Hanneli Goslar

Hannah Elisabeth "Hanneli" Pick-Goslar (born 12 November 1928) is a former nurse who is best known for her close friendship with diarist Anne Frank. Both Hannah and Anne had attended the 6th Montessori School (named after Anne Frank in 1957) in Amsterdam and then the Jewish Lyceum. Hannah Goslar is alive at 92 years old and lives in Jerusalem.

Early life[]

Hannah Elisabeth Goslar was born in Berlin, Germany, on 12 November 1928, the eldest child of Hans Goslar and Ruth Judith Klee.^[1] Her father was deputy minister for domestic affairs in Germany until 1933^[2] and her mother was a teacher. Both of her parents were observant Jews. Her mother died giving birth to her third child; the baby was stillborn. In 1933, after the election of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to the Reichstag and Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, Hans Goslar was forced to resign his governmental job.^[3] After an abortive attempt to move to England, where Hans Goslar could not find work that would allow him to stay home on the Shabbat, the Goslars moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Hannah attended the Sixth Public Montessori school in Amsterdam, where she became best friends with Anne Frank. Anne and Hannah were also best and close friends with Susanne "Sanne" Ledermann, who lived in the same area but attended a different school, and later with and Jacqueline van Maarsen.^[4]

Arrest and concentration camp life[]

In June 1943, Hannah, her father, her maternal grandparents, along with Hannah's younger sister Gabrielle ("Gabi"), were arrested and sent to the Westerbork transit camp, and then eventually to the exchange camp of Bergen-Belsen in February 1944. Hannah was in a privileged section of the camp because her family had Palestine passports with them. Sometime between January–February 1945, Hannah was briefly reunited with Anne Frank, who was a less privileged prisoner imprisoned at the other side of the camp. Hannah tossed Anne a package with some bread and socks in it over a hay-filled barbed wire fence dividing the two sections. Hannah and Gabi survived 14 months at Bergen-Belsen. Her father and maternal grandparents died of illnesses before the liberation. Hannah and Gabi were the only members of their family to survive the war, and in 1947, they immigrated to Mandatory Palestine, settling in Jerusalem.

Present life[]

Hannah married Dr. Walter Pinchas Pick, and they have three children. Hannah still lives in Jerusalem and she has eleven grandchildren and over 20 great-grandchildren.

Hannah has appeared in several documentaries related to Anne Frank, first in the 1988 Emmy Award winning documentary by Willy Lindwer The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, the 1995 documentary Anne Frank Remembered and the 2008 documentary Classmates of Anne Frank.^[5] The 1997 book Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend, by Holocaust author Alison Leslie Gold, is based upon extensive interviews with Hannah. The 2009 television film Mi Ricordo Anna Frank is based on this book.

A fictionalized account of Mrs. Goslar's life and close friendship with Anne Frank titled My Best Friend, Anne Frank had a limited release in 2021.

See also[]

• Documentary film by Willy Lindwer: The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, 1988 International EMMY AWARD
• People associated with Anne Frank
• Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001)
• Memories of Anne Frank: nonfiction book detailing Goslar's experience during the Holocaust
• Memories of Anne Frank (2009 film)
• Meine Tochter Anne Frank (2015)

References[]

External links[]

• Interview with Hanneli Pick-Goslar