Margot: A Novel (39 page)

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time as he pushes open the front door to my building with his
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other hand.
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We are still holding hands, even outside on Ludlow Street,
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then Eighteenth. As we walk we laugh and talk about the
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future, our breath frosting beautiful circles in the winter
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night.

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Author’s Note
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The first time I read
T
he
D
iary of
a y
oung
g
irl
, I was
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thirteen. As an American teenager in the early 1990s—even
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a Jewish one—I didn’t think the book would have much to do
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with me. That is, until I read it. I was the same age as Anne
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was when she wrote the diary, a writer, a dreamer, Jewish—
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had I lived fifty years earlier in Europe, I might have been the
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one writing the diary in hiding. It was a terrifying thought.
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Nearly twenty years later, I picked up the diary again, and
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this time, as I read it, I was struck by something entirely dif
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ferent. Anne Frank had an older sister, Margot, who also kept
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a diary in the annex. I realized I didn’t really remember Mar
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got from my earlier teenage reading of Anne’s diary, but as an
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older sister myself, I was interested in what happened to her,
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in how her experience in the annex was different from Anne’s,
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and what their sister relationship was like. So I set out to
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learn more about Margot, only to discover that virtually all
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that is known of her today is the little that Anne wrote within
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the pages of her diary. (Margot’s diary, unlike Anne’s, was
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never recovered after the war.) I began to wonder about the
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two sisters, both of whom were teenagers during the Holo
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caust, both Jews, both hiding in the annex, both keeping dia
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ries. How is it that one sister and her diary have, in the
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aftermath, become an icon of the Holocaust, a symbol for a
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whole generation, while the other sister is today virtually
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unknown? And thus the idea for
Margot
was born.
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Though this book is a work of fiction, and the Margot
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Frank/Margie Franklin within these pages is my own cre
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ation, I drew loosely from historical fact for some of the
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scenes and people surrounding the annex, as well as for Mar
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got/Margie’s
character.
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In July of 1942, sixteen-year-old Margot Frank received a
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call-up notice from the Germans to report to a forced-labor
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camp, and Otto Frank quickly took the family into hiding in
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the annex above his office at 263 Prinsengracht, sooner than
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he’d originally planned, in order to prevent Margot from
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going. The Frank family—Edith, Otto, Anne, and Margot—
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were soon joined by the van Pelses—Hermann, Auguste, and
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their son, Peter. Later they were also joined by a dentist, Fritz
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Pfeffer, and when he came to the annex, Margot left the
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room she shared with her sister to sleep in their parents’ room
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while Anne shared a room with Mr. Pfeffer. Peter brought his
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cat, Mouschi, to the annex, while Margot and Anne were
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forced to leave their own cat, Moortje, behind.
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As described by Anne in her diary, Margot was the older,
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quieter, more responsible sister. Anne often teased Margot,
calling her a “paragon of virtue.” Margot was highly intelli
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gent, and used her time in the annex to further her studies.
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(Among many other things, Margot really did learn shorthand
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in the annex.) Anne also mentions the annex members’
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weights at one point in her diary, and Margot did weigh 132
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pounds then, though there are also several mentions in the
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diary of Margot not eating enough.
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Some episodes in the annex that Margie remembers here
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are also based on things Anne wrote about in her diary. For
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instance, Anne and Margot did lie cramped together in
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Anne’s bed and read each other’s diaries. Margot did listen in
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to a business meeting for her father while Anne fell asleep on
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the floor beside her, but Margie’s memory of Otto praising
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Anne for her notes is fictional. The burglary Margie recounts
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in the annex also happened on several occasions, though
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Peter’s coming to find Margot in the middle of the night is
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fictional.
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One of the things I distinctly remembered from my earlier
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teenage reading of the diary was Anne’s relationship with
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Peter. But rereading the diary many years later, I noticed that
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while Anne wrote of her own growing feelings for Peter, she
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also wrote and wondered about whether Margot might like
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him too. Which led me to also wonder: how might Margot
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have felt about Peter, and how might Peter have felt about
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her? Without Margot’s diary, I’m not sure we’ll ever know the
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true answers to those questions. In reality, I don’t know how
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close they were, how much they liked each other, or if they
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did at all. The idea that they spent time together at night in
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Peter’s room, that Peter told Margot they would be together
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after the war and go to Philadelphia, is all completely fic
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tional. However, the idea that Peter would not want people to
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know he was Jewish after the war is based on what Anne
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wrote about him in her diary.
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Margie Franklin refers to specifics from her sister’s diary
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here, and I have tried to keep these things consistent with the
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actual diary, although I (and Margie) conveniently leave some
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pieces out. For instance, Anne does write that she is not
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in love with Peter at one point in her diary (though I, and
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Margie, leave out the part where later on she wonders if she
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might be).
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The reality of Margot Frank’s teenage life just before the
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family’s move to the annex remains, for the most part, a mys
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tery to me, and the majority of what I’ve included here is fic
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tional. The Frank family really did live on the Merwedeplein,
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and Anne and Margot attended the Jewish Lyceum, where
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Margot did very well academically. However, Margot’s first
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diary,
Maria,
and the boy named Johann are fictional. The
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scene where Margot is approached by the Green Police on
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the Prinsengracht shortly before she was called up did not, to
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the best of my knowledge, happen. Though I found a photo
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graph of the Frank family at the beach in happier times, the
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scene here where Margie remembers her last beach vacation
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with Anne is fictional.
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The inhabitants of the annex were found in hiding in
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August 1944, though I took fictional liberties with what they
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were doing in those last moments before they were discovered.
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They were taken to Westerbork in Holland, then, in Septem
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ber, they were transferred to Auschwitz in Poland, where the
men and woman were separated. Anne, Margot, and Edith
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were given tattoos, though the scene here that Margie remem
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bers is fictional. Their exact tattoo numbers are not known
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today, but they are thought to have been between A-25060 and
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A-25271.
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Though Anne and Margot were transported from Aus
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chwitz to Bergen-Belsen in the fall of 1944, all the details here
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of Margot’s escaping from the Nazis are entirely fictional. The
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real Margot Frank made it to Bergen-Belsen and succumbed
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to typhus there a few days before Anne in March of 1945.
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Both were buried in a mass grave. Peter van Pels died in Mau
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thausen in May of 1945, just before the camp was liberated.
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Thus the characters and situations Margot/Margie
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encounters after she escapes the Nazis are all fictional. There
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was no Sister Brigitta, Eduard, or Ilsa, and no Judischausen
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synagogue. In Margie’s Philadelphia world, all the characters,
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situations, and places are fictional with the exception of many
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of the street names and a few locations such as Fairmount
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Park, Reading Terminal Market, Robin’s Books, John Wana
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maker’s, Levittown, and Margate, which are or were real
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places in and around the Philadelphia area.
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The incidents of anti-Semitism that Margie describes in
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Philadelphia in the 1950s are historically accurate. In May of
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1954, a flaming flare was nailed to a door accompanied by
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anti-Semitic language; in April of 1954, a gang of hoodlums
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was arrested for committing anti-Semitic attacks against Jew
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ish kids, and in October 1953, a firebomb was thrown into a
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synagogue. However, I read about the incidents in the
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archives of the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
(not in
the Inquirer,
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as Margie does). The incident Margie mentions reading about
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of swastikas on synagogues in 1959 is not based on one spe
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cific incident in Philadelphia, but on several articles and
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accounts from that time period recording Jewish places being
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defiled with swastikas.
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In reality, Otto Frank was the only one from the annex to
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have survived the concentration camps, and after he returned
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to Amsterdam and learned that his daughters were dead,
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Miep Gies gave him Anne’s diary, which she had rescued
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from the annex. Anne’s diary was originally published in
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Dutch in 1947, then in English in 1952. The book was followed
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by the play in 1955, and the American movie
The Diary of
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Anne Frank,
in 1959, which won three Oscars. Mr. Frank
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married Elfriede “Fritzi” Markovits Geiringer, and they set
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tled Switzerland.
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While writing this book, I read countless books and arti
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cles, visited Web sites, and watched several movies in an
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attempt to glean everything I possibly could about Margot
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and the people of her world. I read and reread (and
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reread again!)
The Diary of a Young Girl,
both the definitive
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edition and the version that Margie would’ve read in 1959, as
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well as watched the 1959 movie that Margie talks about in the
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book. Additionally I read
Anne Frank: the Book, the Life, the
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Afterlife
by Francine Prose, and
Anne Frank Remembered: The
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Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family
by
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Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold. (The epigraph quote about
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Margot came from Afterword: My 100th Birthday in Gies’ and
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Gold’s book.)The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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Web site and the Anne Frank House Museum Web site were
especially helpful. Any inaccuracies, mistakes, or fictionaliza
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tions within these pages—intentional or not—are entirely
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my own.
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In the end, neither Margie Franklin nor I know what actu
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ally happened to Margot Frank’s diary from the annex. What
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I do know is that what happened to these two sisters, their
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family, their friends, and so many other Jews is something
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that still terrifies, horrifies, and haunts me. And that, most of
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all, is why I wrote this book. In creating Margot/Margie here,
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I wanted to give back what was stolen from her, even if only
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in a fictional world: her voice, her life, her happy ending.
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Acknowledgments
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An enormous thank-you to my agent, Jessica Regel, without whose
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encouragement and support, I’m entirely sure I never would’ve
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written this book. I am so grateful for her comments, ideas, and
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wisdom on countless drafts, as well as her continued unfailing
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belief in me and my work. I’m so lucky to have her in my corner,
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always! Thank you also to the amazing team at JVNLA, who truly
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are the best, especially Tara Hart, Laura Biagi, and Jennifer
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Weltz, to whom I am indebted for her invaluable early feedback.
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I feel so incredibly fortunate that this book found its way into
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the very wise and capable hands of my editor at Riverhead Books,
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Laura Perciasepe. Her unparalleled enthusiasm for this story and
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her brilliant edits and insights have made her an absolute joy to
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work with. I am deeply grateful for her guidance and support, as
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well as that of the entire team at Riverhead, who gave this book a
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home and brought it through every step of the publication process
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in the best possible way. Thank you also to the team at Orlando
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for giving this book a home in the Netherlands, and especially
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Jacqueline Smit for her early insights.
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I’m very grateful to have a network of friends and family who
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offer unlimited support. Thank you especially to Maureen Lipin
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ski and Laura Fitzgerald whose encouragement kept me going in
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