--- description: LIFE commemorates Anne Frank's unconquerable spirit -- and the lives of several of her friends who survived World War II and the Holocaust. title: Anne Frank: Photos of Her Childhood Friends as Adults in 1959 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51c892a878bbf4a5/6988477f35ba6f586dc0c572/01_19564271.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Anne Frank's Friends: Photos of the Girls Who Lived by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 22, 2014 10:02 PM CUT  Left to right: Hanneli Goslar (a.k.a., "Lies Goosens" in early editions of the Diary), Anne Frank, Dolly Citroen, Hannah Toby, Barbara Ledermann and Susanne Ledermann (standing), Amsterdam, 1937. Left to right: Hanneli Goslar (a.k.a., "Lies Goosens" in early editions of the Diary), Anne Frank, Dolly Citroen, Hannah Toby, Barbara Ledermann and Susanne Ledermann (standing), Amsterdam, 1937.Anne Frank Fonds/Anne Frank House via Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 22, 2014 10:02 PM CUT Some stories, in their telling, are so hard to believe and, at their end, are so hard to bear that—if they were not historically, demonstrably _real—r_eaders might be forgiven for dismissing them as over the top; stranger than fiction; too fanciful, and dreadful, by half. And yet anyone who has made it past, say, the eighth grade in virtually any school system anywhere in the world knows at least the rudiments of [Anne Frank](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne%5FFrank "undefined")‘s indelible story—and what’s more, knows it to be true. The narrative elements that form the framework of Anne’s [_Diary of a Young Girl_](http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Frank-Diary-Young-Girl/dp/0553296981 "undefined")are as prosaic and as grotesque as those that animate the darkest fairy tales. A young girl, wise and compassionate beyond her years, and her family go into hiding in Amsterdam during the Second World War, desperate to evade the Nazis who occupy their adopted country; the girl and those in hiding with her are eventually betrayed (by a person or persons still, to this day, unknown) and are sent to concentration camps; most of her former companions die—or rather, are murdered by Nazis and their willing proxies—along with millions of other Jews and “undesirables” in the coming years; Anne Frank herself is only 15 years old when she dies at [Bergen-Belsen](http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005224 "undefined") in March 1945—one month before Allied troops liberate the camp. These and other wrenching elements of Anne’s tale, imparted in the clear, unsentimental prose of her famous diary, are now integral markers in the shared memory of disparate cultures all over the world. Here, decades after the Frank family went into hiding, LIFE commemorates Anne’s unconquerable spirit—and bears witness to the suffering unleashed by the Third Reich—through the story of one seemingly incongruous photograph: a picture of children playing in a sandbox in Amsterdam in 1937. LIFE magazine set the scene, and explained the significance of the sandbox photograph, in its October 12, 1959, issue: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- Seven decades after Anne Frank and her family crept into their now-famous annex, and more than three-quarters of a century after a mother took a picture of her daughters and their friends playing in the sun in a small backyard in Amsterdam, LIFE.com offers these photographs—many of which never ran in LIFE magazine—made by Paul Schutzer during his deeply personal 21,000-mile trek into the past. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk "undefined")_._  Left to right: Hanneli Goslar (a.k.a., "Lies Goosens" in early editions of the Diary), Anne Frank, Dolly Citroen, Hannah Toby, Barbara Ledermann and Susanne Ledermann (standing), Amsterdam, 1937. Anne Frank Fonds/Anne Frank House via Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Barbara, who did not want to see her friend on film." The former Barbara Ledermann, she escaped from the Nazis in the Netherlands, lived with the underground, and met the man she would marry, Martin Rodbell, in the U.S. in 1947\. Her parents and her sister, Susanne, died at Auschwitz. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The former Barbara Ledermann, now Mrs. Martin Rodbell, with her family in Maryland, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The former Barbara Ledermann, now Mrs. Martin Rodbell, in Maryland, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The former Barbara Ledermann, now Mrs. Martin Rodbell, with her family in Maryland, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The former Barbara Ledermann, now Mrs. Martin Rodbell, 1959\. "When she and her husband went to the Anne Frank movie," LIFE wrote, "she stood debating whether to go in. Finally she decided not to — 'I've seen too much human suffering already,' she said." Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Hannah, whose husband \[Ronald Marsh\] is a California law student." The former Hannah Toby, she is fourth from the left in the sandbox picture; it was in her back yard that the group picture was taken. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Hannah Marsh and family, Los Angeles, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Hannah Marsh and family, Los Angeles, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Hannah Marsh and child, Los Angeles, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Dolly, friend from France who found a fruitful life in Israel." The girl at third from left in the sandbox photo, then Dolly Citroen, she is shown above with her husband, Shmuel Shoshan, and three of their four kids, on a picnic outside Jerusalem. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The former Dolly Citroen, now married to Shmuel Shoshan, in Israel, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The former Dolly Citroen with one of her four children, Israel, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The former Dolly Citroen with her family, Israel, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Lies, whose husband is an editor in Jerusalem." Hanneli Goslar (a.k.a., "Lies Goosens" in early editions of the Diary) was Anne's closest friend in Amsterdam. Also taken by the Nazis, she met her old playmate at Bergen-Belsen in 1945, not long before Anne died. "She was in rags," Hanneli told LIFE. "I saw her emaciated face in the darkness." Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The former Hanneli Goslar, now married to Dr. Walter Pinchas, in Jerusalem with her family, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The former Hanneli Goslar, now married to Dr. Walter Pinchas, in Jerusalem with her family, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The former Hanneli Goslar, now married to Dr. Walter Pinchas, in Jerusalem with her family, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Hanneli and Dolly, childhood friends of Anne Frank, with their children in Jerusalem, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/22052/anne-frank-and-her-friends-photos-by-paul-schutzer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/22052/anne-frank-and-her-friends-photos-by-paul-schutzer/"},"headline":"Anne Frank's Friends: Photos of the Girls Who Lived","datePublished":"2014-01-22T22:02:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:34.237Z","description":"Seven decades after Anne Frank's family went into hiding, LIFE commemorates a young girl's unconquerable spirit -- and the lives of the friends (above, with Anne in 1937) who survived.","url":"https://time.com/22052/anne-frank-and-her-friends-photos-by-paul-schutzer/","keywords":["Children","Israel","Holocaust","photography","World War II","Ben Cosgrove","black and white photography","Third Reich","Nazism","Paul Schutzer"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51c892a878bbf4a5/6988477f35ba6f586dc0c572/01_19564271.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51c892a878bbf4a5/6988477f35ba6f586dc0c572/01_19564271.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Anne Frank, 1937","caption":"Left to right: Hanneli Goslar (a.k.a., \"Lies Goosens\" in early editions of the Diary), Anne Frank, Dolly Citroen, Hannah Toby, Barbara Ledermann and Susanne Ledermann (standing), Amsterdam, 1937.","creditText":"Anne Frank Fonds/Anne Frank House via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/22052/anne-frank-and-her-friends-photos-by-paul-schutzer/","name":"Anne Frank's Friends: Photos of the Girls Who Lived"}}]}] ```