Jacqueline van Maarsen was Anne Frank’s best friend. “Jopie,” as Anne called her, shares memories of Anne that have not been documented previously, and also tells her own story. Jewish on her father’s side, van Maarsen was also a victim of oppression against the Jews. But just before families were being rounded up for deportation to camps, van Maarsen’s Catholic mother managed to get her and her sister removed from the rosters of Jews in living in Amsterdam. She was suddenly not Jewish anymore, and went from a life of fear and restriction to one that was free but tainted with deep sadness. Every day more and more of her friends disappeared without discussion or explanation. After the war, van Maarsen reconnected with Anne’s father, Otto Frank, and he showed her Anne’s diary and told of plans for its publication. The two shared palpable pain and tenderness, and Jacqueline and Otto Frank remained friends until his death. (Ages 10–14)

With black-and-white photographs, this eloquent memoir by Jopie, the best friend of Anne Frank, offers a firsthand perspective on life in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, and an intimate, humanizing remembrance of perhaps the most famous victim of the Holocaust.