The best friend of Jewish diarist Anne Frank has died aged 96.
Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen met Anne at school in Amsterdam in 1941, after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands.
Their friendship lasted for a full school year before Anne was forced into hiding with her family in July 1942.
The pair always promised to write each other a farewell letter if they could no longer see each other.
On September 25, 1942, Anne penned the promised letter in her diary, writing: ‘I hope that until we see each other again, we will always remain “best” friends.’
A statement from the Anne Frank Museum said: ‘With great sorrow, we announce the passing of Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen on 13 February at the age of 96.
‘Jacqueline was a classmate of Anne Frank at the Jewish Lyceum and shared her memories of their friendship throughout her life.’
Anne lived in secret with her parents Otto and Edith, sister Margot – along with the Van Pels family and dentist Fritz Pfeffer – until August 1944, when they were discovered by the Gestapo and arrested.
The best friend of Jewish diarist Anne Frank has died aged 96. Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen (above) met Anne at school in Amsterdam in 1941, after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands
A statement from the Anne Frank Museum said: ‘With great sorrow, we announce the passing of Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen on 13 February at the age of 96
Anne died shortly before her sister at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in February or March 1945.
Otto – the only survivor in the Frank family – published Anne’s diary in 1947 and it became a worldwide phenomenon.
The diary was discovered by helpers Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl shortly after the Frank family’s arrest.
Miep kept Anne’s writings safe until she could give them to her father.
Although Jacqueline’s father was Jewish, she escaped death in the Holocaust because her mother persuaded officials to declare her and her siblings to be of Aryan descent.
She also managed to have the family removed from deportation lists.
Jacqueline met Anne when both were studying at the Jewish Lyceum – the school erected after the occupying Nazis imposed segregation in Amsterdam.
Their friendship lasted for a full school year before Anne was forced into hiding.
Anne wrote of Jacqueline several times in her diary, recording how they shared a collection of movie star postcards.
She remembered, aged 12, sharing a bed with her. The pair spoke of boys and Anne even begged for a kiss to prove their friendship.
Anne Frank’s diary has sold millions of copies around the world since being published in 1947. Above: The photo of the Anne that featured on the cover of many editions of her diary
Anne Frank (centre) with her father Otto and sister Margot in 1931
Anne wrote in her diary on June 15, 1942: ‘Jacqueline van Maarsen I only got to know at the Jewish Lyceum and she is now my best friend.’
Anne also contributed to a poetry album compiled by Jacqueline. Her poem began ‘Dear Jacque’ and referred to her as her ‘dearest friend’.
After Anne went into hiding, Jacqueline believed the Frank family had safely escaped to Switzerland.
In reality, the Franks were living in secret just a few blocks away.
The family lived in an annex behind a hinged bookcase in the building where Otto Frank had worked.
After the war, Jacqueline worked as a bookbinder. She married Ruud Sanders in 1954 and the couple had three children.
Jacqueline kept in touch with Anne’s father until his death in 1980.
She remained silent on her friendship with Anne for many years, but chose to publish her memoir in 2007.
Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen with her husband Ruud, who she married in 1954
This photo taken in 1940 shows Anne Frank at the age of 12, sitting at her desk at the Montessori school in Amsterdam
The bookcase hiding the entrance to the secret annex which housed the family of Anne Frank
She recalled that it ‘wasn’t always easy being Anne’s best friend’.
‘She was very demanding and quickly jealous – yet we were kindred souls,’ she added.
Exactly how the Franks were discovered remains a mystery, although a team of historians and other experts claimed to have found evidence that they were betrayed by a fellow Jew who gave up the family to save his own.
Notary Arnold van den Bergh had been a member of Amsterdam’s Jewish Council, a body that was forced to implement Nazi policy in Jewish areas.
The council was disbanded in 1943 and its members were dispatched to concentration camps.
But van den Bergh was not sent to the camp. The research team that found the evidence also discovered a copy of an anonymous note sent to Otto Frank identifying van den Bergh as his betrayer.
