It was only fifty years after the end of WWII that Jacqueline van Maarsen, now 91-years-old, decided to tell the very personal tale of her intimate friendship with Anne Frank. They visited the same highschool in Amsterdam and were best friends when the Frank family had to go into hiding. After the war, Otto Frank visited the Van Maarsen family to share the sad news about his daughter and wife.
In the end, Jacqueline van Maarsen decided to write down the story of her friendship with Anne Frank. Translations followed, and Jacqueline bestowed the rest of her life to travelling Europe and the US to teach about the Holocaust. She was awarded amongst others the Bundesverdienstkreuz of Nordrhein-Westfalen and the ‘Champion of the Human Spirit Award’ in New York for her efforts.
In this book she talks of her friendship with Anne Frank as well as about the important stories that survivors told her during her readings all over the world. Stories that should not be forgotten!