Bep Voskuijl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elisabeth 'Bep' Voskuijl (July 5, 1919, Amsterdam - May 6, 1983, Amsterdam) helped conceal Anne Frank and her family from Nazi persecution during the occupation of the Netherlands.

She was hired by Otto Frank in 1937 as a secretary and by 1942 was the administration manager of his company, Opekta, based at 263 Prinsengracht, the address which would become the Frank family's hiding place. She agreed to help bring provisions to his family and four other people concealed in the back rooms of the office building, from July 1942, until their betrayal and arrest in August 1944. During the Gestapo raid she managed to escape, but returned to assist Miep Gies in collecting the personal possessions of the captured Jews, amongst which were Anne Frank's diaries and manuscripts.

She left the company after her marriage to Cornelius van Wijk on May 15, 1946 and they went on to have four children; Ton, Cor, Joop, and a daughter whom she named after Anne.

She was honoured in later years for her activities during the Second World War, but disliked publicity and gave few interviews about her association with Anne Frank. She did, however, remain in touch with Otto Frank until his death and kept a scrapbook of articles about Anne and her diary.

[edit] See also

• People associated with Anne Frank
• Interview with Bep Voskuijl
• The wedding photograph of Bep Voskuijl and Cor van Wijk taken a year after the war, showing Otto Frank, Pfeffer's partner Charlotte Kaletta, and Miep and Jan Gies
• Post war photo of Bep at home with her children

[edit] References and further reading

• The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical Edition, Anne Frank, edited by David Barnouw and Gerrold Van der Stroom, translated by Arnold J. Pomerans, compiled by H. J. J. Hardy, second edition, Doubleday 2003.
• Anne Frank Remembered, Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold, Simon and Schuster 1988
• Roses from the Earth: the Biography of Anne Frank, Carol Ann Lee, Penguin 1999.
• Anne Frank: the Biography, Melissa Muller, foreword by Miep Gies, Bloomsbury 1999.
• The Footsteps of Anne Frank, Ernst Schnabel, Pan 1988.
• The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, Carol Ann Lee, Penguin 2002.