Otto Heinrich Frank

Otto Frank (Frankfurt am Main, May 12, 1889-Basel, August 19, 1980) was a German-Jewish businessman who after World War II became a resident of the Netherlands and Switzerland, father of Margot and Anne Frank, husband of Edith Frank-Holländer and sole survivor of his entire family during the Holocaust.

Biography

Born in Frankfurt am Main to a liberal Jewish family, Otto Heinrich Frank was the second son of Michael Frank and Alice Betty Stern. His father Michael ran a business bank and originally came from the town of Landau, moving to Frankfurt in 1879, marrying Alice Stern in 1886. His older brother was Robert Frank, and his 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. Otto received music lessons, learned to ride a horse, and visited the theater and opera regularly. The Frank family enjoyed a large circle of friends and maintained a welcoming home. After high school, Frank spent a few months studying economics in Heidelberg from 1908 to 1909 and had work experience at Macy's department store in New York City thanks to a college friend his age, Nathan Straus Jr. After leaving for New York, however, he had to return home briefly after his father died in September 1909, before leaving once further to the United States, returning to Germany two years later in 1911. He married Edith Holländer on May 12, 1925 in Aachen, and their first daughter, Margot Frank, was born on February 16, 1926; three years later, Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929.

World War I

Frank served in the Imperial German Army during World War I. Both Otto and his two brothers were called up 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 of the soldiers were mathematicians and surveyors.. He was assigned to the infantry as a rangefinder at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. In 1917, he was promoted in the field to lieutenant and served at the Battle of Cambrai, eventually receiving the Iron Cross. Two of his French cousins, Oscar and Georges, were killed in action. According to sources, Otto returned home late because he was ordered to confiscate two horses from a farmer, returning them to him when the war ended in defeat.

Marriage and daughters

Frank worked at the bank his father initially ran, which he and his brothers later took over until its collapse in the early 1930s. He married Edith Holländer, heiress to a scrap metal and industrial supplies business, in her 36th birthday, on May 12, 1925, in the synagogue in Aachen, Edith's hometown. Their eldest daughter, Margot Frank (Margot Betti), was born on February 16, 1926, followed by Anne (Annelies Marie) on June 12, 1929. Edith died of starvation and disease in Auschwitz on January 6, 1945. At the end of October 1944, Margot and Anne were transferred from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died of typhus.

In 1953, Frank married Elfriede Geiringer, also a Holocaust survivor, who helped him with the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, which he launched a decade later. Geiringer's daughter, Eva Schloss, is a Holocaust survivor, peace activist and international speaker.

World War II

As Nazism raged in Germany and anti-Jewish decrees encouraged attacks on Jewish individuals and families, Otto decided to evacuate his family. In August 1933, they moved to Aachen, where his mother-in-law resided, in preparation for a later and last move to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. In the same year, his mother and his widow, Alice, fled to Switzerland.

Otto's brother-in-law, Erich Elias (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 making jam. Originally from Germany, the company was looking to expand its operations in Europe, and Erich arranged for Otto to work as an Opekta agent in Amsterdam, allowing Otto to earn an income to support his family. Otto and his family lived on the Merwedeplein in the modern suburb of Amsterdam-Zuid, where they got 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—a Jewish butcher who had fled Osnabrück with his family — was employed by Pectacon as a spice adviser. In 1939, Edith Frank's mother came to live with 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 business seem "aryan" by transferring control to his employees.

In 1938 and 1941, Frank tried to obtain visas for his family to immigrate to the United States or Cuba. He was granted a single visa for himself to Cuba on December 1, 1941, but it is not known if he ever reached it. Ten days later, when Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declared war on the United States, the visa was cancelled.

At the age of 53, when the systematic deportation of Jews from the Netherlands began in the summer of 1942, Otto Frank took his family into hiding on July 6, 1942 in the upper back rooms of the facility from Opekta on prinsengracht, hidden behind a bookcase. The day before, his eldest daughter, Margot, had received the written summons to appear for the so-called "labor 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 his son, Peter van Pels. In November, the group was joined by Fritz Pfeffer, (known in Anne's diary as Albert Dussel). The concealment of him was aided by Otto Frank's colleagues Johannes Kleiman, whom she had known since 1923, Miep Gies, Victor Kugler and Bep Voskuijl.

The group went into hiding for two years, until their discovery in August 1944. It is not known whether an informer, 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. After being incarcerated in Amsterdam, the Jewish prisoners were sent to the Dutch Westerbork concentration camp and eventually to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Frank was separated from his wife and daughters in September. He was sent to the men's barracks and was residing in the sick barracks when the camp was liberated by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945. After the liberation of Auschwitz, Otto Frank wrote to his mother in Switzerland, where he had fled in 1933. when Hitler came to power. He traveled back to the Netherlands for the next six months and diligently searched for his family and friends. At the end of 1945, he realized that he was the only survivor of those who had hidden in the house on the Prinsengracht.

Letter from the Monowai steamer

The closer we get home, the greater our impatience for knowing our loved ones. Everything that's happened in recent 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. Kugler and Kleiman and especially Miep and her husband and Bep Voskuil gave us everything for two full years, with incomparable devotion and sacrifice and despite all danger. I can't even start describing it. How am I gonna start paying for everything they did. But what has happened since then? To them, to you Robert [the brother of Otto]. Are you in touch with Julius and Walter? [Edith Frank's brothers] All our possessions are gone. There will be no pin left, the Germans stole everything. There is no photo, letter or document left. We were financially good in the last few years, I made a good money and saved it. It's all gone now. But I don't think of any of that. We've lived too long to worry about that kind of thing. It only matters children, children. I hope to hear from you immediately. Maybe you've heard news about the girls.

- Letter sent by Otto Frank on board Monowai steam on May 15, 1945 when he returned to Amsterdam.

Life after the war

After Anne Frank was confirmed dead in the summer of 1945, Miep Gies handed over her diary and papers to Otto Frank, who rescued them from the looted hideout. As Miep Gies wrote in her book "Anne Frank Remembered", Mr. Frank immediately began reading the newspapers. He later began to transcribe them for his relatives in Switzerland. He was convinced that Ana's writings shed light on the experiences of those who suffered persecution under the Nazis and was urged to consider publishing it. He typed the diary in a single manuscript, eliminating sections that he considered too personal for his family or too mundane to be of interest to the general reader. The manuscript was read by the Dutch historian Jan Romein, who reviewed it on April 3, 1946, for the newspaper Het Parool. This attracted the interest of Contact Publishing of Amsterdam, who accepted it for publication in the summer of 1946. Otto Frank is now credited as co-author of the diary.

On June 25, 1947, the first Dutch edition of the newspaper was published under the title "Het Achterhuis" ("The Secret Annex"). Its success led to an English translation in 1952, which led to a theatrical dramatization (1955) and eventually to the film The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), with actor Joseph Schildkraut as Otto.

Otto Frank at the opening of the statue of Anne Frank, Amsterdam 1977.

Otto Frank married Elfriede Geiringer (1905–1998) in Amsterdam on November 10, 1953, a former Amsterdam neighbor and fellow Auschwitz survivor, and the couple moved to Basel, Switzerland, where he had family, including the children of relatives, with whom he shared his experiences. In 1963, he founded the Anne Frank Foundation (not to be confused with the Amsterdam Anne Frank Foundation, see below) in Basel, which is dedicated to the worldwide distribution and use of the Diary of Anne Frank. The non-profit organization uses copyright revenue for charity, education, and scientific research. In addition, the Foundation in Basel supports projects in the field of human rights, racism and rights and the promotion of social justice.

In response to a demolition order for the building where Otto Frank and his family hid during the war, he and Johannes Kleiman helped establish the Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam on May 3 of 1957, with the main objective of saving and restoring the building so that it could be opened to the general public. With the help of public donations, the building and the adjacent one were acquired by the Amsterdam-based foundation. It opened as a museum (the Anne Frank House) on May 3, 1960 and is still in operation.

The rest of his life, Otto Frank dedicated himself to publishing the diary and the ideals he had expressed in it to his daughter. Otto Frank died of lung cancer on August 19, 1980 in Birsfelden and his ashes they were buried in the town cemetery, where Elfriede would also be buried, in the same grave, 18 years later. She was survived by her stepdaughter Eva Schloss, her sister Helene Frank, and their two children.

Otto Frank designated the Anne Frank Foundation of Basel as his sole heir and legal successor, which means that the copyright of all Anne Frank's writings belongs to this organization.