Press releases

ANNE FRANK TRUST SADDENED BY FIRE DESTRUCTION AT WESTERBORK CAMP – SITE OF A BRIEF MOMENT OF HAPPINESS FOR TRAGIC HEROINE ANNE FRANK

Commenting on the fire yesterday which destroyed the barracks at Westerbork camp in The Netherlands, Gillian Walnes, Executive Director of the Anne Frank Trust UK, said: 

“It is sad that this important historical site is now lost.  Ironically, after over two years of claustrophobic and fearful hiding in a secret annexe in Amsterdam, Anne Frank’s short stay at Westerbork camp afforded her a degree of happiness and hope.”

Anne spent her days sitting at a long trestle table dismantling old aeroplane batteries, with guards watching over shouting to speed up.  For sustenance workers received a piece of stale bread and a few ladles of watery soup.  
Harsh though conditions were, eyewitnesses who saw the Frank family in Westerbork record that Anne seemed happy there.  She spent time with Peter van Pels, her boyfriend in the secret annexe, was able to re-engage with nature, and the mood in the camp was hopeful in the summer of 1944 that the inmates would be able to avoid being sent to the extermination camps in Eastern Europe and remain there until the liberation.

Tragically Anne and her family were on the very last transport out of Westerbork to Auschwitz, and she died of hunger and disease with her sister at Bergen-Belsen camp six months later.

Her diary written while in hiding and published after the war, went on to sell over 40 million copies.

CONTACT: GILLIAN WALNES 020 7284 5858 / 07770 747374 gillian@annefrank.org.uk