How Did Anne Frank Die? Jewish teenager died earlier than thought, new study says

Anne Frank died in a Nazi concentration camp at least a month earlier than her official date of death, researchers have said. The new study traces the final years of Anne and her sister, Margot.

Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl whose Diary of a Young Girl is one of the most-read books about personal experiences during the Holocaust, may have died a month earlier than previously thought.

New research conducted by the Anne Frank Foundation looked into the last days of Anne’s life as the 70th anniversary of her death came this year. It was previously believed that she died in March 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from typhus. However, researchers found that it is not likely that she and her sister, Margot, survived past February 1945.

The Red Cross first said that both Anne and Margot died between March 1 and March 31, 1945 and the Dutch authorities had determined that they didn’t die until March 31, 1945. However, the Foundation is now sure that they had to have died in February that year.

DutchNews notes that the last time any camp survivor saw Anne was before Feb. 7. This woman gave Anne food from relief organized by Auguste van Pels, who was taken to another camp on Feb. 7. Others who knew Anne and her sister were taken elsewhere with Van Pels when the Nazis saw that they had typhus.

The Anne Frank Foundation runs the home in Amsterdam where her family hid from the Nazis before they were arrested. Researchers were still unable to determine exactly when in February 1945 she died.

Agencies/Canadajournal