104-487: Otto Heinrich Frank (12 May 1889 – 19 August 1980) was the father of Anne Frank . He edited and published the first edition of her diary in 1947 (subsequently known in English as The Diary of a Young Girl ) and advised on its later theatrical and cinematic adaptations. In the 1950s and the 1960s, he established European charities in his daughter's name and founded the trust which preserved his family's wartime hiding place,
208-474: A Pulitzer Prize for Drama . It was followed by the film The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), which was a critical and commercial success. Biographer Melissa Müller later wrote that the dramatization had "contributed greatly to the romanticizing, sentimentalizing and universalizing of Anne's story." Over the years the popularity of the diary grew, and in many schools, particularly in the United States, it
312-523: A 1961 speech, and said, "Of all the multitudes who throughout history have spoken for human dignity in times of great suffering and loss, no voice is more compelling than that of Anne Frank." In the same year, the Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg wrote of her: "one voice speaks for six million—the voice not of a sage or a poet but of an ordinary little girl." Opekta Opekta was a German pectin and spice company that existed between 1928 and 1995. It
416-404: A Dutch translation, apologized via an internal email. The publisher said they should have been more critical and announced that they are "await(ing) the answers from the researchers to the questions that have emerged and are delaying the decision to print another run". In response, Pieter van Twisk, one of the investigators referenced in the book, said that he was "perplexed by the email" and that
520-518: A Young Girl (originally Het Achterhuis in Dutch, lit. ' the back house ' ; English: The Secret Annex ), which documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944. It is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films . Frank was born in Frankfurt , Germany, in 1929. In 1934, when she was four-and-a-half, Frank and her family moved to Amsterdam in
624-667: A big question, will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer? She continued writing regularly until her last entry on 1 August 1944. On the morning of 4 August 1944, the Achterhuis was stormed by a group of German uniformed police ( Grüne Polizei ) led by SS - Oberscharführer Karl Silberbauer of the Sicherheitsdienst . The Franks, Van Pelses, and Pfeffer were taken to RSHA headquarters, where they were interrogated and held overnight. On 5 August, they were transferred to
728-526: A biography in which they alleged that Bep's younger sister (their aunt) Nelly (1923–2001) could have betrayed the Franks. Nelly was a Nazi collaborator from the age of 19 to 23. She had run away to Austria with a Nazi officer, and returned to Amsterdam in 1943 after the relationship ended. Nelly had been critical of Bep and their father, Johannes Voskuijl, for helping the Jews; Johannes was the one who constructed
832-590: A book based on the diary when the war ended. Goslar noted Auguste van Pels was with Anne and Margot Frank, and was caring for Margot, who was severely ill. She also recalled she did not see Margot, as she was too weak to leave her bunk, while Blitz stated she met with both of the Frank sisters. Anne told Blitz and Goslar she believed her parents were dead, and for that reason she did not wish to live any longer. Goslar later estimated their meetings had taken place in late January or early February 1945. Anne Frank died at
936-474: A call-up notice from the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung ( Central Office for Jewish Emigration ) on 5 July, ordering her to report for relocation to a work camp, they were forced to initiate their plan ten days earlier than they had originally intended. Shortly before going into hiding, Anne gave her friend and next-door neighbor Toosje Kupers a book, a tea set, and a tin of marbles. On 6 July,
1040-492: A caretaker at an office building requisitioned by the Sicherheitsdienst , apparently witnessed Van Dijk visiting the building in August 1944 and overheard her talking with her SD superiors about Prinsengracht, where the Franks were hiding. However, another book examining this possibility noted that many of Van Dijk's victims had lived in or near Prinsengracht. In January 2022, some investigators proposed Arnold van den Bergh ,
1144-618: A close friend of Margot's, had survived. Several of the Frank sisters' school friends had survived, as had the extended families of Otto and Edith Frank, as they had fled Germany during the mid-1930s, with individual family members settling in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In July 1945, after the sisters Janny and Lien Brilleslijper, who were with Anne and Margot Frank in Bergen-Belsen, confirmed
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#17327903253661248-482: A degree of tolerance and respect. The Frank sisters each hoped to return to school as soon as they were able and continued with their studies while in hiding. Margot took a course 'Elementary Latin' by correspondence in Bep Voskuijl's name and received high marks. Most of Anne's time was spent reading and studying, and she regularly wrote and edited (after March 1944) her diary entries. In addition to providing
1352-620: A demolition order placed on the building in which Otto Frank and his family hid during the war, he and Johannes Kleiman helped establish the Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam on 3 May 1957, with the principal aim to save and restore the building so it could be opened to the general public. With the aid of public donations, the building and the adjacent one were purchased by the Amsterdam-based foundation. It opened as
1456-682: A hole she made at the bottom of the infirmary wall. In October 1944, the Frank women were scheduled to join a transport to the Liebau labour camp in Lower Silesia . Bloeme Evers-Emden was scheduled to be on this transport, but Anne was prohibited from going because she had developed scabies, and her mother and sister opted to stay with her. Bloeme went on without them. On 28 October, selections began for women to be relocated to Bergen-Belsen . More than 8,000 women, including Anne and Margot Frank, and Auguste van Pels, were transported. Edith Frank
1560-426: A husband and children to devote myself to! ... I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death! And that's why I'm so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to express all that's inside me! When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! But, and that's
1664-423: A journalist, because that's what I want! I know I can write ..., but it remains to be seen whether I really have talent ... And if I don't have the talent to write books or newspaper articles, I can always write for myself. But I want to achieve more than that. I can't imagine living like Mother, Mrs. van Daan and all the women who go about their work and are then forgotten. I need to have something besides
1768-664: A landing above the Opekta offices on the Prinsengracht , where some of Otto Frank's most trusted employees would be their helpers. This hiding place became known as the Achterhuis (translated into "Secret Annex" in English editions of the diary). Their apartment was left in a state of disarray to create the impression that they had left suddenly, and Otto left a note that hinted they were going to Switzerland. As Jews were not allowed to use public transport, Otto, Edith, and Anne walked several kilometres from their home. Margot cycled to
1872-619: A lawsuit against him. As with the previous case, the court determined that the diary was authentic. Römer demanded a second investigation, but on this occasion the Hamburg District Court engaged the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) . It was claimed that parts of her diary were written with ballpoint pen ink, which did not exist prior to 1951. However, the BKA found that these parts were simply two scraps of paper not attached to
1976-494: A member of Amsterdam's Jewish Council who died in 1950, as the suspected informant. The investigators postulated that Van den Bergh gave up the Franks to save his family. The investigation is chronicled in Rosemary Sullivan 's English-language book, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation . Evidence was also claimed to have been found that Anne Frank's father later knew this but did not reveal it after
2080-716: A middle-class education. Otto had music lessons, learned to ride a horse and visited the theater and opera regularly. The Frank family enjoyed a large circle of friends, and kept a welcoming home. Otto studied economics in Heidelberg from 1908 to 1909 and had a work experience placement at Macy's Department Store in New York City thanks to a college friend his age, Nathan Straus Jr. However, after leaving for New York, he had to return home briefly because of his father's death in September 1909, before once again leaving for
2184-421: A mother to me." Later, as she revised her diary, Frank felt ashamed of her harsh attitude, writing: "Anne, is it really you who mentioned hate, oh Anne, how could you?" She came to understand that their differences resulted from misunderstandings that were as much her fault as her mother's and saw that she had added unnecessarily to her mother's suffering. With this realization, Frank began to treat her mother with
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#17327903253662288-524: A museum (the Anne Frank House ) on 3 May 1960 and is still in operation. For the rest of his life, Otto Frank dedicated himself to the publication of the diary and the ideals his daughter had expressed in it. Otto Frank died of lung cancer on 19 August 1980 in Birsfelden and his ashes were buried in the town's cemetery, where Elfriede would also be buried, in the same tomb, 18 years later. He
2392-565: A narrative of events as they occurred, she wrote about her feelings, beliefs, dreams and ambitions, subjects she felt she could not discuss with anyone. As her confidence in her writing grew, and as she began to mature, she wrote of more abstract subjects such as her belief in God, and how she defined human nature. Frank aspired to become a journalist, writing in her diary on Wednesday, 5 April 1944: I finally realized that I must do my schoolwork to keep from being ignorant, to get on in life, to become
2496-461: A pin left, the Germans stole everything. Not a photo, letter or document remains. Financially, we were fine in the past few years, I earned good money and saved it. Now it's all gone. But I don't think about any of that. We have lived through too much to worry about that kind of thing. Only the children matter, the children. I hope to get news from you immediately. Maybe you've already heard news about
2600-507: A possible explanation for the raid that led to the arrest of the Franks. The report stated that other activities in the building may have led authorities there, including activities of Otto Frank's company; however, it did not rule out betrayal. A 2018 book suggested Ans van Dijk , a Dutch Jew who betrayed at least 145 fellow Jews to the Gestapo, as a potential candidate for the informant. Dutch resistance fighter Gerard Kremer, who worked as
2704-464: A private expression of her thoughts; she wrote several times that she would never allow anyone to read it. She candidly described her life, her family and companions, and their situation, while beginning to recognize her ambition to write fiction for publication. In March 1944, she heard a radio broadcast by Gerrit Bolkestein —a member of the Dutch government in exile , based in London —who said that when
2808-515: A range-finder at the Battle of the Somme . In 1917, he was promoted in the field to lieutenant and served at the Battle of Cambrai , where two of his French cousins, Oscar and Georges, were killed in action. According to other sources, Otto was late returning home because he was ordered to confiscate two horses from a farmer and returned them to the farmer when the war ended in defeat. Frank worked in
2912-471: A second company, Pectacon, which was a wholesaler of herbs, pickling salts , and mixed spices , used in the production of sausages. Hermann van Pels was employed by Pectacon as an advisor about spices. A Jewish butcher, he had fled Osnabrück with his family. In 1939, Edith Frank's mother came to live with the Franks and remained with them until her death in January 1942. In May 1940, Germany invaded
3016-565: A small lock on the front. Frank decided she would use it as a diary, and named it Kitty. She began writing in it almost immediately. In her entry dated 20 June 1942, she lists many of the restrictions placed upon the lives of the Dutch Jewish population. In mid-1942, the systematic deportation of Jews from the Netherlands began. Otto and Edith Frank planned to go into hiding with the children on 16 July 1942, but when Margot received
3120-767: A subsequent and final move to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. In the same year, Otto's widowed mother, Alice Frank, fled to Switzerland. Otto's brother-in-law Erich Elias (the husband of his younger sister Leni and father of Buddy Elias ) worked in Basel for Opekta , a company that sold spices and pectin for use in the manufacture of jam. The company was looking to expand its operations in Europe, and Erich arranged for Otto to work as Opekta 's agent in Amsterdam, allowing Otto to have an income to support his family once they had moved there. Otto and his family lived in Merwedeplein in
3224-421: Is not known if it ever reached him. Ten days later, when Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declared war on the United States, the visa was canceled. He also attempted to obtain visas for his family to Britain, however, he was never granted the visas. At the age of 53, when the systematic deportation of Jews from the Netherlands started in the summer of 1942, Otto Frank took his family into hiding on 6 July 1942 in
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3328-612: Is notable for its Dutch operation being based in the building at Prinsengracht 263 that later became the Anne Frank House . Opekta was based in Cologne and expanded into the Netherlands in 1933, at which time Otto Frank moved from Germany to Amsterdam to become managing director of the new Dutch operation. Otto Frank was in charge of the manufacturing and distribution of the pectin-based gelling preparations, to be used in jam making . The company continued to trade from
3432-480: The 6th Montessori School . Anne joined the 6th Montessori School on 9 April 1934; in 1957, it was posthumously renamed "Anne Frank School". Despite initial problems with the Dutch language, Margot became a star pupil in Amsterdam. Anne soon felt at home at the Montessori school and met children of her own age, like Hanneli Goslar , who would later become one of her best friends. In 1938, Otto Frank started
3536-545: The Anne Frank House , in Amsterdam. Otto Heinrich Frank was born into a Jewish family. He was the second of four children born to Alice Betty (née Stern, 1865–1953) and Michael Frank (1851–1909). His elder brother was Robert Frank, and younger siblings were Herbert Frank and Helene (Leni) Frank. Otto was a cousin of the furniture designer Jean-Michel Frank and a grandson of Zacharias Frank. His father originally came from Landau , and moved to Frankfurt in 1879, marrying Alice Stern in 1886. Alice and Michael Frank placed value on
3640-728: The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where they died of typhus . In 1953, Frank married Elfriede (Fritzi) Markovits, a Holocaust survivor, who assisted him with the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, which he launched a decade later. Markovits's daughter, Eva Schloss , is a Holocaust survivor, peace activist and international speaker. As the tide of Nazism rose in Germany and anti-Jewish decrees encouraged attacks on Jewish individuals and families, Otto decided to evacuate his family. In August 1933, they relocated to Aachen , where his mother-in-law, Rosa Holländer resided, in preparation for
3744-731: The federal election and Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Reich , Edith Frank and the children went to stay with Edith's mother Rosa in Aachen . Otto Frank remained in Frankfurt, but after receiving an offer to start a company in Amsterdam, he moved there to organize the business and to arrange accommodation for his family. He began working at the Opekta Works , a company that sold the fruit extract pectin . Edith travelled back and forth between Aachen and Amsterdam and found an apartment on
3848-514: The 1,019 passengers, 549—including all children younger than 15—were sent directly to the gas chambers . Anne Frank, who had turned 15 three months earlier, was one of the youngest people spared from her transport. She was soon made aware that most people were gassed upon arrival and never learned that the entire group from the Achterhuis had survived this selection. She reasoned that her father, in his mid-fifties and not particularly robust, had been killed immediately after they were separated. With
3952-575: The Anne Frank Foundation in Basel (not to be confused with the Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam, see below), which is devoted to global distribution and use of the Diary of Anne Frank . The non-profit organisation uses the proceeds of the copyrights for charitable purposes, education, and scientific research . In addition the Foundation in Basel supports projects in the field of human rights, racism and rights and promoting social justice. In response to
4056-610: The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in February or March 1945. The specific cause is unknown; however, there is evidence to suggest that she died from a typhus epidemic that spread through the camp, killing 17,000 prisoners. Gena Turgel , a survivor of Bergen-Belsen, knew Anne at the camp. In 2015, she told the British newspaper The Sun : "Her bed was around the corner from me. She was delirious, terrible, burning up." She said she had brought Frank water to wash. Turgel, who worked in
4160-535: The Frank family left a note for the Kupers, asking them to take care of their cat Moortje. As the Associated Press reports: "'I'm worried about my marbles, because I'm scared they might fall into the wrong hands,' Kupers said Anne told her. 'Could you keep them for me for a little while?'" On the morning of Monday, 6 July 1942, the Frank family moved into their hiding place, a three-story space entered from
4264-606: The Frank women in Auschwitz in the television documentary The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank (1988) by Dutch filmmaker Willy Lindwer and the BBC documentary Anne Frank Remembered (1995). Upon arrival at Auschwitz, the SS forcibly split the men from the women and children, and Otto Frank was separated from his family. Those deemed able to work were admitted into the camp, and those deemed unfit for labour were immediately killed. Of
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4368-494: The Franks and remained with them until her death in January 1942. After Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Otto Frank was forced by the Germans to give up his companies. Otto made his businesses look "Aryan" by transferring control to his employees. In 1938 and 1941, Frank attempted to obtain visas for his family to emigrate to the United States or Cuba. He was granted a single visa for himself to Cuba on 1 December 1941, but it
4472-580: The Franks were transported to concentration camps . On 1 November 1944, Anne Frank and her sister, Margot , were transferred from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , where they died (presumably of typhus ) a few months later. They were estimated by the Red Cross to have died in March, with Dutch authorities setting 31 March as the official date. Later research has alternatively suggested that they may have died in February or early March. Otto,
4576-685: The Huis van Bewaring (House of Detention), an overcrowded prison on the Weteringschans [ nl ] . Two days later they were transported to the Westerbork transit camp , through which more than 100,000 Jews, mostly Dutch and German, had passed. Having been arrested in hiding, they were considered criminals and sent to the Punishment Barracks for hard labour . Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman were arrested and jailed at
4680-573: The Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in concealed rooms behind a bookcase in the building where Frank's father, Otto Frank , worked. The hiding place is notably referred to as the " secret annex ". Until the family's arrest by the Gestapo on 4 August 1944, Frank kept and regularly wrote in a diary she had received as a birthday present in 1942. Following their arrest,
4784-562: The Merwedeplein (Merwede Square) in the Rivierenbuurt neighbourhood of Amsterdam, where many more Jewish-German refugees settled. In November 1933, Edith followed her husband and a month later Margot moved to Amsterdam. Anne stayed with her grandmother until February, when the family reunited in Amsterdam. The Franks were among 300,000 Jews who fled Germany between 1933 and 1939. After moving to Amsterdam, Anne and Margot Frank were enrolled in school—Margot in public school and Anne in
4888-534: The Netherlands , and the occupation government began to persecute Jews by the implementation of restrictive and discriminatory laws; mandatory registration and segregation soon followed. Otto Frank tried to arrange for the family to emigrate to the United States—the only destination that seemed to him to be viable —but Frank's application for a visa was never processed, because the U.S. consulate in Rotterdam
4992-521: The Netherlands after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party gained control over Germany . By May 1940, the family was trapped in Amsterdam by the German occupation of the Netherlands . Frank lost her German citizenship in 1941 and became stateless . Despite spending most of her life in the Netherlands and being a de facto Dutch national, she never officially became a Dutch citizen . As persecutions of
5096-501: The Prinsengracht with Miep Gies. The door to the Achterhuis was later covered by a bookcase to ensure it remained undiscovered. Victor Kugler , Johannes Kleiman , Miep Gies , and Bep Voskuijl were the only employees who knew of the people in hiding. Along with Gies' husband Jan Gies and Voskuijl's father Johannes Hendrik Voskuijl, they were the "helpers" for the duration of their confinement. The only connection between
5200-590: The United States. He returned to Germany two years later in 1911. Frank served in the Imperial German Army during World War I . He and his two brothers were drafted for military service in August 1915 and after training at a depot in Mainz , he served in an artillery unit on the Western Front in which most soldiers were mathematicians and surveyors. In 1916, he was attached to the infantry as
5304-461: The accusation of Van den Bergh was based on weak assumptions and lack of historical knowledge. As a result, the Dutch language version of the book was recalled by Ambo Anthos. On 19 August 2022, the Dutch researcher Natasha Gerson published an 80-page report analyzing the annotations and sources in The Betrayal of Anne Frank , which argued that the theory in the book was not only flawed but
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#17327903253665408-403: The amount of food they consumed. Sometime later, after first dismissing the shy and awkward Peter van Pels, she recognized a kinship with him and the two entered a romance. She received her first kiss from him, but her infatuation with him began to wane as she questioned whether her feelings for him were genuine or resulted from their shared confinement. Anne Frank formed a close bond with each of
5512-692: The bank that his father initially ran, which subsequently he and his brothers inherited until its collapse in the early 1930s. He married Edith Holländer – an heiress to a scrap-metal and industrial-supply business – on his 36th birthday, 12 May 1925, at the synagogue in Aachen , Edith's hometown. Edith was 25 when they married. Their elder daughter, Margot Frank (Margot Betti), was born 16 February 1926, followed by their younger daughter, Anne (Annelies Marie) , on 12 June 1929. Edith died of starvation and disease in Auschwitz on 6 January 1945. In late October 1944, Margot and Anne were transferred from Auschwitz to
5616-440: The book a unique depiction, not merely of adolescence but of the "conversion of a child into a person as it is happening in a precise, confident, economical style stunning in its honesty". In her introduction to the diary's first American edition, Eleanor Roosevelt described it as "one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read." John F. Kennedy discussed Anne Frank in
5720-459: The bookcase covering the entrance to the hiding place and remained as an unofficial watchman of the hideout. In one of their quarrels, Nelly shouted to them, "Go to your Jews." Karl Josef Silberbauer , the SS officer who made the arrest, was reported to have said that the informer had "the voice of a young woman". In 2016, the Anne Frank House published new research pointing to an investigation over ration card fraud, rather than betrayal, as
5824-487: The camp as Frank on 5 December 1944, while Goslar had been held in the Sternlager since February 1944. Both women survived the war, and later discussed the conversations they had with Frank, Blitz in person and Goslar through a barbed wire fence. Blitz described Anne as bald, emaciated, and shivering, remarking: "[The] shock of seeing her in this emaciated state was indescribable." Anne told her that she hoped to write
5928-480: The camp hospital, said that the epidemic took a terrible toll on the inmates: "The people were dying like flies—in the hundreds. Reports used to come in—500 people who died. Three hundred? We said, 'Thank God, only 300.'" Other diseases, including typhoid fever , were rampant. Witnesses later testified Margot fell from her bunk in her weakened state and was killed by the shock. Anne died a day after Margot. The dates of Margot's and Anne's deaths were not recorded. It
6032-574: The children to read. At the time of Anne's birth, the family lived in a house at Marbachweg 307 in Frankfurt-Eckenheim (today Frankfurt- Dornbusch ), where they rented two floors. In 1931, the family moved to Ganghoferstraße 24 in a fashionable liberal area of Frankfurt-Ginnheim, called the Dichterviertel ("Poets' Quarter") (now also part of Dornbusch ). Both houses still exist. In 1933, after Adolf Hitler 's Nazi Party won
6136-750: The death penalty for sheltering Jews. On 13 July 1942, the Franks were joined by the Van Pels family, made up of Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter, and then in November by Fritz Pfeffer , a dentist and friend of the family. Frank wrote of her pleasure at having new people to talk to, but tensions quickly developed within the group forced to live in such confined conditions. After sharing her room with Pfeffer, she found him to be insufferable and resented his intrusion, and she clashed with Auguste van Pels, whom she regarded as foolish. She regarded Hermann van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer as selfish, particularly regarding
6240-417: The deaths of the Frank sisters, Miep Gies gave Otto Frank Anne's notebooks (including the red-and-white checkered diary) and a bundle of loose notes that she and Bep Voskuijl had saved in the hope of returning them to Anne. Otto Frank later commented that he had not realized Anne had kept such an accurate and well-written record of their time in hiding. In his memoir, he described the painful process of reading
6344-532: The diary, recognizing the events described and recalling that he had already heard some of the more amusing episodes read aloud by his daughter. He saw for the first time the more private side of his daughter and those sections of the diary she had not discussed with anyone, noting, "For me it was a revelation... I had no idea of the depth of her thoughts and feelings... She had kept all these feelings to herself". Moved by her repeated wish to be an author, he began to consider having it published. Frank's diary began as
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#17327903253666448-489: The diary. The diary has been praised for its literary merits. Commenting on Anne Frank's writing style, the dramatist Meyer Levin commended Frank for "sustaining the tension of a well-constructed novel", and was so impressed by the quality of her work that he collaborated with Otto Frank on a dramatization of the diary shortly after its publication. Levin became obsessed with Anne Frank, which he wrote about in his autobiography The Obsession . The poet John Berryman called
6552-922: The end of 1945, he realized he was the sole survivor of those who had hidden in the house on the Prinsengracht. The closer we get to home, the greater our impatience to hear from our loved ones. Everything that's happened the past few years! Until our arrest, I don't know exactly what caused it, even now, at least we still had contact with each other. I don't know what's happened since then. Kugler and Kleiman and especially Miep and her husband and Bep Voskuil provided us with everything for two whole years, with incomparable devotion and sacrifice and despite all danger. I can't even begin to describe it. How will I ever begin to repay everything they did. But what has happened since then? To them, to you to Robert [Otto's brother and Edith Frank's brother-in-law]. Are you in touch with Julius and Walter? [Edith Hollander's brothers and Otto's brothers-in-law] All our possessions are gone. There won't be
6656-517: The experiences of those who suffered persecution under the Nazis and was urged to consider publishing it. He typed out the diary into a single manuscript, editing out sections he thought too personal to his family or too mundane to be of interest to the general reader. The manuscript was read by Dutch historian Jan Romein , who reviewed it on 3 April 1946 for the Het Parool newspaper. This attracted
6760-401: The film The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), with actor Joseph Schildkraut reprising his role as Otto. Otto Frank married former Amsterdam neighbor and fellow Auschwitz survivor Elfriede Geiringer (1905–1998) in Amsterdam on 10 November 1953, and the couple moved to Basel, Switzerland, where he had family, including relatives' children, with whom he shared his experiences. In 1963, he founded
6864-400: The first version for publication. Although he restored the true identities of his own family, he retained all of the other pseudonyms. Otto Frank gave the diary to the historian Annie Romein-Verschoor , who tried unsuccessfully to have it published. She then gave it to her husband Jan Romein , who wrote an article about it, titled "Kinderstem" ("A Child's Voice"), which was published in
6968-464: The five pages; he intended to sell them to raise money for his foundation. The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, the formal owner of the manuscript, demanded the pages be handed over. In 2000 the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science agreed to donate US$ 300,000 to Suijk's foundation, and the pages were returned in 2001. Since then, they have been included in new editions of
7072-500: The following days, the two female secretaries returned to the Achterhuis and found Anne's papers strewn on the floor. They collected them, as well as several family photograph albums and Gies resolved to return them to Anne after the war. On 7 August 1944, Gies attempted to facilitate the release of the prisoners by confronting Silberbauer and offering him money to intervene, but he refused. In 2015, Flemish journalist Jeroen De Bruyn and Joop van Wijk, Bep Voskuijl's youngest son, wrote
7176-526: The gas chambers; others reported that more often she displayed strength and courage. Her gregarious and confident nature allowed her to obtain extra bread rations for her mother, sister, and herself. The disease was rampant; before long, Frank's skin became badly infected by scabies . The Frank sisters were moved into an infirmary, which was in a state of constant darkness and infested with rats and mice. Edith Frank stopped eating, saving every morsel of food for her daughters and passing her rations to them through
7280-440: The girls. After Anne Frank's death was confirmed in the summer of 1945, her diary and papers were given to Otto Frank by Miep Gies , who had rescued them from the ransacked hiding place together with Bep Voskuijl . As Miep Gies wrote in her book, Anne Frank Remembered , Frank immediately started to read the papers. Later he began transcribing them for his relatives in Switzerland. He was persuaded that Anne's writing shed light on
7384-478: The group was deported on what would be the last transport from Westerbork to the Auschwitz concentration camp and arrived after a three-day journey; on the same train was Bloeme Evers-Emden , an Amsterdam native who had befriended Margot and Anne in the Jewish Lyceum [ nl ] in 1941. Bloeme saw Anne, Margot, and their mother regularly in Auschwitz, and was interviewed for her remembrances of
7488-627: The group was joined by Fritz Pfeffer , known in Anne's diary as Albert Dussel. Their concealment was aided by Otto Frank's colleagues Johannes Kleiman , whom he had known since 1923, Miep Gies , and her husband Jan Gies; Victor Kugler , and Bep Voskuijl . The group hid for two years, until their discovery in August 1944. It is not known whether an informant or a chance discovery by authorities ended their period of refuge. The group, along with Kugler and Kleiman, were arrested by SS Officer Karl Silberbauer . Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl were not arrested with
7592-427: The group. Miep managed to excuse herself by saying she knew nothing of those in hiding, and Johannes Kleiman managed to excuse Bep Voskuijl from being arrested. These two people would rescue Anne's diary before the Nazis cleared out the hiding place. After being imprisoned in Amsterdam, the Jewish prisoners were sent to the Dutch transit camp of Westerbork and finally, in September, to Auschwitz-Birkenau , where Frank
7696-402: The helpers, and Otto Frank later recalled that she had anticipated their daily visits with impatient enthusiasm. He observed that Anne's closest friendship was with Bep Voskuijl, "the young typist... the two of them often stood whispering in the corner." In her writing, Frank examined her relationships with the members of her family, and the strong differences in each of their personalities. She
7800-648: The household criticized Anne for lacking Margot's gentle and placid nature. As Anne began to mature, the sisters were able to confide in each other. In her entry of 12 January 1944, Frank wrote, "Margot's much nicer... She's not nearly so catty these days and is becoming a real friend. She no longer thinks of me as a little baby who doesn't count." Frank frequently wrote of her difficult relationship with her mother, and her ambivalence towards her. On 7 November 1942, she described her "contempt" for her mother and her inability to "confront her with her carelessness, her sarcasm and her hard-heartedness," before concluding, "She's not
7904-400: The interest of Amsterdam's Contact Publishing, which accepted it for publication in the summer of 1946. Otto Frank is now recognized as a co-author of the diary. On 25 June 1947, the first Dutch edition of the diary was issued under the title Het Achterhuis ("The House Behind"). Its success led to an English translation in 1952, which led to a theatrical dramatisation in 1955 and eventually
8008-475: The investigators had never claimed to have uncovered the complete truth. In March 2022, a group of World War II experts and historians published their analysis of the conclusions and of the historical sources used in The Betrayal of Anne Frank ; they contested the central claim that the Amsterdam Jewish council even had a list of Jewish hiding places that Van den Bergh could draw on, and concluded that
8112-531: The manuscript and clearly written in different handwriting. Some page numbers are presumed to have been added by Otto Frank when compiling the diary for publication. No diary entry is written in ballpoint ink. Reporters were unable to question Frank, as he died around the time of the discovery. Anne Frank Annelies Marie " Anne " Frank ( German: [ˈanə(liːs maˈʁiː) ˈfʁaŋk] , Dutch: [ˌɑnəˈlis maːˈri ˈfrɑŋk, ˈɑnə ˈfrɑŋk] ; 12 June 1929 – c. February or March 1945)
8216-505: The manuscript; these cases would persist even after Frank's death in 1980. In 1959, Frank "lodged a criminal complaint on the grounds of libel, slander, defamation, maligning the memory of a deceased person and antisemitic utterances" against two members of the right-wing Deutsche Reichspartei , Lothar Stielau and Heinrich Buddeberg, who had dismissed the diary as a work of fiction. In 1976, Nazi sympathizer Ernst Römer accused Frank of editing and fabricating parts of Anne's diary. Frank filed
8320-485: The members of the household and the helpers. The Van Pels family became Hermann, Petronella, and Peter van Daan, and Fritz Pfeffer became Albert Düssell. In this edited version, she addressed each entry to "Kitty," a fictional character in Cissy van Marxveldt 's Joop ter Heul novels that Anne enjoyed reading. Otto Frank used her original diary, known as "version A", and her edited version, known as "version B", to produce
8424-437: The modern suburb of Amsterdam-Zuid; they came to know many other German emigrant families. In 1938, Otto Frank started a second company, Pectacon, which was a wholesaler of herbs, pickling salts , and mixed spices , used in the production of sausages. Hermann van Pels was employed by Pectacon as an advisor about spices. A Jewish butcher, he had fled Osnabrück with his family. In 1939, Edith Hollander's mother came to live with
8528-429: The newspaper Het Parool on 3 April 1946. He wrote that the diary "stammered out in a child's voice, embodies all the hideousness of fascism, more so than all the evidence at Nuremberg put together." His article attracted attention from publishers, and the diary was published in the Netherlands as Het Achterhuis ( The Annex ) (literally, "the back house") in 1947, followed by five more printings by 1950. It
8632-473: The only Holocaust survivor in the Frank family, returned to Amsterdam after World War II to find that Anne's diary had been saved by his female secretaries, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl . Moved by his daughter's repeated wishes to be an author, Otto Frank published her diary in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch version and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl , and has since been translated into over 70 languages. Frank
8736-540: The only source. This included the claim of Nazi contacts and a commission of 200,000 guilders paid on the sale of Jacques Goudstikker 's art business. While The Betrayal of Anne Frank stated that Van den Bergh enjoyed the protection of two high-up Nazis, the CCT and Sullivan had omitted statements that the named Nazis had not known Van den Bergh. Plans to publish a German translation of Sullivan's book, previously postponed, were cancelled soon afterward. On 3 September 1944,
8840-446: The other women and girls not selected for immediate death, Frank was forced to strip naked to be disinfected, had her head shaved, and was tattooed with an identifying number on her arm. By day, the women were used as slave labour and Frank was forced to haul rocks and dig rolls of sod; by night, they were crammed into overcrowded barracks. Some witnesses later testified Frank became withdrawn and tearful when she saw children being led to
8944-426: The outside world and the occupants of the house, they kept the occupants informed of war news and political developments. They catered to all of their needs, ensured their safety, and supplied them with food, a task that grew more difficult over time. Frank wrote of their dedication and of their efforts to boost morale within the household during the most dangerous of times. All were aware that, if caught, they could face
9048-482: The penal camp for enemies of the regime at Amersfoort , in the province of Utrecht. Kleiman was released after seven weeks, but Kugler was held in various Dutch concentration and prison camps until the war's end. Miep Gies was questioned and threatened by the Security Police but not detained. Bep Voskuijl managed to escape with a few documents that would have incriminated their black market contacts. During
9152-420: The product of source fraud. The report concluded that Otto Frank's recorded agenda, as well as a letter Otto received from helper Johannes Kleiman and several other statements, were proven to be distorted to suit the outcome in the book. Several negative claims about Van den Bergh had Anton Schepers, a Nazi collaborator who was diagnosed twice as insane and who had taken over Van den Bergh's notary practice, as
9256-458: The upper rear rooms of the Opekta premises on the Prinsengracht , behind a concealing bookcase. The day before, his older daughter, Margot, had received a written summons to report for so-called labour duty in Germany, and Otto immediately decided to move the family to safety. They were joined a week later by Hermann van Pels , who was known as Herman van Daan in Anne's diary, his wife, Auguste van Pels , and their son, Peter van Pels . In November,
9360-441: The war ended, he would create a public record of the Dutch people's oppression under German occupation. He mentioned the publication of letters and diaries, and Frank decided to submit her work when the time came. She began editing her writing, removing some sections and rewriting others, with a view to publication. Her original notebook was supplemented by additional notebooks and loose-leaf sheets of paper. She created pseudonyms for
9464-507: The war, it was estimated that only 5,000 of the 107,000 Jews deported from the Netherlands between 1942 and 1944 survived. An estimated 30,000 Jews remained in the Netherlands, with many people aided by the Dutch underground . Approximately two-thirds of this group survived the war. Otto Frank survived his internment in Auschwitz. After the war ended, he returned to Amsterdam in June 1945 where he
9568-593: The war. According to the BBC , these investigators "spent six years using modern investigative techniques to crack the 'cold case...'." However, according to The New York Times , several World War II and Holocaust scholars have doubted the methods and conclusions of the investigators, calling the evidence "far too thin". Shortly after the publication of The Betrayal of Anne Frank , after criticism from scholars Bart van der Boom, David Barnouw and Johannes Houwink ten Cate, Dutch publishing house Ambo Anthos, which had published
9672-467: Was a German -born Jewish girl who kept a diary documenting her life in hiding amid Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands . A celebrated diarist , Frank described everyday life from her family's hiding place in an Amsterdam attic. She gained fame posthumously and became one of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust with the 1947 publication of The Diary of
9776-625: Was born Annelies or Anneliese Marie Frank on 12 June 1929 at the Maingau Red Cross Clinic in Frankfurt , Germany, to Edith ( née Holländer ) and Otto Heinrich Frank . She had an older sister, Margot . The Franks were liberal Jews , and did not practice all of the customs and traditions of Judaism. They lived in an assimilated community of Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of various religions. Edith and Otto were devoted parents, who were interested in scholarly pursuits and had an extensive library; both parents encouraged
9880-489: Was closest emotionally to her father, who later said, "I got on better with Anne than with Margot, who was more attached to her mother. The reason for that may have been that Margot rarely showed her feelings and didn't need as much support because she didn't suffer from mood swings as much as Anne did." The Frank sisters formed a closer relationship than had existed before they went into hiding, although Anne sometimes expressed jealousy towards Margot, particularly when members of
9984-712: Was destroyed in the German bombing on 14 May 1940, resulting in the loss of all the paperwork there, including the family's visa application. After the summer holidays in 1941, Anne learned that she would no longer be allowed to go to the Montessori School, as Jewish children had to attend Jewish schools. From then on Anne, like her sister Margot, went to the Jewish Lyceum [ nl ] ( Joods Lyceum ), an exclusive Jewish secondary school in Amsterdam that opened in September 1941. For her thirteenth birthday on 12 June 1942, Anne received an autograph book , bound with red-and-white checkered cloth and with
10088-470: Was first published in Germany and France in 1950, and after being rejected by several publishers, was first published in the United Kingdom in 1952. The first American edition, published in 1952 under the title Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl , was positively reviewed. The book was successful in France, Germany, and the United States, but in the United Kingdom it failed to attract an audience and by 1953
10192-723: Was included as part of the curriculum, introducing Anne Frank to new generations of readers. Cornelis Suijk—a former director of the Anne Frank Foundation and president of the U.S. Center for Holocaust Education Foundation —announced in 1999 that he had five pages that had been removed by Otto Frank from the diary before publication; Suijk claimed that Otto Frank gave these pages to him shortly before he died in 1980. The missing diary entries contain critical remarks by Anne Frank about her parents' strained marriage and discuss Frank's lack of affection for her mother. Some controversy ensued when Suijk claimed publishing rights over
10296-409: Was left behind and died of disease, starvation, and exhaustion. Tents were erected at Bergen-Belsen to accommodate the influx of prisoners, and as the population rose, the death toll due to disease increased rapidly. Anne Frank was briefly reunited with two friends, Hanneli Goslar and Nanette Blitz , who were also confined in the camp. Blitz had been moved from the Sternlager to the same section of
10400-595: Was long thought that their deaths occurred only a few weeks before British troops liberated the camp on 15 April 1945, but research in 2015 indicated that they may have died as early as February. Among other evidence, witnesses recalled that the Franks displayed typhus symptoms by 7 February, and Dutch health authorities reported that most untreated typhus victims died within 12 days of their first symptoms. Additionally, Hanneli Goslar stated her father, Hans Goslar [ de ] , died one or two weeks after their first meeting; Hans died on 25 February 1945. After
10504-466: Was out of print. Its most noteworthy success was in Japan, where it received critical acclaim and sold more than 100,000 copies in its first edition. In Japan, Anne Frank was quickly identified as an important cultural figure who represented the destruction of youth during the war. A play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett based upon the diary premiered in New York City on 5 October 1955 and later won
10608-434: Was separated from his wife and daughters. He was sent to the men's barracks and was residing in the sick barracks when the camp was liberated by Soviet troops on 27 January 1945. After the liberation of Auschwitz, Otto Frank wrote to his mother in Switzerland, where she had fled in 1933 when Hitler came to power. He travelled back to the Netherlands over the next six months and searched diligently for his family and friends. By
10712-493: Was sheltered by Jan and Miep Gies as he attempted to locate his family. He learned of the death of his wife, Edith, during his journey to Amsterdam, but remained hopeful that his daughters had survived. After several weeks, he discovered Margot and Anne had also died. He attempted to determine the fates of his daughters' friends and learned many had been murdered. Sanne Ledermann , often mentioned in Anne's diary, had been gassed along with her parents; her sister, Barbara Ledermann ,
10816-470: Was survived by his stepdaughter Eva Schloss , his sister Helene Frank (Edith Frank's sister-in-law) and her two children. Otto Frank designated the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel as his sole heir and legal successor, which means that the copyright on all Anne Frank's writings belongs to this organisation. In the years after the diaries were published, Otto Frank became embroiled in a series of legal battles with individuals who accused him or others of forging
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