Martha von der Möhlen
Martha von der Möhlen was Margot Frank's English teacher at the Municipal Lyceum for Girls. She got her pupils to correspond with students in the United States.
Martha von der Möhlen was born in Nieuwer Amstel (NH) on 23 April 1895, the youngest of seven children.[1] In 1915, she obtained her qualification to teach English in Secondary Education.[2] From 1926, she was an English teacher at the Municipal Lyceum for Girls at Reijnier Vinkeleskade 62 in Amsterdam.[3] Margot Frank was in her class.
Pen pals
In the 1939-1940 school year, Margot Frank entered the second grade and joined Miss Von der Möhlen's class.[4] After a few months, Von der Möhlen took the initiative to have her students write with pupils abroad. Probably shortly before, she had met the American teacher Miss Birdie Mathews, who was travelling around Europe and soon after started a 'program of international correspondence'.[5]
Through the programme, students in Von der Möhlen's class corresponded with pen pals abroad. On 27 April 1940, Margot wrote an English-language letter to Betty Ann Wagner (1925-2012) from Danville (Iowa) in the United States. Anne Frank wrote to Betty's sister Juanita Wagner (1929-2001).[6]
Margot's letter shows that she was mindful of the threat of war: '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.'[7] Due to the German invasion - two weeks later - this ended up being the only letter from Margot's side.
Other students in Margot's class also wrote letters to students in America and England. Hetty Last, for instance, said that her pen pal was in the same class with the Wagner sisters and they continued to correspond.[8] Greet Bezema also wrote a few letters to Iowa, but this was interrupted by the war.[9] Bella van der Wilk-Kohlwey corresponded with a girl from England with whom she remained friends even after the war.[10]
Lessons
Bella van der Wilk-Kohlweij remembered Miss Von der Möhlen's lessons well:
"She taught English incredibly well and also the classics and Shelley and Byron and Keats. (...), but she also had very nice things and poems that we all had to learn by heart. From 'I want to be a dentist with a plaid upon the poor, floor, the door, and a little bubbling fountain in the middle of the floor'. So of course that was much more fun than all those classics. And "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.'"[10]
Greet Bezema recalled being tutored at Miss Von der Möhlen's home in the upper grades because she was not good at English.[9] From March 1936, Von der Möhlen lived at 48hs Banstraat, around the corner from the Lyceum.[11]
Hetty Last described Miss Von der Möhlen as the "favourite teacher in the whole school".[8]
Teaching programme
The English programme of the Municipal Lyceum for Girls was as follows for the H.B.S. in 1941:
2nd Grade
Pronunciation exercises. Exercises in speaking, writing, reading and translation. Principles of speech.
3rd Grade
Exercises in speaking, writing, reading and translation. Continuation of the treatment of speech.
4th Grade
Exercises in the oral and written use of English. Translations from English into Dutch and vice versa. Coverage of some main periods of literary studies. Modern reading.
5th and 6th Grades
Exercises in the oral and written use of English. Translations from English into Dutch. Reading. Literature related to it.[12]
Source personal data. [13] Addresses: Heemstede; Amsterdam, Banstraat 48hs ('36), Apollolaan 61-I ('62); Vleuten; Hamelin.[11]
Footnotes
- ^ Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Martha Maria Christina von der Möhlen, https://archief.amsterdam/indexen/deeds/98533425-5371-56a3-e053-b784100ade19?person=98533425-5372-56a3-e053-b784100ade19; https://www.genealogieonline.nl/een-stukje-von-der-mohlen/I063.php (geraadpleegd 11 oktober 2022).
- ^ ‘UITSLAG van de in 1915 te 's Gravenhage gehouden examens ter verkrijging van eene akte van bekwaamheid A, tot het geven van middelbaar onderwijs in de Engelsche taal’, in: Nederlandsche staatscourant, 27 augustus 1915, https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=MMKB08:000181713:mpeg21:a0005.
- ^ Gedenkboek ter gelegenheid van het 25-jarig bestaan van het Gemeentelijk Lyceum voor Meisjes te Amsterdam en het afscheid van Dr Magrita J. Freie als rectrix van deze school, Amsterdam, 1950, p.34.
- ^ SAA, Gerrit van der Veen Scholengemeenschap en rechtsvoorgangers, toegang 623, inv. nr. 421: rapportenregisters klas 2A, 1939-40.
- ^ Elders wordt gesuggereerd dat het ook mogelijk is dat ze elkaar aan Colombia University in New York hebben ontmoet bij lessen daar, maar onduidelijk is of Martha von der Möhlen daarbij is geweest. Zie Susan Goldman Rubin, Searching for Anne Frank. Letters from Amsterdam to Iowa, New York, NY, Abrams, 2003, p. 7. Zeker is dat Birdie Mathews in Europa rondreisde in 1914 en 1939 en tijdens haar eerste reis (en mogelijk ook in 1939) ook Nederland had bezocht.
- ^ Er is in Danville, Iowa, een museum opgericht over de correspondentie met de zusjes Frank: http://www.danvillestation.net/Anne-Frank-Connection.html
- ^ AFS, Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), reg. code Extern.00052: Kopie brief Margot Frank aan Betty Ann Wagner, 27 april 1940. De originele brief en ook de brief van Anne aan Juanita Wagner, het zusje van Betty Ann, bevinden zich in het archief van het Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, Verenigde Staten.
- a, b AFS, Getuigenarchief, interview Hetty Last, 16 november 2011.
- a, b AFS, Getuigenarchief, interview Greet Bezema, 16 november 2011.
- a, b AFS, Getuigenarchief, interview Bella van der Wilk-Kohlwey, 16 november 2011.
- a, b SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Martha Maria Christina von der Möhlen.
- ^ SAA, Inventaris van het Archief van de Gerrit van der Veen Scholengemeenschap en rechtsvoorgangers, toegang 708, inv.nr. 38: Programma van het onderwijs aan het lyceum, 1941.
- ^ ‘Saa, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Martha Maria Christina von der Mohlen; Familiebericht overlijden Martha Maria Christina von der Möhlen’ In: NRC Handelsblad, 11 mei 1993, https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=KBNRC01:000031167:mpeg21:a0105.