Jacqueline van Maarsen
| Jacqueline van Maarsen | |
|---|---|
| Born |
30 January 1929 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Occupation | bookbinder, author |
Jacqueline Yvonne Meta (Jacque) van Maarsen (Dutch pronunciation: [ʒɑkəˈlin iˈvɔnə ˈmeːtaː (ʒɑk) vɑm ˈmaːrsə(n)]) (born 30 January 1929) is a Dutch author and former bookbinder. She is best known for her friendship with diarist Anne Frank. Jacque's Christian mother was able to remove the J (Jew) signs from the family's identity cards (Jacque's father was Jewish) during the Second World War, an act which helped the van Maarsens to escape from the Nazis.
Jacque was born in Amsterdam to a Dutch-Jewish father, Hijman van Maarsen, and a French Christian mother, Elline van Maarsen. Jacque has a sister, Christiane. Jacque studied in a regular school in Amsterdam until 1940, when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. Then Jacque had to move to a Jewish lyceum. In the Jewish school, Jacqueline befriended many girls, including Anne Frank, Nanette Blitz, Sanne Ledermann and Hanneli Goslar. Jacque was the secretary of the ping-pong club started by her friends, Little Dipper Minus Two.
Anne and Jacque became best friends, and they often visited each other's houses and did their homework together. Jacque sincerely liked Anne, but found her at times too demanding in her friendship. In July 1942, Anne's family went into hiding, but Jacque did not know about this. Anne, in her diary later, was remorseful for her own attitude toward Jacque, regarding with better understanding Jacque's desire to have other close girlfriends as well - "I just want to apologize and explain things", Anne wrote. After two and a half months in hiding, Anne composed a farewell letter to Jacque in her diary, vowing her lifelong friendship. Jacque read this passage much later, after the publication of the diary.
...
Wikipedia