Edith's Story

THE EXTRAORDINARY TRUE STORY OF HOW ONE YOUNG GIRL ESCAPED THE HOLOCAUST

'I never realised that there could be such suffering in the world, and that anyone could live through it' - from Edith's diary, 1st July 1945

After Germany occupied the Netherlands in 1940, fourteen-year-old Edith was still filling her diary with carefree stories of school, parties and boys. But her entries soon record a darkening world. By 1942, as the Nazis escalated their persecution of the Jewish population, Edith began a bitter struggle to survive.

Hidden in plain sight but a courageous Christian family, with a German officer billeted in the next room, Edith faced the horrors of war under constant threat of discovery and betrayal. Weaving together Edith's diaries with letters smuggled between family members and her own memories, this extraordinary memoir of 'the Anne Frank who lived' is a profoundly moving account of grief, loss, courage - and one girl's remarkable belief in humanity in the face of despair.

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY ESTHER FREUD

About the Author

Edith Velmans took a degree in Psychology at the University of Amsterdam after the war and was Director of the War Orphanage there until 1948. In 1951 she left The Netherlands with her husband Loet Velmans and two baby daughters. She studied with Piaget in Switzerland and received a Masters of Education from Columbia University in New York City in 1977. Mrs. Velmans was knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1996. She died aged 97 in 2023.