Anne Frank Home
In The Diary of Anne Frank, the name "Lies Goosens" appears a number
of times. Anne's father, Otto Frank, changed the names
of the people in the diary when it was first published.
Lies Goosens is the name he chose for one of Anne's
closest childhood friends, Hanneli Goslar. Like the
Frank family, the members of Hanneli's family were
also Holocaust victims.
More than six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during this
brief period in history, including Anne Frank. But,
miraculously, Hanneli and her sister survived.
This timeline tells the story of Hanneli's experience.
November 1928:
All summer Hanneli sees Jews arrested and sent away.
Hanneli worries
for her family's safety.
Because Hanneli's father had a high government position
back in Germany, he manages to get South American passports
for his family and puts their names on a list of people
seeking to emigrate to Palestine (now Israel). The
Goslars continue to live at home, although they remain
fearful of being arrested and sent to a
concentration camp.
Most prisoners at Westerbork stay only briefly before
being transported to concentration camps like Auschwitz and Sobibor in Poland.
Because of their South American passports and the
Palestine list, the Goslars are able to delay their
transfer, and are safe — at least for a while.
Hanneli's grandfather dies of a heart attack.
At Bergen-Belsen, the Goslars are put in a "privileged"
camp called Alballalager. Privileged in this case
means prisoners clothes aren't taken away, their hair
isn't shaved, families aren't separated, and numbers
are not tattooed on their arms. Across the fence,
in the "less privileged" camp, Hanneli sees
prisoners in zebra-striped pajamas and shaved heads.
They look starved and diseased.
Hanneli gets sick with jaundice. She is in the hospital for over a month.
Hanneli and her remaining family are told they have
been put on the next exchange list for Palestine — they
are being freed in exchange for German prisoners of
war. The same evening that they learn of the exchange,
Mr. Goslar dies, believing that his daughters are going
to be free the next day. But the following day, when
Hanneli, her sister, and her grandmother arrive at
the train, a soldier informs them that the exchange
has been canceled. He orders them back to their barracks.
On the tenth day, Hanneli wakes up to see Germans with
white flags in their hands. The German government
has surrendered. The war is over. Out of six members
of her family, only Hanneli and her sister have survived.
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