Biographies
Edith Frank
About Edith
Edith Hollander was born on 16 January 1900 in the German city of Aachen. Her family were prominent in the Jewish community and had emigrated to Germany from Amsterdam around 1800.
Before the Secret Annex
Edith married Otto Frank on 12 May 1925. Margot was born nine months later on 16 February 1926 and Anne followed on 12 June 1929.
During the Secret Annex
Edith encouraged her daughters to continue their studies whilst in the annex, as she didn't want them to get behind with their schoolwork. But being in hiding took its toll on Edith's relationship with Anne and there was often tension between them.
After the Secret Annex
After the raid on the annex, in August 1944, Edith was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp with the rest of her family from Westerbork transit camp. Although she survived the initial selection process, she died in the camp in January 1945, just a few weeks before it was liberated.
Tamsin Grieg
Tamsin's Career Highlights
Tamsin Greig plays Debbie Aldridge in the BBC radio series The Archers. She won both a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress and the London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Shakespearean Performance for her role as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing in 2007. On television, she's been in Black Books and Green Wing, and more recently Love Soup.
Tamsin on Edith
"Being asked to play Edith was an enormously exciting challenge and responsibility. The script was utterly faithful to the spirit of Anne's writing in her diary, but also captured the reality of difficult and strained parental relationships in extraordinary circumstances.
"In her diary, Anne mostly writes with dislike and frustration about her mother, so it was important for me to draw on other contemporary accounts in order to paint a fuller picture of Edith.
"Personal accounts from survivors of the death camps agreed that however troubled their relationship had been in Bergen-Belsen, Edith and her daughters were inseparable."
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