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Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend

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Anne Frank didn't exist in a vacuum. She had friends, some mentioned in her diary. One of these was Hannah Gosler, "Lies" in Anne's writings. Now Hannah Gosler has set down her childhood memories of both Anne and her own terrifying experiences during the Nazi occupation of Holland. Mrs. Pick-Gosler's odyssey is every bit as astonishing as Anne's.

The book begins with the Franks' disappearance and careens headlong into the Goslers' own nightmare. Somehow, Hannah manages to keep hold of her toddler sister Gabi even as the rest of her family dies--in pieces, member by member. There is the heartrending chance reunion with Anne through an Auschwitz fence mentioned in the Afterward of Anne's diary. And finally the end of the war and surreal "liberation"...from a Nazi cattle car, with Auschwitz survivors staggering out into a deserted snowy field, almost senseless with illness and starvation, their guards having fled.

Parents should be both warned and assured: this beautiful book doesn't flinch from brutal fact, but in Ms. Gold's deft hand the language manages to convey information without any morbidity. And the haunting photographs are a precious inclusion. We see little Anne, dark eyes laughing, against the backdrop of her Amsterdam appartment building. Hannah grows up before our eyes in a series of photos taken against this same wall. There is one photo of Hannah holding little Gabi, and it's shocking to know this is the same child she managed to keep alive through the Nazi concentration camps.

But the most heartbreaking photo is on the back of the book. Nine beautiful little girls line up, arms around shoulders, smiling in pretty party dresses. It's Anne's birthday. Looking at all those nobby knees and sweet faces will take your breath away. Many of the girls didn't survive the war. And yet in a few short years Hannah would save a life, and Anne (whom Hannah called the Pole Star) would write one of the most important documents of the the 20th Century.

This book is wonderfull. It tells the story of one of the secondary characters in Anne's diary, Hannali (ie Lies) Gosens.

It's true that it focuses mostly on Hannah, but that's the way it should be. It fills in many of the essential holes in Anne's story and tells us what happened to their other friend Sanna ....

If you like this one, I also recommend Eva's Story. It's the story of Anne's posthumous step-sister (her mom married Otto after the war). It's true that the parents never met, but Eva had been over to the Frank House many times and was even at ther birthday party where they watched Rin Tin Tin (or whatever the movie was) and Anne got her diary. Both books provide valuable instight and are necessary to the understanding of Anne Frank.

Even though Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend was written in the 1990s, it portrays the horrors of the Holocaust as vividly as if Hannah Goslar, Anne's childhood best friend, had been describing her whole story just when she was liberated of Bergen-Belsen almost half a century before, in 1945.

This book is basically a journey through Hannah's life during, before, and even a bit after World War II, taking us to the various concentration camps she was sent to. Probably the most touching scene is when Hannah miraculously finds Anne, a few months before she died, at Bergen-Belsen. Anne had believed Hannah to be long dead, as she once wrote an entry in her diary stating that she felt tremendously guilty for Hannah's suffering. Ironically, it turned out to be the other way around, and Anne was the one to die instead.

I found it incredibly hard not to let go off a few tears when I read about the deaths of Hannah's loved ones, one by one. Each was as sad as the previous one, and I cannot immagine how Hannah found the strength to survive and ultimately to go on with her life in those harsh circumstances. Undoubtedly, that took real courage.

I believe Alison Gold did a pretty good job in telling the world Hannah's story, even though at times, I did not quite like her writing style because I found it too simple, which is just misleading, because this book is not a light read at all. Other than that, I found her descriptions to be good but thankfully not too graphic.

I really enjoyed Hannah's personal photographs at the middle of the book. I felt like each and every single one of them was telling me a whole new story, and it was disturbing to know how many people pictured did not manage to survive this whole atrocity.

If you're interested in learning more about Anne Frank, beyond her diary and what happened after that, this book is a wonderful addition to Anne Frank fans, but it also introduces us to a new person not many people are familiar with: Hannah. I truly believe that she was no less than a hero herself. She suffered as much as any other Holocaust victim did and lost as much as any other Holocaust victim did. For some unknown reason to us, she survived to tell her story, and, for that, we should be thankful.

Wow! this book was so GREAT! I couldn't put it down. I read it after I read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, which I absolutely loved, too. I enjoyed learning more about Anne Frank and her life. I also liked the pictures. This is one of my favorite books. You have to read it!

I liked this book because it takes you through timeless journey that helps you understand the living and lives of the Jews and the Nazi. How the harsh punishment and cruelty treatment was by a friend's point of view. This book is very detail and includes everything you need to know about Annie Frank and her relationship with her family and friends. This book also tells you about the struggles and hardship on trying to hide and saving your life.
I also liked this book because not only is it heart riveting but also it focuses on a real based living of a young teenage girl that lived a normal life until she had to meet up to the Nazi's need. This story also focuses on a strong point of view of a teenager's life and what they deal with everyday. A diary of an intelligent teenager is now a published novel.
My favorite part in this book is when the Nazi find some of the Jewish hiding and the Nazi finds some of them and send them off in the train. I also like the part when the author explain how they had a certain way of living and the standards of clothes they wore and the lifestyle they lived in. Why I liked this part in the book was because it showed passion and gives a big thump in our heart that makes us want to show them pity and sadness.

I am a student 5th grade...

This story takes place in Amsterdam, Germany in between the 1940's and 1950's. A Jewish girl whose name is Hannah Elizabeth Pick-Goslar tells everything she remembers about her best friend Anne Frank and her true-life story. Everyday before World War 2 began Hannah and Anne would walk to school together. Until, one day like always Hannah was up and ready for school she walked to the Frank's house (which was across from)
And knocked on the solid rock door, no one was home! The house was stripped down bear! Hannah panicked, she ran to the next door neighbors house to ask if he knew where the franks were? The neighbor replied saying that they escaped to go to Switzerland from the Nazis.
After Hannah had heard the news she quickly ran to her house telling her parents what she had heard about the Franks. Her parents freaked out wondering if the Nazis were looking for them. But, Hannah wondered if she ever will see Anne again.?
Through the story Hannah is exported to concentration camps with her mom, dad, grandfather, grandmother, and even her little baby sister who is only 2 years old! Will Hannah's family survive? Will she ever meet Anne again? Read the book to find out!

I read the book Memories of Anne Frank by Alison Leslie Gold as an assignment for school. I usually like to read but this book was very average but I am definitely not saying that this book is not a good one. Its just really is not style of book. The book was focused mainly on Anne Frank's childhood friend Hannah Goslar and Hannah's family. The book was not very factual, it did not give many important dates, and it stayed mostly from one point of view. The story was mostly based around memories that Hannah had of Anne's and her childhood friendship and the families friendship when thing were all fine and before the Nazi people came. I would probably recommend this book to a girl over a boy because the main character, Hannah, is a girl and boy and girls interpret thing differently most times. Mainly I did enjoy the book but it was not one of the best books I ever read.

I gained a new perspective of the life for Jews. I had never thought about how it must have been to have friends suddenly disappear from school and never return again as they did in Amsterdam during WWII. The author painted an absorbing, suspense filled picture of her life and her struggle for survival as a Jew during the Nazi occupation of Holland. Her portrayal of her friendship with Anne Frank was intimate and honest. You were given insight as to who they were and what they were like from a different outside perspective. You sensed the humanism of Anne and Hannah's lifelong bond and realized that they were once teenagers - yet very wise ones - just as many of us once were. What made both young women extraordinary was their daily courage and perseverance in the face of life threatening discrimination. The writing was both detailed and absorbing. I found myself empathizing with Hannah's struggles both inward and outward to live and persevere. Throughout the book I was in constant awe of her courage and concern for the welfare of others. The book caused me to realize once again not only how tenuous life and personal relationships are and how we must value each as a gift, but also, how tenuous our freedom is, for it is also a gift.

"Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend" by Alison Leslie Gold, prize-winning author of another book on Anne Frank, tells the story of Anne's childhood friend Hannah Pick-Goslar. The title may be a little deceiving for this book is very much the tale of Hannah's experience during the war as well as her memories of what her friendship with Anne was like. It is a revealing and poignant document that offers further background to the memory of Anne Frank and her enduring legacy.

Hanneli Goslar was the first friend Anne Frank made when her family moved from Germany to Amsterdam, and it was a friendship that Anne wrote about in the diary, with Hanneli's name changed along with the others. Gold begins Hannah's story with her discovery of the Frank's sudden departure from Amsterdam, with flashbacks to their days at school and play. Gold then recounts what the war did to the Goslar family, before and after their time in concentration camps when their number had dwindled down to two. The most poignant episode in the book, besides the losses that Hannah undergoes in her own family, is when she encounters a much altered Anne at Bergen-Belsen and learns what her friend had been through, knowing that there isn't much she can do to help her out. Hannah somehow managed to survive and shared her memories with Gold to help further Anne's legacy, even if her memories are not as sharp as they once were.

"Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend" is a must read for anyone who is curious about Anne's war time experience beyond the diary. It is a children's book, which means that the writing is simplistic, sometimes too simplistic, but Gold is able to augment the horrors of what Hannah saw in the concentration camps without devolving into too much detail. A more grown-up version of Hannah's story can be found in Willy Lindmer's excellent "The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank", but for younger readers, Gold's recounting of Anne's friend Hannah is a very good place to learn more about one of the most well-known victims of the Holocaust.

This tale of survival of Anne Frank's best friend Hannah Goslar is filled with both hope and tragedy. You really get attached to Hannah as she copes with everything from the loss of friends/relatives, deportation, life in a concentration camp, taking care of her toddler sister Gabi and finally liberation. You get teary eyed towards the end as she talks about her long gone friends and the childhood that was taken away from her as she embarks on a new life.

As this was intended for children the writing style is a little simplistic. Also as this was written by a third person we don't really get to delve into Hannah's feelings and emotions as her life unfolds. There are also some notable inconsistencies to other books and such. I was also disappointed to see the narrative start with Anne's disappearance as I was also interested in Hannah's pre-war life. This however is covered somewhat in the "Last Seven Months of Anne Frank" a book which I also recommend.

To be fair the book is full of flashbacks and leaves no question unaswered. It also introduced me to new facts like the rift that Anne and Hannah felt between them in their final months together, Hanna's boyfriend and Mrs. Goslar's resentment of the Franks disappearance. The book is heart wrenching at times like the time the two girls meet at a fence in Bergen-Belsen which came by pure chance. You're filled with emotion when Anne says "Hanneli? Is it reall you?" and Hannah says "It's me! I'm here."

Overall the book not only fills in some holes but it also brings closure to the Anne Frank story like it should.