The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank

by Willy Lindwer

The "unwritten" final chapter of "Anne Frank: Diary Of A Young Girl" tells the story of the time between Anne Frank's arrest and her death through the testimony of six Jewish women who survived the hell from which Anne Frank never returned.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Holocaust, Biography, War, World War II, Historical

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Documentary filmmaker and television producer Willy Lindwer has been a director and producer since graduating from the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam in 1971. For many years he was on the program staff of several Dutch broadcasters. He founded his company AVA Productions in 1985. Currently he heads two TV-companies, AVA Productions in The Netherlands and Terra Film Productions in Jerusalem, Israel. These companies are dedicated to the development and production of international documentaries and co-productions for television, made-for-TV and theatrical movies and TV mini-series.
Willy Lindwer's films and series are distributed world wide.

Willy Lindwer was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1946. His parents fled anti-Semitic Poland and Ukraine in the 1930's and settled in Amsterdam. They were among the 10% of Jews in Holland who survived the Holocaust.

Willy Lindwer currently lives both in Amsterdam and Jerusalem, is married and has two children.



Driven by a passion for oral history and his interest in exploring human hardships, he has traveled extensively around the globe, producing highly acclaimed documentary series about Europe, Africa and the Far East.
Willy Lindwer also produced major international series on art, history and social themes. The 6 part series, "Imagination Captivated by Reality", covering five centuries of Dutch art, was broadcast around the world. The series, "Past and Present Preserved", about 13 Dutch museums, was shown in more than twenty-five countries, including Japan, England, France, Germany and the US. In addition, his company AVA Productions has developed popular series about social structures and the justice system. But above all, Willy Lindwer has won international acclaim for his many impressive documentaries on the Holocaust and Israel.

Willy Lindwer's production companies AVA Productions and Terra Film Productions:
Willy Lindwer's production companies – AVA Productions in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Terra Film Productions in Jerusalem, Israel - are working on a variety of new projects and are seeking co-producers for a number of projects currently in development and production. The companies are also interested in participating in new projects by other producers and directors.

Many of Willy Lindwer's films have been co-produced with leading international broadcast stations in the world and with international television and film production companies.

The companies have their own production facilities including AVID editing suites and field camera units as well as multi-lingual technical and production staff. Veteran international television producer Carl Perkal is in charge of program development for the companies.

Recently the companies produced a series of films on the Middle-East, including:
The Temple Mount is Mine, Jerusalem - Between Heaven and Earth, The Return, D'vekut - Hasidism and Jewish Mysticism, Teddy Kollek: Between Vienna and Jerusalem and Miracle of Faith - 2000 Years Christianity in The Holy Land.

Willy Lindwer has covered a wide range of topics with his films about the Holocaust, such as:
Anne Frank, The Destruction of Dutch Jewry, The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, The Wannsee Conference, The Jewish Council of Amsterdam, Nazi-transit camp Westerbork, Hidden Children, The last Jewish Wedding in Amsterdam.

Willy Lindwer has interviewed world-famous personalities like:
Henry Kissinger, Shimon Peres, Yasser Arafat, Leah Rabin, Simon Wiesenthal, President Gerald Ford, President George H.W. Bush, Ehud Barak, Teddy Kollek, Jan Karski, Gerhard Riegner, Marek Edelmann, and many others.

Willy Lindwer: filmmaker, photographer, author and collector.
Besides his passion for filmmaking, Willy Lindwer is also an active author and a passionate photographer. He handles still photography for his own documentaries. He has published 4 books and 2 photo books. A new photo book will be published in 2006. Some of the books are based on his docume

Reviews

[Ivana - Diary of Difference · Rating 2 out of 5]

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When I went to the library to pick up the Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, I also picked up this book. I wanted to learn more about her last months, as Anne didn’t write in her diary after she was found and brought to the camps.

If you, just like me, are looking for books to help you find this info, please skip this one.

The title is completely misleading, as Anne Frank is barely mentioned in the book, and these women that claim to know her seem to not have known her at all. If I see a person on the far end of the fence, or sit together while the guards are counting us, I wouldn’t consider them a friend. Just a fellow unfortunate companion.

Don’t get me wrong – these six women, that went through all this traumatized period, and are brave enough to tell the story are worth mentioning, and are worth of great recognitions. And this book is also a great value to history of what happened in those cruel places.

But when people use a famous person’s name in order to sell a book, on such painful basis, this is beyond me to comment, so I will leave it to you to make a conclusion on your own.

Among this part, the stories of these six women were heartbreaking, and so well-described, it felt as if I was there for a moment. The things they went through and the families they lost is so sad.
I also liked the old images that were in the middle of the book. They added a real image to the words.

If you want to read more about Anne Frank – choose another book. But if you want to find out about other people’s stories from this time period – grab this book.

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[Noëlle Alexandria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those complaining that this book doesn't detail every day in the last seven months of Anne's life need to stop and realize that the only person with her all that time also died. Millions died. That the author of this book found six women who had spent any time with Anne is remarkable. Expecting to know what happened every day is simply not possible. Given the gravity of the Holocaust and the uphill battle of finding anyone who spent any time with her and knew her name at the time is impressive.

This book does spend more time on the lives of the six women, as is to be expected. This gives a new depth to the travesty of that attempted genocide. So may of those interested in the Holocaust focus on Anne. Sadly not many people even know her sister's name. But the Franks weren't the only victims. To understand better we do need to read and appreciate the horrors others went through as well. Lindwer gets two birds with one stone here. He both shows us the stories of others while doing the best job that can be expected at tying them to the most famous Holocaust name aside from Hitler himself.

I first read this book in eighth grade, and have read it at least a dozen times since. It gives perspective when I feel like complaining about my life today. At least I'm safe and don't have to fear someone coming to yank me from my home, separate me from my family, then decide who lives and who dies.

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains the full transcripts of interviews conducted for a 1988 documentary titled The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank. The documentary was first shown in the Netherlands and a year later in 1989 in the United States. Only a small portion of these interviews were included within the documentary, so this book makes the rest of the collected material available to the public.

The book first provides a historical overview that reminds the readers of the context within which the story takes place. Then the interviews with seven different women are provided in six separate chapters. All these women had crossed paths—sometimes on the same path—with the Frank family members during their imprisonment and movement between concentration camps. All these women were from the Netherlands and had similar experiences of being apprehended late in the war and sent off to concentration camps at about the same time.

Only one of the interviewed women was a prewar acquaintance of the Frank family. She had been a classmate and friend of Anne's prior to the war. Her only contact with Anne in the concentration camp was a conversation with Anne over a fence—they couldn't see each other while talking.

Needless to say these are not happy stories. The recounted experiences are reminders of the horribleness of the Holocaust. The fact that these are interviews with women who were survivors of the camp experience does provide some consolation that gives their stories a touch of optimism. This book provides a worthy historical record of the admirable courage of these women showed while being forced to endure such dramatic experiences.

These stories also offer a remembrance of the numerous individuals who did not survive which includes Anne Frank, her sister, and mother. Her mother died in Auschwitz—probably of starvation—and Anne and her sister died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen only a few weeks before British soldiers liberated the camp on April 15, 1945.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six brave and amazing women tell of their experiences in concentration camps. Harrowing accounts of situations beyond comprehension. Amongst these accounts were brief mentions of the Frank family, I don't know if any more is known about Anne's last seven months but having read this book I suspect not.

Read on openlibrary

[Krisanne Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh my goodness. I bought this book because I wanted to know the "rest of the story": what happened to Anne Frank after she and her family were discovered.

The book has 6 different stories from survivors who crossed the Franks lives at some point. It was a bit of a tough read. These people retell horrific events in almost a flat, mono-tone tone. Almost all of them recount what it felt like to be stripped naked and have all of their body hair shaved.

As a mother, this book was almost unbearable because I could not stop thinking about what it would have been like to have been a prisoner and not know where my children were. All of these women talk about how hard Anne and Margot fought to stay together, and how Mrs. Frank almost went insane trying to find them and know how they were doing. I simply can not imagine having to endure that.

This book could count either as non fiction or autobiography in my class, and althought it is tough to read it definitely makes you appreciate the Allies in World War II who stopped Hitler, as well as your freedom to eat whatever you want whenever you want.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title "The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank" is a misleading title. I bought this book in the hopes that I would learn what happened to Anne during the 7 months she spent in the concentration camps. Instead, I heard the stories of several women who, at best, had chance encounters with Anne Frank.

While the stories these women told were heart-rendering and moving, they were not about Anne Frank. The women described the experiences Anne *might* have had while in captivity. In some cases, the only experiences that these women had with Anne was seeing her in passing in the camps, or riding in the same cattle car with her while being transported.

I wondered throughout the book if the author simply used Anne Frank in order to sell more books. In each of the women's stories Anne was merely a footnote to their own stories. I would have enjoyed this book much more had it been titled appropriately. Instead, I kept reading wondering when the women would have meaningful encounters with Anne Frank.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se querem saber o que aconteceu dia por dia durante os meses que antecederam a morte de Anne Frank, após a saída do Anexo, então este livro não é para vocês. Será talvez impossível alguma vez se vir a saber o que aconteceu a Anne durante este período com todos os pormenores, porque simplesmente, a unica pessoa que esteve com ela o tempo todo, a irmã Margot, também morreu.
Este livro conta sim, a historia de 6 mulheres, 6 sobreviventes de campos de concentração, que de uma forma ou outra, antes da chegada aos campos, ou já lá, se cruzaram em algum momento com Anne Frank.
Não deixam de ser relatos válidos e muito duros de sobrevivência, mas que no fundo muito pouco acrescentam sobre o que já se sabe da estadia de Anne em Auschwitz e depois Bergen-Belsen, onde viria a morrer.

[Mmars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked the approach of this book. Because Anne Frank is the most well-known victim of the Holocaust, Lindwer uses her to broaden his audience. I think that's why many people disliked this book. They loved the Anne Frank story & wanted more. They didn't want to read about the horrors of the Holocaust. Way to go Lindwer! Noone should pass through this life without reading about that one.

By assembling the accounts of women who either knew Anne or knew of her in the concentration camp he reveals the truth of the death camps. I was surprised that there were enough eyewitnesses who remembered her to give these accounts. It is true that the book concentrates more on the survivors than it does of Anne Frank but think about it. To anyone wanting Anne's story, this is it. There is no more. No diary. No autobiographical thoughts. This is all that is known. Anne's own telling ended with a knock on the door. Think it this way. Anne's story is the "everyman's" story of those who died in the Holocaust. Any survivor telling the horrors of those who died tells Anne's story.

NOTE: This is not a children's/young adult book. It was written for the adult market. Is it accessible or of interest to teens? Yes. In fact, I'd encourage those who have read the diary to read this. If anything, it heightens the emotional impact of the diary.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being the one person on the planet who actually wants to go to Amsterdam just to see the Anne Frank House, I loved this book. It's full of little known family photos and first person accounts of her last days from the people who were actually there with herin the camps,who survived. It's amazing to be able to picture her so personally, and to have it feel so real and as if it might have happened to *you*...it's a great companion to the diary, and I'm sure teachers could use parts of it for a lesson plan too. It just makes her that much more real.

[Yu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book in Jerusalem after I met Mrs. Hannah Elisabeth Pick-Goslar known as "Lies Goosens" in Anne Frank´s Tagebuch. She gave us a speech on the last time she saw and spoke to Anne with the barbwire between them. She is a wonderful lady with good spirit, she could speak German, and I showed her my Tagebuch bought in Berlin Anne Frank Centre, she signed my book. I was happy that in my life time I am so lucky to meet her and hear her speech of their stories.

This book is basically interview, very accurate, not quite literary. But interesting, esp. before you read Anne´s Tagebuch. Because you get more background information about it. It´s extremely interesting when Chapter one Hannah described Anne´s personality. Very genuine and moving. A nice book accompany with Anne Frank´s Tagebuch.

There are more things valuable rather than merely their stories with the Franks. Actually, each of them has their own stories, moving and incredible. Their analysis on the holocaust, the God, the Nazis' dehumanization in Auschwitz are profoundly insightful, but not only with these analysis, also with vivid stories. It's a short memoir of each lady. They witnesses Anne Frank, Margot Frank and Edith Frank together with their doomed life, but what they brought us are their determined will to live, and unbelievable strength to survive.

A great book.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. I never realized (if I knew, I had forgotten) that Anne Frank actually died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen - not the gas chamber at Auschwitz-Birknau and just a few weeks before the liberation of the camps. The book also gives her diary a bit more of a context, as there is some information about her life before and after going into hiding.

And I feel that this quote by Rachel van Amerongen-Frankfoorder sums up many, many things about the Holocaust and its aftermath: "The Allies must have known, after all; we understood that. And that they just let us go to hell, did nothing, and also let the trains go on running to Auschwitz, to Birkenau, continuously, even though they knew what was going on. Now we know that the war was much more important to them than the Jews. That probably answers the open question."

[Rossy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not about Anne Frank's last seven months, but the stories of 6 women about her individual experiences in the concentration camps. Many reviewers say this title was deceptive, and yes, it was, because this women just crossed Anne and her family at one point of another, but I guess the author "used" Anne to illustrate anyone's experience at the time. This events happened to so many people that, in a way, they happened to Anne, to Margo, to her mother, to her father, to any of the women or men who were there.
There is so much suffering that this stories are just SO hard to read. Again I must say, we must remember all of this terrible ordeals did happen.
I had a hard time connecting to the book, I'm not saying I didn't like it, but I guess the writing wasn't adecuate for me, so that's why I give it 2.5 stars.

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 stars - English Ebook

This completes Anne Frank's diary and the knowledge that we have about her. I was deeply impressed.

--Simon Wiesenthal--

The "unwritten" final chapter of Anne Frank: Diary Of A Young Girl tells the story of the time between Anne Frank's arrest and her death through the testimony of six Jewish women who survived the hell from which Anne Frank never returned.

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book, as several others point out, includes accounts of those who had at times very fleeting meetings with Anne Frank this is irrelevant to the worth of this book. I even think that Anne Frank is irrelevant to this book to some degree though it is good that having been referenced to Anne Frank it probably saw a larger readership.

These womens stories are incredible. Some of them admit they were hard to tell. But there are several moments things from this book that stay with me. That despite the risk so many of these women worked in the resistance and fought back before being captured. That strength/ bravery in the face of possible death. The treatment of children and babies I had perhaps not read of before. Horrible.

Another moment of clarity for me was that even surviving these death camps your whole life may have been ripped away. Your family, friends, neighbours may be dead, and most likely were with approx 5% of Danish Jews (around 5000 of the 107000 sent there, 70% of the Jewish population of the time) surviving these places. As Janny says when she goes home after liberation and is reunited with her family "I had a husband and two children, I was rich."

In particular the story of Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper alone is a must read. Along with Hannah Pick-Goslar, mentioned by Anne in her diary, she has the most to add to the story of Anne Frank. And a particularly worthy message and reason for sharing her story, one I found inspiring.

She says "I want to repeat, I have told this because I want to make it very clear to a large number of people that all discrimination - whatever form it takes - is evil and that the world can go to pieces because of it. Actually, literally, go to pieces. Discrimination against someone because of his skin colour or his ears or his hair, or God knows what - we can all die from that. It only takes one person to say, "He isn't as good as I am, because he has ..." You can fill in the rest. ... You can talk about it [the experience of being in the camps], but no one can ever relieve you of it. In this respect, the Fascists achieved a worldwide victory. We have to make sure it will never happen again."

[Evalunasylva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Por mais livros que tenha lido do Holocausto, ainda consigo ficar chocada, horrorizada e de lágrima no olho com alguns testemunhos. Este livro fez-me passar por isso, over and over again...
Se estão à espera de conhecer mais profundamente a vida da Anne Frank, este livro sinceramente não acho que traga muito conteúdo nesse aspeto, daí não ter achado o título o mais adequado. É sim um livro de relatos de pessoas que se cruzaram com a família Frank durante a deportação, mas algumas delas nem tiveram grande aproximação à família. Por isso, o livro não me deslumbrou por aí, mas pelos relatos das vivências dessas pessoas naquele período da história.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely harrowing read, I was actually quite shocked when I read that it was actually aimed at young readers. It tells the story of six women who knew Anne Frank in the months after she and her family were taken from their hiding place.
I have seen a couple of reviews that say the title is misleading, I sort of understand that. At first you assume that the book is going to be a chronological narrative of what happened to Anne in that time. Of course, if such material existed, it would have been published well before this books was (in 1988). But what it does do is give you a flavour of the live Anne and her sister must have had before they died - the horrible situations, the fear, the suffering... as you read this you realise that these people were treated in a horrific and dehumanising way.
Of the six stories, the one that sticks out most in my mind is tha second, the story told by Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper. She recalls times where she had to cut people's toes off because they had frostbite, that they used to hold secret meetings by the corpse pits at night because even the Germans woulnd't go there. The fact that it you owned a spoon you were considered rich.
I do not know how I would cope in this situation. Many of the accounts refer to an electrified fence around the camp, which some people would walk into to their deaths rather than face the gas chambers. That the corpses would be left there to remind others that the fence was electrified.
We don't learn much more about the individual stort of Anne and her family, but we do end up with an impicit understanding about how awful their lives (and indeed deaths) must have been. I would urge people to read this book - everyone must understand some of the things that happened in the lifetimes of our Grandparents, because by knowing hopefully it will never happen again.
A good companion book to the original Diary.

[Maria Carmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in less than 24 hours. I just could not stop! It is more than the last seven months of Anne Frank, it is the lives of several women who came across Anne and Margot during their last months. The sheer reality of these women's lives makes one take stock of all that we have and incites us to cherish our freedom of expression and our heritage.
One of the details I found so interesting was the fact that some of these women were politically awaken and aware even before Hitler managed to start carrying out his plan throughout Europe. These were people (some of them) who were already leading clandestine lives and working with the resistance to help save other lives. In this respect, I found the book even more interesting.
it was also very inspiring to see that small groups of women united in common friendship and solidarity managed to survive where others just gave up, full of despair. If it were not for the group, some of these might also not have survived.

Loved the book and highly recommend it.

Maria Carmo,

Lisbon 4 May 2016 (four days after I finished reading this book).

[Virve Fredman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olen lukenut Anne Frankin päiväkirjan pariinkin otteeseen elämäni aikana ja sen lisäksi paljon muitakin toisen maailmansodan keskitysleireistä kertovia kirjoja, mutta jäänyt tietysti monien muiden lailla miettimään, mitä Anne Frankille tapahtui viimeisen päiväkirjamerkinnän ja kuoleman välillä sekä kuinka hän kuoli.

Tämä kirja oli todella mielenkiintoista luettavaa, sillä se kertoo kuudesta naisesta, jotka olivat tekemisissä Anne Frankin kanssa hänen elämänsä viimeisinä kuukausina. Osa naisista tunsi Annen jo ennen keskitysleiriä, osa tapasi hänet siellä. Kirja kertoo, mitä nämä naiset muistavat kohtaamisistaan Anne Frankin kanssa sekä mitä he tiesivät Annen kohtalosta ja kokemuksista. Kirja ei kuitenkaan keskity vain Anne Frankiin, vaan kertoo näiden kuuden naisen kunkin tarinan ja kokemuksista toisen maailmansodan aikaan sekä keskitysleireillä. Nämä kokemukset kuvastavat monelta osin myös sitä, mitä samoissa paikoissa ollut Annekin kävi läpi.

Toki on hyvä huomioida, ettei Anne Frank ollut keskitysleirille joutuessaan millään tavalla tunnettu ihminen, vaan vain yksi juutalainen muiden joukossa ja vetäytyi leirillä paljon äitinsä ja siskonsa luo, joten ihmiset eivät erityisesti kiinnittäneet häneen huomiota. Siitä huolimatta kirja kertoo monia yksityiskohtia Anne Frankin viimeisistä kuukausista, niistä nimenomaisista olosuhteista, joissa hän eli ja siitä, kuinka hän kuoli.

Tämä kirja oli todella mielenkiintoista luettavaa ja suosittelen tätä kaikille, joita Anne Frankin päiväkirja on koskettanut. Sen kertomukset olivat mielenkiintoisia, mutta koska ne mukailivat henkilöille tehtyjä haastatteluja (joista on tehty myös suosittu dokumentti), tuntuivat jotkut kohdat välillä hieman sekavasti esitetyiltä.

[Lilirose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un'ennesima e preziosa raccolta di testimonianze sull'Olocausto.
Il fil rouge che lega questi racconti è che tutte le donne intervistate hanno incrociato il loro cammino con Anna Frank nell'inferno della deportazione, sia pure per brevi momenti, restituendoci un'immagine più umana e meno letteraria della figura simbolo della Shoah. In qualche modo qui c'è il vero finale del diario, brutale e terribile.
Nessuna di esse ha conosciuto intimamente Anna e non sapremo mai cosa davvero abbia provato in quei momenti, ma ciascuna delle loro storie viaggia su binari paralleli ed è facile pensare che anche per Anna (olandese come loro, deportata con lo stesso trasporto e negli stessi campi) le privazioni e le angosce siano state simili.
Questo libro a differenza di altri sull'argomento (Se questo è un uomo e La notte su tutti) ha valore esclusivamente cronachistico, è la trascrizione a stampa di un documentario televisivo olandese degli anni '80. Ciò non rende meno toccanti le esperienze di queste sopravvissute o meno importante la loro condivisione affinché certi orrori non si ripetano, rende però molto difficile valutare il testo con spirito critico. Mi limito a dire che qualunque resoconto sull'Olocausto fatto da chi lo ha vissuto sulla propria pelle vale la pena di essere conosciuto.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after visiting Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam last month.

The six stories each have only fleeting mentions of the Frank family but the descriptions of what went on in Auschwitz are harrowing.

[las pas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the chance to learn more about what went on in the concentration camps, and each of these women's stories were unique but yet overlapped with each other. Their mentality, the coping mechanisms they used, and what they've seen.

My only regret is that this book had so much hanging on Anne's name. You would assume there would be more information about her that way, but most of the stories had sparse mentions of Anne and the Frank family. I'm not mad about that at all, these stories are just as important. But the issue is that I felt this book "used" Anne's name to hopefully gain some more attention, and that kind of sucks.

[Lee Osborne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst this book is an extremely important first-hand account of the Holocaust, as others have stated it's not what you'd expect from the title - it tells you much about the lives of six brave women, but only a little about Anne Frank. That doesn't detract from the value of the material, but it does make the title misleading. Anne only gets mentioned in passing, and I therefore think the author and publishers have been a little misleading in presenting this as a book about Anne Frank. If you wanted to take a dim view of the matter, it's a fairly lousy marketing trick, and that's the main reason my review isn't more generous.

So yes...the women interviewed knew Anne in Westerbork, Auschwitz and Belsen, and that's the common theme. It's their stories rather than Anne's. They're stories that are harrowing, moving and deserve to be told, and the book is extremely thought-provoking. I'm glad I read it, but it doesn't tell you much about Anne's final days, and some of it is also inaccurate. When the book was published in the eighties, it was widely thought that Anne's death was very close to Belsen's liberation in April 1945. More recent research seems to indicate she died in February.

Yes, it's a valuable book, but one that feels slightly dishonest and not achieving what it claims to do.

The only other minor criticism is that the English translation isn't fantastic and is a bit awkward and clumsy to read in places.

[Sorcha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of interviews with women who knew Anne Frank, to varying degrees, and all of whom saw her after she was no longer able to write in her diary. These were important stories about these women, whether or not they related to (arguably) the most famous Holocaust victim, and I felt a little disappointed that they had to tie their stories to hers.

While, yes, Anne appeared in all of them, and they included scenes from her last seven months, and this is connected to a documentary of the same title, I feel much more of the book was not about Anne, and still as impactful and important.

[Sean Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of interviews from women who crossed paths with Anne Frank in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, there is real pain in the simple way they tell their stories. Anne Frank is often a symbol of the 6+ million who died in concentration camps, but here are six more women with stories to tell. And every one should be heard.

[Jayda 🍉 · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I have to say is that this book is heartbreaking 💔 and very eye opening. The testimonies of the six women who were in the documentary and book were all so sad and heartbreaking. I would highly recommend watching the documentary as the book is comprised of the transcripts from that documentary. This was a riveting book and the documentary is super important, I believe everyone should watch it, but be warned that the documentary is very graphic as the six female holocaust survivors go into extreme detail of what they endured. I will say though that the documentary/book are slightly misleading as this book isn’t entirely about Anne Frank but these six women knew Anne and Margot and they shared their experiences/stories with them, but other than that this book and documentary were devastating. If you’re going to read this book and watch the documentary, please proceed with caution. (5 stars ⭐️)

[Fabio Borges · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Esses relatos são necessários. Fascismo, neonazismo, discriminação racial e antissemitismo continuarão existindo. Até mesmo a autenticidade do diário chegou a ser questionada. Por tais motivos, a maioria das testemunhas decidiu contar sua história. Elas queriam expor abertamente as dores que lhes foram infligidas e, talvez assim, combater a injustiça onde quer que ela exista.”

[Nerdy Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um livro com relatos muito fortes, mas que exprimem bem e dão nos uma visão do que foi a segunda guerra mundial. 6 mulheres, 6 relatos, todas conheceram Anne Frank. Emocionei me muito lendo este livro... Mas acho que é um livro que todos deviam ler.

[Beth (biblio.beth) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Very harrowing, but so important to hear the stories and voices of survivors of this horrific time in history. I think this is even sadder when you have read Anne's diary beforehand, as you can see how much a bright, intelligent girl had been affected by what happened to her after her diary was written.

[Analuz Presbítero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo leí hace muchos años, y realmente es un libro recomendado para una/un joven que se puede identificar claramente con la edad de Anna. Es un libro realmente cálido porque fue escrito con el simple propósito de ser un diario, el confesionario de una persona común que se enfrenta a preguntas de la vida diaria, de crecer, pero al mismo de enfrentarse a adversidades.
Yo ataño el éxito que ha tenido y que para mi tiene es que te identificas con la autora, ves la cotidianidad de la vida pero de pronto es coartada la narrativa porque Anna fue detenida, porque terminó su vida, y es recordarnos y presentarnos de forma sutil las injusticias y como un pequeño evento puede cambiar nuestras vidas.

[Gerda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book. Not really about Anne Frank, it is the tale told by six women who shared Anne's fate to be on the last train from the Netherlands to Auschwitz. Each of the survivors has her own tale to tell. Somewhere they mention Anne (and her family) whom they have met in one or more camps. Thus a little light can be shed on what happened to Anne after she was taken from her hideout.

A good book to read, gruesome tales, but they need to be told. They need to be heard.

The content of the book can also be seen as a Dutch documentary on Youtube, with English subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSs7g...