Elisabeth “Bep” Voskuijl was born #onthisday 5 July 1919 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She was one of eight children born to Johan Voskuijl and Christina Sodenkamp.
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At the age of 18, she was hired by Otto Frank to work as a secretary for his company, Opekta. She was the youngest employee there. Later, her father would become the Opekta warehouse supervisor. He was the one to build the famous bookcase that truly hid the Secret Annex.
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Bep became close with the Frank family, and would later become especially close to Anne. Bep also befriended Miep Gies and came to know Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman.
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She celebrated her 23rd birthday on 5 July 1942. The next morning, when she went to work, the Franks had already moved into the Secret Annex behind the office. She immediately became devoted to helping them, just as the older helpers. She would provide milk and bread for the eight hiders (including the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer), and used her name to sign up for a Latin correspondence class that Margot was able to take.
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When the Gestapo raided the Secret Annex in 1944, Bee managed to escape with a few documents that would have incriminated their black market contacts. She hid for a week and then returned to the office, when she saved parts of Anne’s diary that were scattered on the floor. Miep had already saved most of it.
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Bep remained out of the public-eye throughout most of her life after the war but did maintain a good relationship with Otto Frank and the other Opekta helpers. She married Cornelis van Wijk in 1946 and had four children, one of which she named after Anne. She died in May 1983 at the age of 63.
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Her youngest son released her biography, Bep Voskuijl, Het Zwijgen Voorbij. Een biografie van de jongste helpster van het Achterhuis (English: Anne Frank The Untold Story. The Hidden Truth about Elli Vossen, the Youngest Helper of the Secret Annex).
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Scroll for a quote by Miep Gies