EN

Theo Coster

Maurice ('Theo') Coster was a classmate of Anne Frank at the Sixth Montessori School and the Jewish Lyceum.

Person

  • Maurice Simon Coster
  • Born on: Oct. 17, 1928
  • Born in: Amsterdam, Nederland
  • Died on: April 21, 2019
  • Died in: Tel Aviv, Israël

Maurice (Theo) Coster was a classmate of Anne Frank in the sixth year at the Sixth Montessori School. [1] In the school year 1941-1942 he was in class 1L2 of the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam.[2] In her diary Anne writes about him as one of her many admirers.[3]

At the age of 14, he went into hiding. During the war he was in various hiding places. As a child in hiding he chose the name Theo. He used this name for the rest of his life.[4]

In 1955 Theo emigrated to Israel. He married Ora and had two sons, Boaz and Gideon. Together with his wife he founded the company Theora, specialized in desiging and producing toys and games, including Guess Who?, Magimizer, Zingo! and Go Pop.[5]

As Theo Coster he wrote Klasgenoten van Anne Frank.[6]

 Addresses: Zuider Amstellaan 154, Amsterdam.[7]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie, reg. code A_Montessori_I_027: Ouderfonds Klasse A 1940-'41.
  2. ^ NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust en Genocidestudies, Amsterdam, Archief 181e (W.S.H. Elte), inv. nr. 2f: Absentenregister klas 1LII Joods Lyceum, 1 maart – 17 juli 1942; Dienke Hondius, Absent: herinneringen aan het Joods Lyceum Amsterdam 1941-1943, Amsterdam: Vassallucci, 2001, p. 269; Wikipedia: Klas van Anne Frank.
  3. ^ Anne Frank, Diary Version A, 16 June 1942, in: The Collected Works, transl. from the Dutch by Susan Massotty, London [etc.]: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019.
  4. ^ AFS, Getuigenarchief, Coster, Maurice: The Jerusalem Report, February 2, 2009, p. 40.
  5. ^ Philissa Cramer, Anne Frank’s Israeli classmate behind popular breast-inspired fidget toy, The Times of Israel, 13 September 2021.
  6. ^ Theo Coster, Klasgenoten van Anne Frank, Amsterdam: Carrera, 2009. English translation: We all wore stars. Memories of Anne Frank fomr her classmates, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
  7. ^ NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust en Genocidestudies, Amsterdam, Archief 181e (W.S.H. Elte), inv. nr. 2f: Absentenregister klas 1LII Joods Lyceum, 1 maart – 17 juli 1942.