124: Edith Frank

Edith Frank

On this day 124 years ago (January 16, 1900) Edith Frank (née Holländer), was born in Aachen, Germany. She was the Mother of Margot and Anne Frank.

She married Otto Frank in 1925 and had Daughters, Margot (in 1926) and Anne (in 1929.) Because of the Nazis they left Germany and moved to the Netherlands in 1933.

Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. When the Germans wanted to deport 16 year old Margot to a Labor Camp in Germany the Family went into Hiding in Amsterdam on July 6, 1942. They were betrayed and arrested by the Germans on August 4, 1944. Three days later they were sent to the Westerbork Transit Camp in northern Holland and kept in the Prisoners’ Section since they had hid from the Germans.

(Margot, Otto, Anne and Edith Frank)

On September 4, 1944 (the day the Allies liberated Brussels, Belgium) the Franks were deported to the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland on the last Cattle Train to leave Westerbork for Auschwitz.

Edith, Margot and Anne were separated from Otto and never saw him again. Anne, being 15 years old (the youngest age the Germans allowed anyone to work) barely separated being sent directly to the Gas Chambers), Margot and Edith did Forced Labor, carrying heavy stone bricks outside.

On October 30, 1944 Edith was separated from her Daughters during a Selection. Margot and Anne were transported to the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp near Hannover, Germany.

Edith was selected to be gassed in the Gas Chambers, but managed to escape and change her Prisoner Number and Tattoo to that of someone else who had died and went to a new Barrack. At some point she fell ill, developed a high fever, and ended up in the Camp Infirmary.

During her illness she started saving her bread believing her Daughters Margot and Anne were still in Auschwitz with her and would need it.

She died of Starvation and Illness in Auschwitz on January 6, 1945, 10 days before her 45th Birthday and 3 weeks before the Liberation of Auschwitz.

Anne and Margot both died of Typhus in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp between February and March 1945. Margot was 18 years old and Anne was 15 years old.

Otto Frank was the only member of his Family to survive the War. He died in Switzerland on August 19, 1980 at the age of 91.