THE FRANK FAMILY BACKGROUND
The Frank family settled in the German city
of Frankfurt in the sixteenth century. As the city
expanded and grew rich by trade, so the Frank
family also prospered. Otto Frank and his siblings
attended a private prep school, and they received
private horseback riding and piano lessons. The
Franks led comparatively prosperous middle-class
lives.
Otto Heinrich Frank, Anne Frank’s father,
was born on May 12, 1889. His father was a
successful banker and the family lived in a pleasant
suburb of the city. Otto Frank went to New York
City after college and worked for Macy’s
department store. When his father died, he went
back to Germany. Otto was one of 100,000 Jews
who served in the German army during World War
I (WWI) and he rose to the rank of lieutenant. After
WWI, about 490,000 Jews lived in Germany.
During the 1918 German Revolution, the monarchy
was dissolved, and various political parties
(socialist and communist) began vying for power.
Jews were attacked by angry crowds who blamed
them for the shortage of food, inflation, and all that
was wrong with Germany.
Much of the family’s wealth was lost after
the war, and Otto went to work for his father’s
banking firm to try to salvage what he could. He
opened a banking branch in Amsterdam, Holland
(also known as the Netherlands) in 1923, but the
venture failed. He returned to Germany in 1925. At
the age of 36, Otto had to find a way to pay off the
family’s debts; he also desperately wanted a home
of his own and children. After a one-month
engagement, Otto married Edith Hollander on May
12—news that was a “bombshell” to his family.
Edith’s dowry included a substantial sum of money.
Unlike the Franks, the religious Hollanders were
prominent in the Jewish community and they
observed the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Anne
writes in her diary that Otto respected Edith for her
intelligence and skills as a mother, but he never
deeply loved her.
Edith Hollander was born on January 16,
1900. Her family’s wealth came from her
grandfather’s industrial business. Edith was a shy
girl, family-oriented, and academic. She attended a
private Protestant school for girls, learning English,
French, and Hebrew. Edith had known
“engagement parties, private balls and dinners.”
On February 16, 1926, Margot Betti Frank
was born. Their second daughter, Annelies Marie,
was born on June 12, 1929. In 1933, when Hitler
came to power in Germany, Otto decided to leave
his job, his home, and his country, and take Edith
and the two girls to live in Holland. The whole
family had to learn to speak Dutch. Anne started in
a Montessori School and made many friends.
A large Jewish community existed in
Amsterdam, Holland’s largest city. Three waves of
German Jewish refugees, about 30,000, entered
Holland: in 1933, after Hitler came to power; in
1935, following enactment of the Nuremberg Laws;
and in 1938, after Kristallnacht. Jews were seen as
“different” and anti-Semitic (hostile toward Jews)
literature was a regular feature, but physical attacks
on Jews were rare.
Mr. Frank started Opekta, a new business,
selling pectin, herbs, spices, and seasonings. One of
Otto’s partners was Victor Gustav Kugler, a
Catholic from Austro-Hungary; he served as Otto’s
right-hand man. Another partner was Johannes
Kleiman, who had known Mr. Frank since 1923; he
served as the company’s bookkeeper. In the play,
“Mr. Kraler” represents a combination of these two
partners. Bep Voskuijl worked as a typist in the
company, and an Austrian girl named Hermine
(Miep) Santrouschitz was an office worker. Miep
and her future husband, Jan Gies, dined with the
Franks on a weekly basis. In the play, the character
of “Miep” is woven from the lives of both Bep and
Hermine.
Otto also hired Hermann van Pels (van
Daan in the play), a German Jewish refugee, as an
expert in seasonings and recipes. Hermann was
born in Germany in 1898 to a Dutch couple. In
1925, he married Auguste (Gusti) Rottgen (Mrs.
van Daan in the play), ten years his junior. Their
son, Peter, was born in November 1926. Hermann
and his wife were quick-thinking, gregarious, and
extremely temperamental. Although Otto liked
them, he was very critical of the way they treated
their shy, unacademic son. The van Pelses rented an
apartment directly behind the Franks.
In 1938, another Jewish refugee from
Berlin, Fritz Pfeffer, and his Gentile girlfriend,
Lotte Kaletta, became part of a social group who
met every Saturday afternoon at the Frank’s
apartment. Pfeffer was born in 1889 and trained as
a dentist. He divorced his first wife and gained
custody of their son. After Kristallnacht, Pfeffer
sent his son to London to live with his brother. He
and Lotte then emigrated from Germany to
Amsterdam.
In January 1940, Mr. Frank’s business
moved to a bigger building at 263 Prinsengracht
Street. In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark
and Norway. In May, Germany attacked France,
Belgium, Luxembourg—and Holland. The invasion
of Holland came as a shock to the Dutch people,
who were not prepared for such an attack. German
troops landed by parachute and seized key roads
and bridges. Queen Wilhelmina spoke on the radio
and told her people that the Germans had, indeed,
invaded Holland. Queen Wilhelmina fled by ship to
England a few days later, and the Dutch army was
forced to surrender.
The Germans terrorized and exploited
Holland as they did other conquered countries. The
Dutch National Socialist Workers’ Party set out to
reproduce the ideology and operations of the Nazis
in Germany. They banned listening to Allied
broadcasts, and suppressed political parties, the
press, and trade unions. They closed universities
and imprisoned the country’s political, military, and
intellectual leaders. The held massive, public book
burnings of books deemed contrary to Nazi
doctrine.
The Nazis soon began making life
miserable for the 140,000 Jews living in Holland.
In October 1940, Otto Frank, like every other
Jewish businessman, had to register his company
with the German authorities. He registered the
company in the names of Jan Gies and Victor
Kugler to appear 100 percent “Aryan,” or nonJewish. No one was allowed on the streets between
midnight and four in the morning. In June 1941,
Mr. Frank had the letter “J” stamped on his identity
card. In September, Margot and Anne were made to
leave their school and attend the Jewish Lyceum, a
separate school for Jewish children. In the spring of
1942 all Jews were ordered to wear a yellow Star of
David on their clothes so that they could be
instantly recognized. Jews were forbidden to use
public transportation or own bicycles.
Otto Frank feared that far worse was to
come. In February, 1941, the Nazis launched their
first roundup of Jews in Amsterdam. Those arrested
were taken to reception camps at Westerbork, and
from there they were shipped eastward into
Germany. As the roundups continued, Otto Frank
made plans for his family’s safety. He had been
forced by a German decree to leave his business,
but his Dutch associates and employees remained
loyal friends.
As it was impossible for him to escape with
a young family, he decided that the only way to
stay safe was to disappear. Secretly, a group of
rooms at the top and back of his office building was
prepared as a hiding place. This meant fitting the
rooms with furniture and facilities for washing and
cooking, as well as storing a hoard of food—150
cans of vegetables and 20 pounds of dried peas and
beans. Their friends in the office below would
bring food and provide what news they could of
events in the city. Miep and Bep would have to go
to several different stores to buy enough food to
feed eight people without looking suspicious. Mr.
Kugler had to buy ration books on the black
market.
On July 5, 1942, the Germans summoned
16-year-old Margot to report for deportation to a
German labor camp. Mr. Frank knew that if Margot
went to the labor camp, they might never see her
again. There was no time for delay. Ready or not,
he knew that they must move into their hiding place
immediately. When the Franks went into hiding,
Germany was at the height of its conquests.
Everyone rushed to pack their belongings.
Anne put her most precious things in her school
satchel, saying, “The first thing I put in was this
diary, then hair-curlers, handkerchiefs, school
books, a comb, old letters; I put in the craziest
things…But I’m not sorry, memories mean more to
me than dresses.” Otto left behind a letter that said
that the family had escaped to Switzerland.
At 7:30 in the morning on Monday, July 6,
1942, the Frank family walked out of their home in
the suburbs for the last time and went into hiding in
the “Secret Annex.” They were joined there by the
van Pelses on July 13, 1942, and on November 16
by Fritz Pfeffer.