Read about Margot Frank's life and relationship with her sister, Anne. Learn about her tragic, early death in 1945 while prisoner in a concentration camp.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Margot Frank | Biography, Diary & Date of Death
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Frequently Asked Questions
Did Margot get along with Anne?
At the beginning of her diary, it is obvious the two have a complicated relationship. However, as time goes on and both mature, they come to depend on each other.
How old was Margot Frank when she died?
Margot was born on February 16, 1926. She died in a concentration camp in early 1945. She would have been 17 or 18 at the time of her death.
How much older was Margot than Anne Frank?
Margot was born on February 16, 1926. Anne was born on June 12, 1929. Margot is about three years older than Anne.
What happened to Margot and Anne Frank?
After spending over two years in the Secret Annex, Margot and her sister Anne were arrested in a raid. They were eventually sent to Bergen Belsen concentration camp, where they died from typhus.
Table of Contents
ShowMargot Betti Frank was born to Edith and Otto Frank in Frankfurt, Germany, on February 16, 1926. She is the elder sister of Anne Frank. She and her family lived in Germany until 1933 when her family relocated to Amsterdam. Margot was seven years old at the time. The relocation was due to the family's Jewish faith and the rising anti-Semitism sweeping across Germany at the time.
Margot was a model student and obedient daughter. During her first years in school, she received high marks from her teachers. Later she was described as excelling in science and mathematics. Anne describes Margot as an obedient daughter, saying Margot is "naturally good, kind and clever, perfection itself." not the kind of child who causes trouble.
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German Occupation
Despite having fled Germany for Amsterdam, Margot wrote that there was a lack of security, as the Netherlands shares a border with Germany. Her fears were realized when in 1940, the German army invaded and occupied the Netherlands. By 1941, the family was subject to the anti-Jewish policies the Nazi party brought with them. Margot and her sister Anne were sent to an all-Jewish school and excluded from clubs and sports. For Margot, this meant giving up rowing and tennis. By 1942, the Nazis began deporting Jewish residents from Amsterdam, and in response, Otto Frank, Margot's father, made plans to hide the family.
Margot was the first in the family to receive a call-up for a labor camp on July 5, 1942. Due to this threat against her life, her family immediately moved into the Secret Annex. The location of the Secret Annex was at the back of her father's business, behind a bookcase meant to camouflage its entrance. Another family, the van Daans, joined them soon after. They would not leave for over two years when Dutch police and Nazi soldiers raided the Annex on a tip from a Dutch informer.
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Much of what we know surrounding Margot's personality and life comes from details in her younger sister Anne's diary. Like many sisters, they had a challenging relationship, but they grew closer as they got older. Anne wrote that Margot was clever, writing, "Brilliant as usual. She would move up cum laude if that existed at school, she is so smart." She also noted Margot's beauty, describing Margot as being the prettier of the two sisters. Anne also noted that their mother wished for Anne to emulate Margot's good behavior. Margot has a positive relationship with their mother, while Anne and Edith are constantly at odds.
Margot was good at school and enjoyed it, and maintained her studies while in the Secret Annex. In hiding, she studied multiple foreign languages, higher mathematics, science, European literature, and history. In her diary, Anne noted that Margot preferred to read about medicine and religion. Margot was interested in Jewish traditions, and she wished to become a midwife or teacher after the war.
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Margot Frank's Diary
We know that Margot Frank also kept a diary, as Anne mentioned this in her diary. However, her diary has not been found. Some of Margot's letters have survived, including one to Betty Ann Wagner. In it, she describes her daily life as well as her interests and fears. She mentions enjoying tennis and rowing in the summer and hockey or skating in the winter. She notes that it is a time of war, and so she is nervous about living so close to Germany.
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In 1944, an informant tipped off Nazi soldiers of the existence of the Secret Annex and its occupants. On August 4, 1944, there was a raid on the Secret Annex, and all occupants, arrested. From there, they were transferred to the Westerbork transit camp and then onto Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was separate from her father, who she never saw again.
She remained there with her mother and sister for some time but was ultimately separated from her mother. They would never know their mother's fate: she died in January from disease. Margot and Anne were transported to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. There, the girls suffered from starvation and disease. Both girls developed spotted typhus. Ultimately, Margot Frank died from typhus in February 1945. Anne perished from the same disease two days later. Two months later, the camp was liberated.
Margot, Anne, and Edith were survived by Otto Frank, who was liberated from Auschwitz Birkenau on January 27, 1945. Margot would have been 18 or 19 at the time of her death.
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In her journal, later published as Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank describes her first-hand experience of being a Jew during the Holocaust. To avoid arrest, deportation, and death, Anne's family goes into hiding in a Secret Annex at the back of her father's workplace. They live there in the Secret Annex for just over two years with another family. Much of Anne's diary describes her older sister Margot.
Margot is described as being both beautiful and brilliant. She receives high marks in her classes and is particularly good at math and science. Margot dreams of being a teacher or a midwife after the war. Her life is suddenly upended when she receives a notice to report for labor, and her family goes into hiding in the Secret Annex. Margot, like Anne, keeps a diary, but only Anne's diary survives. In it, she describes her relationship with Margot. Over the next two years, despite having a complicated relationship at first, they grow to depend on each other and show each other more patience.
In 1944, the discovery of the Secret Annex transpired, and the family was deported to a concentration camp. It is there, in February 1945, that Margot succumbs to typhus along with her sister Anne.
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Additional Info
Who Is Margot Frank?
Margot Frank is Anne Frank's older sister. Margot is three years older than Anne, and in one of the early diary entries Anne says that Margot is an excellent student. Anne Frank writes, ''My sister Margot has also gotten her report card. Brilliant, as usual. If we had such a thing as cum laude, she would have passed with honors, she's so smart.''
Margot receives a call-up from the SS, and for this reason the Frank family moves to the Secret Annex in Amsterdam ten days earlier than planned. Margot was sixteen when the family went into hiding; Anne was thirteen.
Sisters
Anne Frank reveals in the diary that she and Margot have a difficult relationship at times. All of the residents of the Secret Annex feel the effects of confinement, of course, and tension is understandable when readers consider the residents' constant fear of discovery. ''I don't get along with Margot very well either. Even though our family never has the same kind of outbursts they have upstairs, I find it far from pleasant. Margot's and Mother's personalities are so alien to me,'' Anne Frank writes.
Anne often compares herself to Margot, and in several passages she emphasizes the sisters' differences. Anne says Margot is ''naturally good, kind and clever, perfection itself, but I seem to have enough mischief for the two of us. I'm always teasing Margot about being a paragon of virtue these days, and she hates it. Maybe it'll teach her not to be such a goody-goody.''
Margot and Anne grow closer as they mature, however, and Anne writes that ''Mother, Margot and I are once again the best of buddies. It's actually a lot nicer that way. Last night Margot and I were lying side by side in my bed. It was incredibly cramped, but that's what made it fun.''
Later, Anne again mentions her relationship with her sister. ''Margot's gotten much nicer,'' Anne writes. ''She seems a lot different than she used to be. She's not nearly as catty these days and is becoming a real friend. She no longer thinks of me as a little kid who doesn't count.''
After Anne develops a close friendship with Peter, who also lives in the annex, she realizes that Peter was interested in Margot first. Margot is magnanimous about the situation, and Anne is concerned that Margot is hurt by Anne and Peter's relationship.
Dreams
Anne is uncertain of her sister's plans for the future. In one entry, she says that thinks Margot would like to become a teacher after the war. In a later entry, Anne says, ''I'd like to spend a year in Paris and London learning the languages and studying art history. Compare that with Margot, who wants to nurse newborns in Palestine.''
Unfortunately, both Margot and Anne Frank died at the Bergen Belsen concentration camp before these dreams could be realized.
Lesson Summary
Margot Frank, Anne Frank's older sister, is studious and intelligent. Margot and Anne are often at odds as they hide with their family and others in the Secret Annex to evade the Nazis. Despite the often fractious relationship, the girls become a bit friendlier with each other as they mature. Margot, Anne believes, wants to become a teacher or a nurse. Margot's young life, like Anne's, however, was cut short and her dreams were never allowed to materialize.
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Margot Frank | Biography, Diary & Date of Death
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