Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen, a friend and classmate of Anne Frank, has died at the age of 96, the Anne Frank Foundation announced on Friday.
Sanders-van Maarsen was a classmate of Frank at the Jewish Lyceum, where they met in 1941 after Sanders-van Maarsen was forced to leave public school due to the Nazi regime.
"Jacqueline van Maarsen has become my best friend," Anne Frank wrote in her diary on 15 June 1942.
On 25 September 1942, after Frank had gone into hiding in the Secret Annex, she wrote an unsent farewell letter to Sanders-van Maarsen in her diary.
"I hope we will see each other again soon, but it will probably not be before the end of the war […] Your 'best' friend, Anne. P.S. I hope that until we meet again we will remain 'best' friends," the letter read.
Sanders-van Maarsen had a Jewish father and a French mother. Her mother managed to have herself and her daughters classified as non-Jewish. The entire van Maarsen family, including her father, survived the war. However, many of her father's relatives were killed in concentration camps.
Sanders-van Maarsen wrote several books about her friendship with Anne Frank. 'Your Best Friend Anne' was awarded the Silver Slate Pencil in 2012.
"Jacqueline meant a great deal to the Anne Frank Foundation," said the foundation. "We could always rely on her, even when she was elderly."
