Margot and Anne Frank correspond briefly with two schoolgirls from the United States

In the school year 1939-'40 Margot Frank entered the second class of the Municipal Lyceum for Girls in Amsterdam. She was then taught English for the first time by Martha von der Möhlen. Probably shortly before, Von der Möhlen had met the American teacher Birdie Mathews, who was travelling through Europe in 1939.^[1] After returning to the United States, she started a 'programme of international correspondence', in which her students at a school in Danville, Iowa, chose a peer in Europe to write a letter to. 

Through this programme, Margot received a letter from Betty Ann Wagner in early 1940. At the same time Anne received a letter from Betty Ann's younger sister Juanita Wagner. Juanita is said to have chosen Anne Frank's name from a list, to send a letter to.^[2] Since only Margot was taught by Miss Von der Möhlen, it is also plausible that Betty Ann and Margot were first paired together and they then paired their younger sisters. In the letter Margot sent back to Betty Ann on 27 April 1940, she thanked her for Juanita's letter and wrote that not she, but Anne would answer it.^[3] Anne wrote her letter on 29 April 1940. Both letters, written in English, were sent to America in one envelope. Since Anne was not yet taught English at the Sixth Montessori School, she probably wrote her letter in Dutch first, after which Margot or Otto Frank helped with the translation.^[4]

Other classmates of Margot also wrote English letters to foreign students. Hetty Last, for instance, said that her pen pal was in the same class as the Wagner sisters. She and her pen pal kept corresponding with eachother for the rest of their lives.^[5] Greet Bezema also wrote a few letters to Iowa, but lost contact due to the war.^[6] Bella van der Wilk-Kohlwey corresponded with a girl in England, with whom she remained friends.^[7]

In their letters, Margot and Anne wrote about their family, school and hobbies. They sent along photos of themselves and Anne asked Juanita to send photos as well. Anne also added a postcard of Amsterdam from her picture collection. She further wrote that she had asked her friend Sanne Ledermann if: "[…] she would like to communicate with one of your friends. She wants to do it with a girl about my age not with a boy."^[8] At the bottom of the letter, she added Sanne's address. Margot articulated the threat of war in her letter: "We often listen to the radio, as times are very exciting, having a frontier with Germany and being a small country we never feel safe."^[3] Due to the German invasion of the Netherlands two weeks later on 10 May 1940, this ended up being the only letter from Margot's and Anne's side.

Anne and Margot's original letters were auctioned off after the war and then donated to the Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives in Los Angeles, USA. There, they are displayed in the associated Museum of Tolerance.^[9] A small museum on the correspondence between the Frank and Wagner sisters has been set up in the Danville library.^[10]