The unknown story of the two sisters who last saw Anne Frank alive

A photograph is the refuge where nostalgia finds shelter, a sanctuary of memory. Images elude oblivion and condemn even the most devastating realities to eternity. There are few photos taken during the Second World War in which one cannot perceive some distinctive mark or scar from those years. However, Link and Janny Brilleslijper, Two Dutch sisters, in the middle of the forest between the villages of Huizen and Naarden, kept a little bit of the pre-war world safe. The High Nest is the setting for photographs of the family during the war years: a house that would eventually become the heart of the resistance against Nazism in the province of North Holland.

“Of all the photos that the family lent me to research their history, my favorite is one in which, in the middle of the war, those Jewish children appear playing in the backyard in a tin bathtub. This was wonderful because, at that time, Jewish children did not play in the street; they were all in hiding or in concentration camps,” explains Roxane Van Iperen, the journalist and novelist who collects in The Sisters of Auschwitz (Planet, 2024) the resistance of the Brilleslijper family in the heart of Nazi territory.

Lien and Janny were born on the eve of World War II, in the poorest part of the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. This did not prevent the two sisters from developing intellectual concerns on their own. “It was a family of musicians, they were all artists,” says Van Iperen. The couple was radically different from each other: “Lien was an optimist, a dreamer. She always thought that everything would be fine. Janny, on the other hand, was a brave, realistic and very determined woman. They formed a good combination,” explains the author.

Motivated by her exuberant curiosity, Lien began to carve out a professional path as a dancer while Janny immersed herself in communism and He provided support to the Committee for Aid to Spain, which was then facing the Civil War. Both sisters started their own families: Lien married Ebberhard, “an extraordinary man, also a musician, who fled Nazi Germany”; Janny was paired with Bob, a left-wing economist who “also played a very important role in her story,” the writer advances.

The occupation of the Netherlands was not long in coming and the Brilleslijper sisters witnessed the resistance to the Nazi invasion. Over time, life in Amsterdam became stifling, especially when native collaborators began to inform on their Jewish neighbors: “My country was not as brave as we were taught in school. And it turns out that the Jews were not just silent, hidden or deported. There were more stories.”

Janny assumed an important role within the resistance, despite the fact that his Jewish identity, his communist ideology and his ties with the international brigade members who participated in the Spanish Civil War posed him a much greater danger. “Janny stars in a kind of James Bond-style subplot, and it seemed incredible to me that this could happen then,” says Van Iperen about the illegal printing press in which the youngest Brilleslijper worked. Its setup was one of the many risks she took during the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands.

Lien, who was less radical, kept a lower profile at first, but also ended up joining her sister in stealing identity cards, trafficking food cards or lending a hand to those who needed help in times of vulnerability. “It was in their DNA. For them, things were black and white. They knew what was right and they knew they had to do it.”

Lien and Janny intertwined their lives with those of so many other Dutch and Jewish citizens who advocated for freedom. “They had to trust others because there was no other way out,” says the author. From separated families, to young students who killed Nazis to protect orphans, to families who hid Jews knowing the risk that this implied.

Amsterdam and The Hague became unsafe cities for the Jews in which, for them, there were only two routes: hide or face deportation on the trains that began taking them away in 1942. As tensions escalated among the citizens, as the trains took Jews to concentration and extermination camps, the Brillesjiper sisters considered the option of escape. They finally found a mansion in the middle of the forest called Nido Alto, where their two families took refuge with their parents.

“The news of that house spread in the resistance and Janny was determined to continue welcoming people, although the fear of being discovered was great,” says the author. “Lien believed that if they were prudent and discreet, everything would be fine, that the allied troops would arrive and save them. Janny, on the other hand, was more reckless. They warned him on numerous occasions that the number of people in the house was too large. “That became dangerous.”

They dug holes all over the High Nest and created shelters behind partitions and on top of cupboards, danger still lurking, even if its inhabitants tried to ignore it. “In the High Nest a community of people was created who, although hidden, could play outdoors, play and compose music, study, organize opera nights… And that had never been told.” Unfortunately, their luck ran out and Part of the family was moved to Bergen-Belsen, where Janny and Lien looked after the Frank sisters.

“Anne Frank is the best-known story of my country, but it is only part of the story. “We always talk about the Dutch population and their resistance, but we never talk about everything the Jews did beyond finding shelter, fleeing or even perishing in concentration camps,” says Van Iperen.

Janny witnessed the death of the youngest Frank, whose story transcended and left behind the heroic actions of the Brilleslijpers before they were deported to the work camp. “Sometimes we forget the true reality of concentration camps,” says the author. “Although it is true that death was the ultimate goal, In reality they were dehumanization camps: “an experiment to see how much a person’s humanity could be degraded without letting them go.”

Janny and Lien were able to glimpse every last glimmer of humanity in each other, even in the most difficult moments. “The fact that they had each other meant a lot: they could look into each other’s eyes and, instead of seeing an emaciated person, they were able to recognize their sister from Amsterdam. That was crucial for them to recognize, at every moment of their story, a sense of humanity in their guts” that allowed them to survive. In her book, Van Iperen repairs the dignity of the Brilleslijper sisters, beyond the usual narrative in his country, “which only remembers that the Jewish people were hidden during the war.” The images, as you know, must be looked at as a whole.

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