Margot was three years older than Anne so was probably more aware of the family’s move from Germany to Holland, which took place when she was seven years old. Margot was a quiet, obedient child, who always kept her clothes neat and clean, unlike her younger sister. She was considered the more beautiful and the more intelligent of the two, and Anne resented her for this sometimes, as she notes in her diary.

Margot did well at school and was often used as an example for Anne by the Franks, who wanted Anne to copy Margot’s good behavior. During the two years that they were confined in the “Secret Annexe,” the two sisters grew very close, learned to be more patient with one another, and eventually became close friends.

After the group in hiding was discovered and sent to the concentration camps, Anne and Margot managed to remain together almost until the end. After surviving the Westerbork reception camp and the Auschwitz concentration camp, however, Margot became sick with typhus at the Belsen concentration camp in the winter of 1944-45. After being gravely ill and lying in a deep coma for days, Margot died at the end of February (or the beginning of March), 1945. While unconscious, she fell out of bed, and she was found dead when her friends tried to lift her back into her bed.