After the play….
Answers to frequently asked questions
Differences between the play and
what really happened:
 The last diary entry was August 1, 1944. The play version
makes up the August 4th entry.
 No automobile, no rifles beating down the door.
 Who Turned them in?




We DON’T KNOW
possibly a thief
Willem van Maaren (creepy foreman guy)
Anton Ahlers (rival businessman)
The real Mr. Dussel
 Fritz Pfeffer was born on April 30 1889 in Giessen, Germany. He was given
the rather unflattering name Albert Dussel by Anne, which translates as
'idiot.'
 Fritz (Albert) was a dentist in Berlin and married Vera Bythiner in 1921. They
had one son together called Werner. The marriage ended in divorce in 1933
and Fritz gained custody of Werner.
 He then met Charlotte Kaletta, a Catholic, who was also divorced with a son.
Due to the Nürnberg Laws which prevented Jews and non-Jews from
marrying, it was impossible for them to wed. Following increased violence
against Jews in Germany in 1938, Werner was sent to England as a refugee
and Fritz and Charlotte fled to Holland.

Miep acted as a courier between Fritz and Charlotte during his time in hiding
- they would send letters and packages to each other, but Miep never
revealed to Charlotte that she knew where Fritz was.
Did any of the helpers get
arrested?
 Yes, Victor Kugler and
Johannes Kleiman were also
arrested and taken to the
holding cell with the family.
 Kugler was moved from prison to
camps and work sites, often made to
march from place to place under
hard conditions. On one of these
marches there was a bombing raid
and Kugler took advantage of the
confusion to escape. He was hidden
by a farmer for a few days, borrowed
a bicycle and made his way back to
Hilversum, which he reached in April
1945. He hid there until the
liberation of the Netherlands on May
5, 1945.

When the Nazis found Anne and her
family were they sent directly to a "Death
Camp?"
 No. They spent 4 days locked in a
holding cell in Amsterdam, and on
August 8, 1944 they were
transported to the Westerbork
Camp.
 They stayed there for the whole
month of August in the "punishable
barracks." They were considered
"punishable prisoners" since they
had not given themselves up when
the call-up notices were sent, but
had been captured in hiding.
Where did they go after
Westerbork?
 On September 3, 1944, the eight prisoners joined 1,011
others on the last train bound for the Auschwitz death
camp in Poland.
 Hermann van Pels (Mr. Van Daan) is gassed
on September 6, 1944, a few days after arrival.
 Otto, Peter, and Mr. Dussel go to the men barracks. Anne,
Margot, Mrs. Frank, and Mrs. Van Daan are sent to the
women’s barracks. Mr. Frank never sees his wife or
daughters again.
 Anne and Margot are sent to Bergen-Belsen, in October
1944. Mrs. Van Daan arrives at Bergen-Belsen at the end of
November.
 Edith Frank dies of disease and/or malnutrition at Auschwitz
on January 6, 1945
 Otto Frank & Auschwitz is liberated on January 26, 1945 by
the Russians.
 Mr. Frank made it back and arrived at Miep’s
 doorstep on June 3rd, 1945.
Where was Bergen-Belsen?
 Bergen-Belsen was a
concentration camp located in
northern Germany. Bergen-Belsen
was established in April 1943 as a
detention camp for prisoners who
were to be exchanged with
German imprisoned in Allied
countries.
 Bergen-Belsen was liberated by
the British Army on April 15, 1945.
What happened to Anne and Margot?
Anne and Margot
both died of typhus
and starvation
during FebruaryMarch 1945.
Bergen-Belsen was
liberated by the
British Army on
April 15, 1945.
What happened to Mr. Dussel?
He was deported to Neuengamme
concentration camp near Hamburg and
died n 20 December 1944. His cause of
death was listed in the camp records as
"enterocolitis", a catch-all term that
covered, among other things, dysentery
and cholera, both of which were common
causes of death in the camps.
 (Charlotte Kaletta married Fritz Pfeffer posthumously on 9 April
1953. His son, Werner, survived the war in England and
emigrated to the United States in 1947.)
What happened to Mrs. Van Daan?
 Mrs. Van Daan, we
think, was transferred
before March 1945 to
Buchenwald, then to
the Theresienstadt
ghetto. She is believed
to have died either en
route to
Theresienstadt, or
shortly after her arrival
there.
What happened to Peter?
 He was transferred to and then
died in Mauthausen after a
death march.
 Mauthausen Concentration
Camp records indicate that
Peter van Pels was registered
upon his arrival there on 25
January 1945. Four days later,
he was placed in an outdoor
labor group. On 11 April 1945,
Peter was sent to the sick
barracks. His exact death date is
unknown but the Red Cross
designated it as 2 May 1945. He
was 18 years old.
 Mauthausen was liberated three
days later on 5 May 1945 by
men from the 11th Armored
Division of the U.S. Third Army.
What happened to Mr. Frank?
 Otto remarried in 1953 to a
neighbor Elfriede GeiringerMarkovits (Fritzi) and moved to
Basel, Switzerland.
 When he heard that the office
building where he and his family
hid for two years was scheduled
to be torn down, he began the
Anne Frank Foundation (1957)
in order to acquire the space
and turned the building into a
museum in 1960. The Anne
Frank-Fonds in Basel was set up
in 1966 to protect his daughter’s
name and deal with royalties
from the diary which benefits
several charities.
 Otto Frank died on August 19th,
1980 after a battle with cancer,
he was ninety-one years old.
What happens to the Helpers?
 When the families were taken away,
Miep still attempted to save them
through trips to SS office and offering
bribes. She returned to the attic hiding
space and picked up the personal items
that were left behind. Miep is the reason
that we have Anne’s diary today.
 Miep took over the business at Opekta
while Kleiman, Kugler and Otto were
detained. She also attempted to bribe
the Gestapo to release the Franks, van
Pels and Fritz Pfeffer. Her husband Jan
helped in the Dutch resistance, which
was not known by any of the people
hidden in the Secret Annexe.
 Miep later stopped working and
concentrated on her family. Jan retired
from Gies & Co. in 1955 when Otto and
Kugler both retired from Pectacon.
 Jan died on the 26th of January 1993.
 Miep died on January 11, 2010.
The Secret Annex
"How will
learning about
her life change
the way you live
yours?"