It's possible Jewish teen Anne Frank died earlier than previously thought — by amount a month.
New research says Anne, famous for her diary detailing her family’s life in hiding during World War II, likely died of typhus in a Nazi concentration camp weeks before the generally accepted date.
A researcher at the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam said Anne likely died at Bergen-Belsen camp in February 1945 at the age of 15, a
month earlier than the officially recognized March 31 date, The Associated Press reported.
The concentration camp was liberated on April 15, 1945, and some have speculated that if Anne and her sister, Margot, had lived just a couple weeks longer, they may have survived the holocaust.
"When you say they died at the end of March, it gives you a feeling that they died just before liberation. So maybe if they'd lived two more weeks ...," researcher Erika Prins said, according to the AP. "Well, that's not true anymore."
According to witness accounts, the girls showed symptoms of typhus by early February. The disease usually is fatal at about 12 days after symptoms appear.
Anne was last seen by a camp survivor sometime before Feb. 7, when the
teen was given a food parcel organized by Auguste Van Pels, DutchNews.nl reported. Also, some who were transported along with Van Pels on Feb. 7 said they had noticed typhus symptoms in the girls.
The research revealing the earlier death used archives from the Red Cross, the International Tracing Service and the Bergen-Belsen Memorial,
along with eyewitness testimonies, Haaretz reported. The study was reported Tuesday, the 70th anniversary of Anne Frank’s officially recognized death,
"One day they simply weren't there anymore," survivor Rachel van Amerongen said, according to Haaretz.
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