History remembers them differently, but in 1944, they were just two teenage girls living under the shadow of Nazi occupation, only 90 kilometers apart.
The Parallel Lives of 1929
Anne Frank was born in June 1929. Audrey Hepburn was born just a month earlier, in May 1929. While Anne spent years in a cramped "Secret Annex" in Amsterdam, paralyzed by the fear of being discovered, Audrey was in the nearby town of Arnhem, suffering from severe malnutrition and the constant terror of the war.
"The only difference was... I could go outside."
Audrey survived the war, but Anne did not. When Anne’s diary was published after the war, Audrey read it with a heavy heart. She felt as if she were reading her own soul.
"I felt as if she were my sister... The difference was that she was indoors and I was outdoors," Audrey once remarked.
She knew that "small" difference was the line between life and death. Audrey turned down the offer to play Anne Frank on screen because the emotional weight was too great to bear—she felt she had lived that tragedy herself.
A Final Act of Love
Later in her life, Audrey honored her "soul sister" by reciting passages from Anne’s diary during the performance of the symphony "From The Diary of Anne Frank." True to her character, all the proceeds went to help children through UNICEF—the same organization that had saved her with food and medicine after the war ended.
On January 20, 1993, the girl who survived the hunger of war to become a symbol of grace, Audrey Hepburn, passed away. She left behind a legacy that proved even the darkest history can be transformed into a light of hope for children.
Source: Inspired by "Audrey at Home: Memories of My Mother's Kitchen" by Luca Dotti.
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