Margot Rosenthal was born on 23 August 1925 in the German town of Eisleben.^[1] There she lived with her father Erich Rosenthal (1886-1944) and mother Flora (Flori) Rosenthal-Barnett (1903-1944) at Lutherstrasse 14. Her parents had taken over the menswear shop of her grandmother Bertha Rosenthal-Wollstein (1855-1915) at the address and lived upstairs.^[1] In 1938, the shop and house were destroyed during the November pogrom. The synagogue a few houses away, at Lutherstrasse 25, was also set on fire and destroyed by members of the SA and SS.^[2]

In January 1939, the family fled to the Netherlands and came to live in Amsterdam.^[3] From 22 November 1939, the Rosenthal family was registered at Roompotstraat 2-I in Amsterdam-Zuid.^[4]

Margot became part of a Zionist youth movement that had a 'youth aliyah' house at the Pavilion Loosdrechtsche Rade in Loosdrecht.^[5]

In mid-August 1942, the youth movement was warned that the Pavilion would be emptied and members went into hiding through contacts with the Westerweel group. Margot had also been in hiding since then, with Frans Gerritsen and Henny de Haan in Haarlem, among others.^[6] She received fake papers through the resistance and was given the alias Maria Rietman.^[7]

Her parents were taken from Amsterdam to Camp Vught on 10 March 1943. A day later, on 11 March 1943, they arrived at Camp Westerbork.^[8] From there, they were transported to Theresienstadt on 21 April 1943.^[9] Six months later, on 9 October 1944, they were put on a transport to Auschwitz. There, Erich and Flora Rosenthal were murdered in the gas chamber immediately upon arrival on 11 October 1944.^[10]

Hiding and imprisonment

Margot reportedly went into hiding at 25 addresses until she was arrested in June 1944. Via the headquarters of the Sicherhietsdienst on Euterpestraat in Amsterdam and the Detention Centre on Weteringschans, she finally arrived in Camp Westerbork on 27 June 1944.^[11] Like the people from the Secret Annex, Margot was put in punishment hut 67. In the camp, she had to perform forced labour in battery recycling.^[11] In Westerbork, she met the Frank family and became good friends with Anne.^[7]

On 3 September 1944, Margot Rosenthal, like the Frank family, was transported to Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. After arrival, she was in the same hut as Anne, Margot and Edith Frank in Auschwitz-Birkenau for a time. Also in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Margot had to perform forced labour by collecting potatoes from a train and then pulling them to the camp with wagons (instead of horses). After four months in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Margot was selected for Bergen-Belsen camp in January 1945.

At Bergen-Belsen, Margot Rosenthal was not in the same hut as the Frank sisters, but did meet them. She told them that their mother Edith had survived the selection on 30 October 1944 ^[11] and told Anne and Margot this.^[12] Shortly after Margot Frank died, she saw Anne again.^[7]

After the war, Nanette Blitz (1929) was in hospital next to Margot Rosenthal and briefly described in a letter to Otto Frank the meeting between Margot Rosenthal and Anne and Margot Frank in Bergen-Belsen:

'Perhaps you can remember Margot Drach-Rosenthal from Westerbork, who spent quite a lot of time with Anne? She is lying here next to me and told me the following: 'She went together with your wife and children to Birkenau where they stayed together until November. Then Margot and Anne were sent to Bergen-Belsen, where they arrived on 3 Nov. There I met them (a girl who is also a patient here was above them). I was not in their hut but visited them often. Meanwhile, Margot (called Monika) Rosenthal arrived in Bergen-Belsen in January and told them that she had spoken to your wife in Birkenau which cheered them up very much, because they had had little hope regarding the selection.'^[12]

Margot Rosenthal did not know at the time that Edith had died on 6 January 1945 .

Liberation

On 15 April 1945, Margot was liberated from Bergen-Belsen.^[13] She weighed only 25 kg at the time and was reportedly taken out of the camp in a Red Cross helicopter.^[7] She arrived in the Netherlands in June 1945 and spent two weeks in the 'death ward' of the Emma Emergency Hospital in Eindhoven.^[11] She was later transferred to the Provincial Hospital in Santpoort, where she was on the same ward as Nanette Blitz, among others.

In autumn 1947, Margot married Gideon (Thomas) Drach (1916-1990) whom she had met during the war as a member of the Westerweel group.^[14] Soon after, the couple decided to apply for emigration to Palestine on 13 November 1947.^[15] Like her husband, Margot then decided to adopt a different name and has been called Margalit ever since.^[14]

On 24 January 1957, she wrote a letter to Otto Frank to inquire how he was doing and whether they could meet.

She died on 25 April 2017 in Haifa, Israel, at the age of 91.^[16]

Addresses: Germany, Eisleben: Lutherstrasse 14; Netherlands, Amsterdam: Roompotstraat 2-I; Loosdrecht: C 8 Rood; Amsterdam: Brossenburgplein 17-I; Israel, Haifa.