Marijke Ellen Jacoba Delmonte (* 1938) was three years old and her sister Saskia was two in September of 1941 when this photo of Marijke appeared in the Dutch magazine, Libelle. It was taken by the well-known photographer Maria Austria. This visibility was extremely ironic as in that year Marijke’s family had fled Amsterdam for Laren where they went into hiding. To minimize the risk of discovery, in 1942 Marijke and her sisters were hidden in separate households. While each member of the family did survive the war, the parents’ marriage did not. The two girls were raised in another family.
After finishing school, Marijke first did clerical work and eventually ran a second-hand shop.
As an adult Marijke visited the Anne Frank House with her husband Daniel Otten. She was shocked to spot her picture, torn from the pages of Libelle, among others Anne Frank had chosen to tack up on the wall of the room. In another twist their stories intertwined tragically: Daniel’s mother had been deported on the last train from Westerbork to Auschwitz together with the Frank family.