Oceans Apart

In Danville, Iowa 1940, Miss Birdie's fourth grade class was assigned pen-pals from overseas. Juanita Wagner, a ten-year-old girl, drew the name "Anne Frank" for her pen-pal. She wrote to Anne about life in Iowa, her sister, and mother, and many other things. A few weeks later, Juanita received a letter back not only from Anne, but also from her older sister, Margot (Margot wrote to Juanita's older sister Betty Ann, as they were both 14). The letters were written in English, although historians think that the letter was originally written in Dutch, and then the girls, with the help of their father, Otto, translated them into English. In the letter, Anne told her new pen pal about her school, about her life in Amsterdam, and about her vast postcard collection (at this time she said she had almost 800 postcards ). She and Margot also both included their school pictures, and Anne included one of her postcards of Amsterdam, so that her pen pal could see the city where she lived. After WWII ended, Betty Ann wrote back to their pen pals, hoping that they had survived the war unscathed. A few months later, she received a letter from their father, Otto Frank, telling her what had happened to his daughters. Betty Ann was devastated to learn what had happened to her overseas friends, and told the story to her class so they could realize how fortunate they were to be living in America.