On April 29, 1940—just days before Nazi forces invaded the Netherlands—Anne Frank sent what would become her final letter to two American sisters from Danville, Iowa: Betty and Juanita Wagner. The three girls had been corresponding as part of a school pen pal project, organized by Danville teacher Birdie Matthews, who had visited Amsterdam in the late 1930s.
The discovery of the final letter, now preserved in the Danville Public Library’s archives, offers a rare glimpse into Anne’s life before her family went into hiding. Written in neat handwriting and cheerful tone, the letter discusses school, Anne’s pet cat, and the arrival of spring in Amsterdam.
“This isn’t the Anne we know from her diary,” says historian Dr. Rachel Neumann, who specializes in Holocaust-era education. “This is Anne before the war—a bright, playful girl making friends across an ocean. It reminds us how much was lost.”
Twelve days after Anne’s letter was postmarked, German troops invaded the Netherlands. Contact with the Wagner sisters ceased. Unaware of Anne’s fate, the Iowa girls often wondered what had happened to their pen pal. They learned the tragic answer only after the war, when The Diary of a Young Girl was published in 1947 and became a global symbol of courage in the face of persecution.
Betty Wagner, now 97, remembers receiving the letter. “We never imagined that the girl we wrote to would become part of history. To us, she was just Anne.”
The letter and related artifacts are now on display in a special exhibit titled “Voices Across the Sea: Anne Frank and the Iowa Connection” at the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines.
