Hanneli Goslar, identified as "Lies" in Anne Frank's diary, was Anne's childhood friend and neighbor in Amsterdam. They attended the 6th Montessori School together, forming a close early friendship, with Anne considering her one of her best friends. Living near the Franks on Merwedeplein, Hanneli shared their background as part of a circle of Jewish refugees from Germany.

After the Nazi occupation, both faced escalating persecution, including forced transfer to the segregated Jewish Lyceum in 1941. Their lives diverged when the Frank family entered hiding in July 1942; Hanneli remained in Amsterdam until Nazi forces arrested and deported her early in the war.

While in hiding, Anne often dwelled on Hanneli's fate in her diary, expressing guilt and anguish. She recorded haunting nightmares of Hanneli "clothed in rags, her face thin and worn," revealing her deep distress over her friend's suffering and her awareness of the chasm between her own concealed refuge and the deportees' horrors.

Hanneli was imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In a striking coincidence during the winter of 1944-1945, she discovered Anne there, separated by barbed wire. Despite her own severe malnourishment, Hanneli threw small bundles of food and socks to Anne during their fleeting, charged encounters. These acts of compassion occurred shortly before Anne’s death, unfolding against the camp’s brutality.

Hanneli survived the Holocaust. Her postwar testimony detailed the final moments with Anne and Margot Frank at Bergen-Belsen, confirming their imprisonment and physical deterioration. These accounts later enriched historical records of the Franks’ camp experiences.