Margot was Anne's calm and clever older sister. With her more boisterous temperament, Anne felt like her sister's opposite. The next day, the Frank family moved into the secret annex that had already been prepared. After 25 months, the secret annex was discovered and all the people in hiding were arrested and deported. Anne and Margot remained together the whole time until their death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in She was a shy, serious, and well-behaved child with striking large dark eyes.
In mid, Edith and Otto Frank with two-year-old Margot moved into a spacious rented apartment in Marbachstrasse, in a residential Frankfurt area. The house had a garden where the neighbourhood children met for playing. Two years later, in , her younger sister Anne was born. Edith and Otto educated their daughters along progressive lines, by supporting and furthering their development. Margot far left with neighbourhood children in the garden in Marbachweg, Frankfurt, July Margot centre with neighbourhood children, Frankfurt, July In , Margot started school at a public school in the immediate vicinity of her home.
Here Protestant, Catholic and Jewish girls from various social classes came together; the headmaster was well-known as a reformist educator. At the same time, the financial situation of the Frank family became difficult and their neighbourhood was increasingly targeted by members of the Nazi party NSPAD who marched through the streets chanting anti-Semitic slogans.
Margot had to change schools. She had a close circle of friends. She regularly attended the liberal synagogue with her mother and joined the Zionist youth organisation Makkabi Hazair in One month later the Nazis unleashed the state terror against opponents, left-wing proponents, liberals, intellectuals and Jews. Otto and Edith were hugely concerned about their future as a family and in particular about their children.
They decided to leave Germany. In late December , Edith followed her husband to Amsterdam with Margot who started at her new school in January. Anne was brought to Amsterdam six weeks later. Despite initial problems with the Dutch language, Margot became a star pupil in Amsterdam, too, and enjoyed rowing and playing tennis in her spare time. Margot second from left, wearing sunglasses playing tennis, Amsterdam, After the German army occupied the Netherlands in May , the situation for Jews in Amsterdam also became increasingly restricted and threatening.
