Hanneli Goslar

Hannah Elisabeth Goslar was born in Tiergarten, 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, Netherlands.[4] 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 Ilse Wagner and Jacqueline van Maarsen.[5]

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.[4] Hannah was in a privileged section of the camp because her family had Palestinian passports with them. Sometime between January and 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.[4]

Hannah and Gabi survived 14 months at Bergen-Belsen. Her father and maternal grandparents died of illnesses before the liberation. She was rescued along with the other survivors of the Lost Train.[6] Hannah and Gabi were the only members of their family to survive the war and, in 1947, they immigrated to Jerusalem.

Hannah married Dr. Walter Pinchas Pick, with whom she had three children, and still lives in Jerusalem. She has eleven grandchildren and over 20 great-grandchildren.[4]

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.[7] 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 Pick-Goslar's life and close friendship with Anne Frank, titled My Best Friend Anne Frank, was released in 2021.

• People associated with Anne Frank

• Interview with Hanneli Pick-Goslar
• "That's What I Hope": The Story of Holocaust Survivor Hanneli Goslar - Yad Vashem website
• Memories of Anne Frank: nonfiction book detailing Goslar's experience during the Holocaust
• Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001 film) at IMDb
• Mi ricordo Anne Frank (2009 film) at IMDb
• Meine Tochter Anne Frank (2015 film) at IMDb