Margot Frank

January 5, 2018

Margot Frank was born on February 16, 1926 in Frankfurt, Germany. Her parents were Otto and Edith Frank, and she had a younger sister, Anne. 

With the growing anti-semitism in Germany and the rise of laws against the Jewish population, the Frank family decided to move to Amsterdam in 1933. 

Throughout school, Margot displayed her intellgience and exhibited an exceptional studious quality. Even among the turmoil of being forced to change schools as a result of anti-Jewish laws, she continued to excel. She also became involved in Amsterdam’s Jewish community, took Hebrew, attended synagogue, and joined a club of young people who hoped to eventually move to Israel. She had hoped to become a midwife there. 

On July 5, 1942, Margot received papers ordering that she report to a labor camp in Germany. This notice propelled the family’s plan to go into hiding. The next day, the entire Frank family went into hiding above Otto’s office building. 

With a three year age difference, the Frank sisters were extremely different. In her diary, Anne wrote that her mother often encouraged her to be more like Margot, and she took note of her sister’s intelligence. In one instance, she recorded a letter from Margot about the young man in hiding with them, Peter. The letter, Anne said, was “evidence of Margot’s goodness.” 

The Frank family along with the others in hiding were arrested on August 4, 1944. On August 8, they were taken to Westerbork concentration camp. Because they had neglected Margot’s notice to report to a labor camp two years prior, they were called criminals. On September 3, they were deported to Auschwitz. On October 30, Margot and Anne were transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Margot Frank died of typhus in February 1945. Her body, along with Anne’s, was buried in a mass grave.

Margot kept a diary during her time in hiding, but it has ever been recovered. 

According to Otto Frank, Anne Frank, and numerous others who knew her, Margot was quiet, clever, and beautiful. While Anne is undoubtedly the more well-known of the Frank sisters, it is important to remember Margot.

Margot Frank’s story is one of quiet intelligence. Her story is a reminder to remember all of those silenced by the Holocaust – even those whose voices seem quiet.