Hannah Goslar, best friend of Anne Frank, dies at 93

Hannah Pick-Goslar in 2012. Photo: Marcel Antonisse ANP
Hannah Pick-Goslar in 2012. Photo: Marcel Antonisse ANP

Hannah Pick-Goslar, known as the best friend of Anne Frank, has died at her home in Israel at the age of 93.

Like Anne, Hannah was born in Germany and her family emigrated to Amsterdam after the rise of the Nazis in 1933. The two girls went to school together and Anne referred to Hannah in her diary as Hanneli.

‘My mother described Anne Frank well. She said: “God knows everything, but Anne knows better”,’ Hannah said in an interview about their friendship.

The girls lost touch when the Frank family went into hiding but met again at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly before Anne’s death. Hannah and her sister were the only two members of her family to survive the war.

In 1947, Hannah moved to what was then Palestine and became a nurse, where she married and had three children.

The 2021 film Mijn Beste Vriendin Anne Frank, which won the Golden Film Award at the Dutch film festival last year, was based on her life. She was also included in a documentary, De Laatste Seven Maanden van Anne Frank, about the final several seven months of Anne’s life, which won an international Emmy award.

Read an interview with Hannah about Anne Frank

The Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam issued a statement following news of her death, saying ‘Hannah Pick-Goslar meant a lot to the Anne Frank House, and we could always call on her.’

Hannah last visited the Anne Frank House in October 2012, at the opening of the temporary exhibition ‘So now I’m fifteen,’ which featured photographs of Hannah and Anne.

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