October 16, 2025 – Dr. Susanna Kokkonen
Years ago when I was working at the World Holocaust Remembrance Center of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, I realized that there is one person almost everyone knows from the Holocaust. This young girl is Anne Frank.
It was clear to me that her story had to be included at the Holocaust Garden of Hope in Houston, Texas.
Truly, when thinking about educating about the Holocaust, recognizing someone at the exhibits means interest and understanding. If the Garden is to educate young people about the dangers of antisemitism, it needs to show its deadly consequences.
The universal and the particular come together when we teach about the Holocaust. These two conditions come together in children’s stories. We tell their particular stories, but they are human stories. They thought like us and acted like us. But the circumstances were different and dangerous.
And here comes the question. Countless people studying the past have asked themselves this question. Is there a way of knowing how I would have behaved under those kinds of circumstances?
Anne became a Dutch Girl
Anne Frank was born in Germany (in Frankfurt am Main) in 1929. Shortly after, in January 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. Things started changing rapidly in terms of legislation, atmosphere and political discourse. Otto, Anne’s father decided to move his family and his business to Amsterdam, Holland. The family included Anne’s sister Margot and mother Edith.
This is how Anne became a Dutch girl.
Her school friend Hannah Gosslar is seen in some of her photos from their carefree days at school and playing in pre-war Holland. Hannah too was a Jewish girl from Germany. She came to Holland in 1933. Those days were not to last and effectively ended in May 1940 when German troops entered the country. The queen escaped to London.
A complex web of informers and Dutch Nazis developed. On the other hand, there was also a very active resistance movement in Holland. This movement of courageous individuals operated in extreme danger.
Nazi Occupation
In the terrifying atmosphere of the Nazi occupation, Otto prepared a hiding place in the attic of his offices. He had moved his family into safety. Now he had to do it again. Once Margot was called to report into so called Labor Service, he knew it was time. Frank family and some friends went hiding. Even Anne’s best friend Hannah did not know where Anne had gone. Aided by their workers the family stayed hiding until August 4, 1944. Most likely betrayed by an informer, the Gestapo came for them on that day.
They were all sent to the Dutch Transit Camp of Westerbork. From there they were transferred in September 1944 on the very last transfer train to Auschwitz. Most of the little group perished. Sometime at the beginning of 1945 Anne and Margot were transferred to the camp of Bergen Belsen where conditions were horrific.
Hannah too had been deported and was by now in Bergen Belsen. To her astonishment, one day she saw her friend Anne. Anne was behind barbed wire in another section of the camp. Anne was very sick. In one of the stories I heard Hannah telling at Yad Vashem, she tried to throw food at Anne, but a stronger inmate took the meagre items.
Anne and Margot must have died just weeks before liberation. Like so many others, their bodies were thrown at a mass grave.
Them and Us
We want everyone to see how human were the people touched by the tragedy of the Holocaust. Anne Frank is known to us. We know her writing. She wrote about everyday life; she laughed and cried, and she was like one of us. Or rather – she was like every one of us. What happened to her happened to many people around Europe.
Today, more than ever, we need these stories and faces of people we can identify with. We need interactions with the past.
Our children and youth need an understanding of the past and its mistaken propaganda. We are no different and easily believe lies if they are repeated to us. Anne’s face is a reminder of how fragile freedom is and how much we need it. As we follow her story in several exhibits, we see her life changing but also the progression of an ideology.
One person’s story connects to a wider story of political upheaval and military might.
It is my hope that teachers and educators will understand the value of this education.
We hope to see you bring the young people to the Garden at such a time as this!
