My mother, Edith Velmans, who has died aged 97, was called “the Anne Frank who lived” after publishing her memoir of her life as a “hidden” Jewish teenager in Holland during the second world war.
Born in The Hague into an assimilated, non-religious Jewish family, Edith was one of three children of David (Dago) van Hessen, a businessman in the timber trade, and his wife, Adelheid. She had a happy, carefree childhood in a loving household filled with music, art and fun until the Germans invaded Holland in May 1940, when she was 14. Jews were banned from the beach and from public transport, and Edith was expelled from school and had to wear a yellow star on her clothes. In 1942, she was forced to go into hiding, “diving under”, as it was called in Holland. A friend of one of her brothers produced forged papers for Edith, and one night she said goodbye to her beloved family and fled, under the curfew, for the south of Holland.
