Mary Bos
Mary Bos was a classmate of Anne Frank at the Sixth Montessori School.
Person
Mary Bos was the daughter of the well-known billiards player (multiple times champion) Arie Bos, who had met his wife Catherine Haywood, an American billiards champion, during a match in the United States.[1] Starting in August 1932, she attended Montessori kindergarten.[2] On 22 March 1937, she started attending elementary school, which she left on 31 January 1940, due to emigration to the United Sates.[3] In the school years 1937-'38 and 1938-'39 she was in Anne Franks class.
Mary is in Anne's tenth-birthday photo taken on 12 June 1939 at Merwedeplein,[4] together with Anne Frank, Hanneli Goslar, Sanne Ledermann, Juultje Ketellapper, Käthe Egyedi, Ietje Swillens, Lucie van Dijk and Martha van de Berg.[5]
Mary had a friendship book in which Anne Frank wrote a verse on 5 March 1938. She donated this album tot the Anne Frank House.[6]
Anne wrote in her diary on January 6th 1944 that she had had a dream in which she was looking at a book with pictures drawn by Mary.[7]
A few months before the German invasion, the family emigrated permanently to the USA. It was not easy, because her brother and her mother were American citizens, but she and her father were not.[8]
Mary studied at the Swoboda-Yurieva School of Ballet in Spring Lake, New Jersey, and became a professional ballet dancer in 1947. During her 10-year career, she toured with the famous dance company Ballet Russe and performed on Broadway in such hit shows as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Arabian Nights. She later performed on television shows and one of those performances would lead to her meeting her future husband Robert (Bob) Schneider. They married on 11 May 1958 and had two daughters and two grandchildren.[9]
In 2010, Mary and her husband Bob visited the Anne Frank Huis in Amsterdam as honored guests for the museum's 50th anniversary. The trip included a visit to the Montessori school and dinner with Otto Frank's step-daughter, Eva Schloss.
During her lifetime, Mary visited American schools, educating students about her childhood friend Anne Frank. In addition, she was involved with the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust. In 2012 and 2015, she visited the Anne Frank in the World exhibit in Sandy Springs.[10]
Source personal data.[9] Address: Roompotstraat 12 boven, Amsterdam.[2]
Footnotes
- ^ Wikipedia: Arie Bos.
- a, b Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), reg. code A_Montessorischool_I_001: Leerlingenregister Voorbereidende school No. 51, volgnr. 168.
- ^ AFS, AFC, reg. code A_Montessorischool_I_002: Leerlingenregister Zesde Montessorischool, volgnr. 214.
- ^ ^ Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), reg. code A_AFrank_III_055.089: Groepsfoto op het Merwedeplein, 12 juni 1939.
- ^ ^ Mary Bos is one of Anne Frank's friends portrayed in: Janny van der Molen, Vergeet mij niet. Anne Franks vrienden en vriendinnen, Amsterdam: Ploegsma, 2022.
- ^ AFS, AFC, reg. code A_AFrank_I_017: Poëziealbum van Mary Schneider-Bos.
- ^ Anne Frank, Diary Version A, 6 January 1944, in:The Collected Works; [transl. from the Dutch by Susan Massotty, London [etc.]: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019.
- ^ ^AFS, Getuigenarchief, Bos, Mary.
- a, b Dignity Memorial: Obituary - Mary Bos Schneider.
- ^ Mary Bos visits Anne Frank in the World, Georgia Commission on the the Holocaust, 23 januari 2012; Childhood friend of Anne Frank visits exhibit in Sandy Springs, Georgia Commission on the the Holocaust, 21 januari 2015.
Digital files (1)
Poëziealbum van Mary Schneider-Bos met een versje van Anne Frank, 5 maart 1938
Copyright: Publiek domein
Photographer: Collectie kan worden ingezet voor publiek