During the 1939-1940 school year, a 7th & 8th grade teacher named Miss Birdie Mathews began a program she called "The International Correspondence Project." She traveled a lot and while traveling she sought out schools that would be interested in being pen pals with her students. On January 2, 1940, an English teacher in Amsterdam sent the names and addresses of 26 girls. Miss Birdie's student, Juanita Wagner (age 11), drew the name of a 10 year old girl named Annelies Marie Frank. Juanita wrote an introductory pen pal letter to Anne Frank in Amsterdam.
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| Miss Birdie Mathews |
Anne then wrote back to Juanita and included a letter from her sister Margot addressed to Juanita's sister, Betty. She also included a postcard, as she was an avid collector of postcards. The letters from Anne and Margot Frank are in English. Experts have verified the handwriting and believe these are the only surviving letters written in English by the girls. Experts believe that when the letter from Juanita arrived, Otto Frank translated and read it to the girls in Dutch. They believe he then had the girls write response letters in Dutch, he translated them to English, and they recopied them before sending them to Danville. There are enlargements of the letters on display at the Anne Frank Connection Museum in Danville. In the late 1980's, the original letters were auctioned by the Danville sisters and purchased by an anonymous bidder. The letters are currently on display at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
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| page 1 of Anne's letter |
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| page 2 of Anne's letter |
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| postcard from Anne |
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| page 1 of Margot's letter |
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| page 2 of Margot's letter |
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| School pictures of Juanita & Anne that were exchanged in the letters. |
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| Margot and Juanita & Betty |
A couple of side notes:
On Tuesday, May 14, 1940, Miss Birdie explained to the students that communication with Holland was now cut off due to the war. The girls never received another letter.
As people do, Betty and Juanita went on with their lives, eventually moving away from Danville. In 1945, at the end of the war, Betty wrote to Anne and Margot at the old address in Amsterdam wanting to reconnect as pen pals. Betty was a teacher in a small town in IL at that time. She received a letter from Otto Frank, 4-5 pages handwritten detailing their experiences during the war, living in the attic for 25 months before the Germans took them to prison camps, and how Otto was the only family member to survive.
It wasn't until they were adults and living in California in 1956 that they made a connection to the Anne Frank we all now know. Betty was driving home from work and heard about a play opening on Broadway called "The Diary of Anne Frank." She says she wondered aloud if that was their Anne Frank. She raced to a bookstore and bought the book (for the first time) and went home and read and cried all evening with her mother.
Juanita passed away December 24, 2001 and Betty on August 15, 2012. Luckily Betty participated in some interviews regarding the pen pal letters prior to her death and these interviews can be seen at the exhibit in Danville.
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| Betty in one of her interviews |
The Anne Frank exhibit is interesting in its design. There is a timeline that runs through the exhibit. Across the top, is the history of the war and the world at the time. Across the bottom is the history of Danville, Iowa.
There is also a replica book case and behind it, more exhibits specific to the annex. For example there are 8 wood ceiling beams, one for each person hiding in the secret annex.
Footnote: The Danville High School class of 2013 began a Post Card Project. Every year the 8th graders learn about the Holocaust, prejudice, discrimination and hate in our world. To raise awareness that we are still plagued by hate and violence, they participate in international correspondence. They write to people all over the world asking for a postcard to add to their collection. Their goal is to collect 1.5 million postcards in memory of the 1.5 million children lost in the Holocaust and to help ensure we never forget.
Current count is 5000. Each bundle in the picture is 100.
Please consider sending a postcard to the following address:
Danville Station
The Anne Frank Connection
102 N Main Street
Danville IA 52623
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