96: Nanette Blitz Konig

 

Happy 96^th Birthday Nanette Blitz Konig!

Nanette was born on April 6, 1929 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands to Martijn (a native of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and Helene (a native of Kimberley, South Africa.)

In 1940 the Germans occupied the Netherlands.

In 1941 the Germans forced all Jews out of the Public Schools and so Nanette went to the Jewish Lyceum where she met and became Friends with Anne Frank.

In September 1943 Nanette and her Family were arrested by the Germans and sent to the Westerbork Transit Camp in northern the Netherlands.

On February 15, 1944 Nanette and her Family were deported to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany and kept in a Special Section of the Camp that was to be used to barter for German Prisoners Overseas.

Her Father died in November 1944 and the rest of the Family lost their “Special Status.”

Her Mother and Brother were deported from Bergen-Belsen to different Camps in 1944 leaving Nanette all alone at the age of 15.

Her Mother was sent to the Beendorf Salt Mines in Germany where she worked as a Forced Laborer. She died in April 1945 while on a train headed to Sweden for recuperation after her Liberation.

Her Brother was sent to the  Orangeburg Concentration Camp in Germany where he died.

In January 1945 Nanette was transferred from the Special Section to the Regular Female Section of Bergen-Belsen where she reunited with Anne Frank and Anne’s Sister, Margot.

She also said that she had seen Anne and Margot shortly before they died:

"When I found Anne and Margot in Camp 8, that was the original Camp 8, which was then a women's camp, [...] they were both skeletons and I, I know about Anne that she was wrapped in a blanket. Margot I can't remember if she was also wrapped in a blanket, but she was also very weak, completely, well, consumed so to speak. And maybe she was wrapped in a blanket too, the clothes were impossible to wear because they were full of lice."

Nanette was liberated from Bergen-Belsen by the British Army and spent 3 years in a Hospital with Typhus (the disease that killed Anne Frank.)

Nanette moved to England where she met and married John Konig in 1953 and they moved to Brazil where they had 3 Children.

John died in 2022.

In 2015 Nanette published her Memoirs in Portuguese with an English Version published in 2018.

Following the death of Jacqueline van Maarsen in February 2025, she is one of the last living People to have known Anne Frank.

Nanette is also the last living person who saw Anne Frank closest to her death.