04 June 2023 , 14:09
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A Holocaust survivor who was Anne Frank's childhood friend has revealed details of their final heartbreaking meeting at a concentration camp in Germany.
When Hitler came to power, Hannah Pick-Goslar and her family moved from Germany to Amsterdam, where they met Anne and her loved ones in 1934.
The two girls went to the same school and were neighbours, so they soon became best friends and shared many memories together.
The families spent a lot of time together, also on special occasions, when they shared Jewish holidays and Shabbat dinners.
Hannah, who died just before her 94th birthday on October 28, 2022, visited Anne's house on July 6, 1942, and was told that she was not there.
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Hannah Pick-Goslar's book is out this week (Penguin Random House)
Anne and Hannah were childhood best friends (AP)She thought her friend had moved to Switzerland to be with her grandmother - but in reality, the family was hiding in a secret annex in a building that once Anne's dad Otto Frank used for his business.
However, they were betrayed and discovered in August 1944, when they were sent via train to Auschwitz-Birkenau before Anne and her elder sister Margot were moved to Bergen-Belsen.
Hannah was in the same concentration camp but since her father had previously worked as a deputy minister for domestic affairs, they were classed as protected Jews - meaning they were kept separate from other inhabitants of the camp, in slightly better conditions.
The two girls went to the same school and were neighbours (Anne Frank House)In her memoir, which is coming out on June 8 and has been serialised in The Sun, Hannah revealed details of her last meeting with Anne as they managed to have a short conversation while trying to hide from camp guards.
Hannah said she decided to slip out at night to go and meet her friend, even though she was confused as to why Anne was at the camp because she was convinced that the Frank family had moved to Switzerland.
The woman wrote that when she saw Anne, they both broke into tears and she quickly found out that the story about the Frank family going to Switzerland was all a ruse.
The two girls were very close (Anne Frank House)Revealing details of what Anne told her, Hannah wrote in her book: "Anne quickly explained where they had been. ‘We were in hiding in my father’s office, upstairs in rooms behind a secret door. We were there for over two years. Two years I never stepped outside,’ she said, her words now rushing out."
Anne then told her friend that after being safe from the Nazis, deportation and concentration camps for two years, someone had betrayed them.
She also told her friend that they had taken her hair, which was Anne's favourite feature, the book says.
Hannah went on to write: "And she was freezing, she told me, dressed only in rags. I shuddered thinking of her totally exposed to the freezing wind and rain blowing around us."
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Hannah visits the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam (Marcel Antonisse/EPA/REX/Shutterstock)Anne then told her friend that her sister Margot was ill with typhus and that her parents were both dead - even though her father Otto was actually the only member of the family to survive the Holocaust.
After exchanging some more updates about each other's life, Anne was heartbroken as she told her friend: "I have no one."
She also asked Hannah if she could bring her some food as she was "absolutely starting" - but despite telling each other they would meet again in two nights, that was their last conversation, followed by a short, rushed goodbye.
Anne also contracted typhus and died in the concentration camp shortly after her sister Margot.
Her father then found Anne's diary and published it after the war. Since then, it has been translated into more than 70 languages.