The Holocaust is a huge tragedy of the Jewish people. Millions of Jews in Europe became its victims. However, as often happens, out of these millions of tragedies, human memory singles out a few, which seem to absorb the rest and become the personification of all the horror. One of the most famous victims of the Holocaust is the fifteen-year-old girl Anne Frank. But few people know about her mother, Edith Frank, who played a key role in the history of the Frank family. Therefore, her life path deserves special attention.
Edith Frank was born on January 16, 1900 in Aachen, Germany, into a wealthy Jewish family. She grew up in a prosperous environment, surrounded by the care and attention of her parents. In 1925 she married Otto Frank. The couple had two daughters - Margot and Anna. Edith was a traditional Jewish mother, deeply attached to her family and trying to create a calm and loving environment for her children.
With the beginning of the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, the Frank family decides to flee to the Netherlands, where they thought they could find refuge from the Nazi regime. However, when German troops occupied the Netherlands in 1940, life became unbearable for Jewish families. In 1942, the Frank family was forced to hide in the attic of a house in Amsterdam, where they spent two years avoiding arrest.
Edith Frank, under these difficult conditions, proved herself to be a persistent and selfless mother. Although she herself was under incredible stress and fear for the future of her family, her top priority remained the well-being of her children. Edith tried to maintain at least a semblance of a normal life and took care of the physical and emotional well-being of her daughters.
However, despite her efforts, the relationship between Edith and Anna was not easy. In her diary, Anna often expresses dissatisfaction with her mother, accusing her of a lack of understanding and emotional closeness. This conflict of generations and personalities may have been aggravated by the confined space in which they were forced to live. But, despite the difficulties in communication, she continued to love and care for her daughter. People who interacted with the Frank family at the time remembered Edith as a modest woman who tried to communicate with her teenage children as equals.
In August 1944, the Frank family was arrested as a result of betrayal. Edith and her daughters were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. There, in conditions of inhuman suffering, her maternal dedication was fully demonstrated. She refused her food in favor of her daughters, hoping to somehow support their strength.
In October 1944, Edith was forcibly separated from her daughters, who were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by the Nazis. After this, the woman's health began to rapidly deteriorate, and on January 6, 1945, Edith Frank died of starvation, 10 days before her 45th birthday and 20 days before the Red Army liberated Auschwitz. In the end, fate was merciful to her. She did not learn about the death of her daughters, who died a month later in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from typhoid fever.
Edith Frank is a symbol of the tragic fate of mothers forced to protect and support their children in the most terrible circumstances. Her life and death are an example of incredible fortitude and maternal love. Although her daughter Anna has become a symbol of the Holocaust, Edith herself remains an important part of the story, embodying the tragedy and resilience of the millions of Jewish mothers who survived the horrors of the Nazi regime.
Edith Frank deserves to be remembered not only as Anne Frank's mother, but also as a strong woman who did everything she could to save her family despite the horror happening around them.