Anne Frank’s Marbles
From the collection of the Anne Frank House, Amsterdam
h 9 cm x w 19 cm
1942
Some Jewish children gave away their toys when they had to report for transport or went into hiding. Marbles were a child’s prized possession. The night before they were transported, a few children in the South of Amsterdam were known to have said: ‘Let’s just toss them!’ They threw their marbles out the window, hoping other children in the neighbourhood would gather them up.
Shortly before going into hiding on 6 July 1942, with her parents and sister Margot in the Secret Annex on Amsterdam’s Prinsengracht, Anne Frank also left a few prized possessions behind. She gave her tea set, the book Nederlandsche sagen en legenden (Tales and Legends of the Netherlands) that she'd also received on 12 June as a birthday gift and this metal tin of marbles to her neighbourhood friend Toosje Kupers. The Frank family was eventually arrested in hiding. Otto Frank was the only one of the Frank family to survive the concentration camps. After the war, Toosje Kupers saw Anne’s father several times. When Anne Frank’s diary was published in 1947, Otto Frank personally gave Toosje a copy.