her writings have not survived.

On August 4, 1944, after more than two years in hiding, the inhabitants of the secret annex were betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo. Margot and her family were first taken to the Westerbork transit camp and then deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in September 1944. In Auschwitz, the men and women were separated. Margot and Anne stayed together, enduring the horrific conditions.

In November 1944, Margot and Anne were transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The camp was overcrowded, and conditions were dire, with little food and rampant disease. Margot and Anne both fell ill with typhus. Margot died in March 1945, just a few days before Anne, in the squalor of Bergen-Belsen. She was 19 years old.

My Daughter is nearly 19, and I just can’t imagine the pain I’d feel when she would have been murdered like Margot.

This poem is dedicated to Margot Frank—The Forgotten Sister

In the quiet shadow of history’s pages,
Where the ink of sorrow stains the ages,
There lived a girl with dreams so bright,
Margot Frank, a beacon of light.

In a secret annex, hidden away,
She wrote and read through each long day,
Her heart was a symphony of hope and fear,
Her whispered thoughts we can still hear.

A sister’s love, gentle and true,
In Anne’s diary, she comes into view,
A silent strength, a guiding star,
In a world of darkness, shining afar.

Her eyes spoke volumes, her smile so rare,
A fragile beauty beyond compare,
In the face of terror, she stood so tall,
A soul so young, yet wise to it all.

Dreams of freedom filled her nights,
In her mind, she took flight,
To places where hatred couldn’t reach,
Where peace and love were within her reach.

Yet fate, cruel and unkind,
Left such hopes far behind,
In the cold and ruthless grasp,
Of a war that silenced her final gasp.

But Margot’s spirit, gentle and bright,
Still whispers softly in the night,
A tale of courage, pure and deep,
A legacy we’re bound to keep.

For in remembering her, we find our way,
Through the shadows to a brighter day,
Margot Frank, forever in our hearts,
A symbol of the light that never departs.

Sources

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/731982/over-margot-frank

https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/main-characters/margot-frank/

https://www.annefrank.ch/en/family/margot-frank