The Small Iowa Town With an Unusual Connection to Anne Frank

Early this week, I was listening to a new episode of my favorite podcast 'My Favorite Murder.' It was one of the true crime show's 'Minisodes,' which feature interesting stories sent in by listeners from all over the world. It's not often that one of those stories comes from Iowa, but in Minisode 504, I was surprised to hear an email from the Hawkeye State!

The email came from a woman named Morgan, whose hometown is Danville, Iowa. Danville is located between Mount Pleasant and Burlington in Southeast Iowa's Des Moines County. If you've never heard of it, that's probably because it's tiny! Danville is only home to around 900 people. That's why it was so shocking to hear that Danville is known for its connection to one of the most famous historic figures of all time: Anne Frank.

The Anne Frank Connection

At 102 N Main St in Danville sits Danville Station, home to 'The Anne Frank Connection' Museum. It's one of only two places in the entire WORLD where you can view a series of letters that date all the way back to 1939. One of those letters was from Anne Frank herself.

According to a 2018 article from the BBC, it all started with an Iowa teacher named Birdie Matthews. Birdie was a 7th and 8th grade teacher that enjoyed taking summer vacations in Europe. It was there that she made the connections necessary to start a pen pal program between her students in Iowa and other schoolchildren across the globe.

Each year, Birdie would find an interested school, and her students would have the opportunity to pick a name from a list to become pen pals with. In the spring of 1940, that school was the 6th Montessori School in Amsterdam, and the name that 10-year-old Juanita Wagner chose was none other than Anne Frank.

The Letters

Juanita wrote a letter to Anne first, telling her about life on the farm with her mom and sister Betty. The BBC details Anne's letter back to Juanita, writing:

"In Anne’s response to Juanita, dated 29 April 1940, she wrote about her school and living with her parents, sister and grandmother. She said her birthday was on 12 June, and asked Juanita to send her picture so Anne could see what she looked like.

Anne also mentioned that she thought that some of her friends would also like to write to other girls at Juanita’s school, and that she collected postcards. Anne included a postcard of Amsterdam’s canals and her school picture."

In addition to the letter and the postcard, Anne also included a separate letter from her older sister Margot, which mentioned some of the news-worthy events happening in Europe at the time.

Unfortunately, Juanita and Betty never had a chance to get another letter from Anne and Margot. On May 10th of 1940, German forces invaded the Netherlands, and Anne and her family went into hiding. They were discovered in August 1944 and sent to different concentration camps, and that's where Anne, Margot, and their mother Edith's lives would end. The only survivor was Anne's father, Otto.

Otto's Letter

During WWII, Juanita and Betty never forgot about Anne and her family, and often wondered if they were ok. They sent another letter to Anne's previous address after the war ended, but this time, it was Otto who responded. The BBC reports that Otto told the girls "what the family had gone through and what happened to his daughters." It was also revealed that Otto was the one who had translated the letters between the girls from English to Dutch and Dutch to English.

The Anne Frank Museum

It was actually Betty Wagner that held on to their letters from Anne, Margot, and Otto, but she had forgotten about them until hearing about a play based on 'The Diary of Anne Frank' in 1956. The family kept the letters private for years, until a friend of Betty's suggested that she put them up for auction. They sold to an anonymous bidder for $165,000 in 1988 and were donated to the Simon Wiesenthal Center in LA, where they still remain today. The only other place in the world that they can be viewed is Danville, Iowa's own Anne Frank Museum!

The 'Anne Frank Connection' in Danville is open Monday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. The exhibit also features a pre-WWII railcar from Germany. Admission is $3 for ages 10 to 17 and $7 for ages 18+ (cash/check only). For more information about the museum, you can check out the official website HERE.

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Gallery Credit: Courtlin