Matthew J. Perry

Who was Matthew J. Perry?

Helmuth "Hello" Silberberg was the boy Anne was closest to at the time her family went into hiding, though they had only known each other about two weeks at that time. His grandfather, who disliked the name Helmuth, dubbed him "Hello". He was 16, and adored Anne, but she wrote in her diary that she was "not in love with Hello, he is just a friend, or as mummy would say, one of my 'beaux' ". Hello had been living in Amsterdam with his grandparents, but by a very convoluted series of events, including several narrow escapes from the Nazis, he was able eventually to reunite with his parents in Belgium. Belgium was also an occupied country, however, and he and his family were still "in hiding", though not under circumstances as difficult as the Franks. The town where the Silberbergs were hiding was liberated on 3 September 1944, and Hello was free - tragically on the same day that Anne and her family left on the last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz. Hello emigrated to the United States after the war, and is today known as Ed Silverberg.

Famous Quotes:

• "I wasn't terribly surprised. It wasn't unusual at that time for Jewish families to disappear. I thought, 'Maybe they got away,'"
• "It was a Sunday afternoon -- a very sunny day in summer. The weather was beautiful. I knocked on Anne's door, but no one was there,"