«Have I ever told you anything about our family? I don’t think I have, so let me begin. Father was born in Frankfurt am Main to very wealthy parents.»
8. May 1944
Anne called her father «Pim». During the time in the secret annex, he was the calm pole among the eight people in hiding. He was the only one of the eight to survive the Auschwitz concentration camp. After his return, he dedicated his life to publishing and disseminating his daughter’s diary.
Otto Heinrich Frank was born into a liberal Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main on 12 May 1889. As the second of four siblings (Robert, Otto, Herbert, Helene), he enjoyed a happy and privileged childhood. His father, Michael, was a successful business man and a shareholder in several companies; in 1896-97, he founded the «Michael Frank banking business».
Alice and Michael Frank placed value on a middle-class education: Otto had music lessons, learned to ride a horse, and from a young age, was taken on numerous interesting trips. The Franks visited the theatre and opera regularly, enjoyed a large circle of friends, and kept a welcoming home.
Eleven-year-old Otto, Frankfurt, around 1901. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
Leni, Robert, and Herbert (back), Otto (front) in the garden in Mertonstrasse, Frankfurt, 1901. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
Otto with his mother, Alice Frank. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
After his school-leaving exams (Abitur), Otto spent a year at the University of Heidelberg, then went to New York for an internship at Macy’s department store. In summer 1911, Otto returned to Germany and found work at a metal construction company in Düsseldorf.
Otto, New York, around 1910. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Otto was called up into the German army. He served from 1915 to 1918 as a range finder in an artillery regiment on the Western front; his final rank was lieutenant. He was awarded the Iron Cross for his services to the military.
Otto as an artillery soldier during the First World War © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
Otto and his brother Robert, around 1915. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
After the war, Otto and his two brothers joined the family business.
During the war, a considerable amount of the Frank family’s fortune had been used to purchase war bonds. With Germany’s defeat, the family lost a significant proportion of its capital. Ten years later, the financial situation of the bank and of the family worsened on account of the world economic crisis. At the same time, anti-Semitic movements in the Weimar Republic were becoming increasingly virulent.
In 1925, 36-year-old Otto married Edith Holländer, who was his junior by eleven years. The newly-weds settled in Frankfurt, first in the house of Otto’s parents, then in 1927 in a spacious rented apartment in Marbachweg.
Otto and Edith Frank-Holländer's wedding party, Aachen, 1925 © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
Otto and Edith on their honeymoon, San Remo, 1925. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
The couple soon had children. Margot was born in 1926, and Anne in 1929. Edith and Otto were loving and modern parents, and family life focussed on the two little girls.
Otto with Margot and Anne, 1930. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
Life in Frankfurt became increasingly stressful for the young family. The family banking business ran into difficulties due to the dire economic situation after the First World War. In 1932, the bank declared bankruptcy and was dissolved in early 1934. The already bleak situation for the family turned oppressive when the rise of the Nazis blocked any professional prospects in Germany. In 1933, after the Nazi party (NSDAP) came to power, the persecution of Jews increased rapidly. It became difficult for Otto to earn a living for the family. As early as spring 1933, access to schools was limited for Jewish children and they were allocated segregated school benches. Margot – who was in the second class – was directly affected by these measures.
Buddy, Otto's nephew, on the reasons for fleeing from Germany. © Anne Frank Fonds/AVE
Edith and Otto decided to leave Germany with their children. Erich Elias, the husband of Otto’s sister Leni, helped his brother-in-law contact the company Opekta. Otto was to set up an Opekta branch in Amsterdam. Otto moved there in summer 1933, Edith and Margot followed in December, and Anne joined them a little later.
Otto and his family lived in Merwedeplain in the modern suburb of Amsterdam-Zuit. They came to know other German emigrant families.
Margot, Otto, Anne, and Edith in Merwedeplein, Amsterdam, 1941. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
Otto spent many holidays with his daughters at the home of the Elias-Frank family in Basel or in Sils Maria in the Swiss mountains, in the canton of Grisons, while Edith visited her mother, Rosa Holländer, in Aachen. The Frank and Elias families spent a lot of time together: by the sea, in the mountains or having picnics in summer and ice-skating in winter.
The Frank family having a picnic with two friends, 1932. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
Otto with Margot and his nephew, Buddy Elias, enjoying winter sports activities in Switzerland, 1930. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
Otto built up a small team of employees helping with the distribution of the Opekta products. This team included the office workers Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl, as well as Bep’s father, Johannes Voskuijl, who was the company’s warehouse manager. Otto and his family enjoyed a close and friendly relationship with them all and with Miep’s husband, Jan Gies.
Otto with his employees. They were the most important helpers during the time in the secret annex. Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Otto, Victor Kugler, and Bep Voskuijl (from left to right). Jan Gies is missing from the picture. Amsterdam, around 1935. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
In August 1939, the German army invaded Poland, and a few days later France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. Otto and his friends remained hopeful that the Netherlands would remain neutral, as had been the case during the First World War. However, in quick succession, German troops occupied Denmark and Norway, and on 10 May 1940, the Netherlands. The supposedly safe exile of the Frank family has become a prison.
In the occupied territories, the Germans immediately started implementing their anti-Semitic policies by issuing numerous anti-Semitic laws. Jews were forced to wear the Star of David, were excluded from public life, and threatened. In a first raid in 1941, the German occupiers deported more than 400 Jewish men to the Mauthausen concentration camp. Very soon the Dutch Jews had to hand in their radios and were no longer allowed to go to the theatre, to the cinema, or to public swimming pools. Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend non-Jewish schools, to ride bicycles, or to use the tram system. And Jews had to deposit their funds in blocked accounts at the Lippmann-Rosenthal bank.
Otto Frank was forced by the Germans to give up his company and to transfer it to his closest employees.
«Father has been home a lot lately. There’s nothing for him to do at the office; it must be awful to feel you’re not needed. Mr Kleiman has taken over Opekta, and Mr Kugler, Gies & Co., the company dealing in spices and spice substitutes that was set up in 1941.
A few days ago, as we were taking a stroll around our neighbourhood square, Father began to talk about going into hiding. He said it would be very hard for us to live cut off from the rest of the world. I asked him why he was bringing this up now.
«Well, Anne,» he replied, «you know that for more than a year we’ve been sending our clothes, food and furniture to other people. We don’t want our belongings to be seized by the Germans. Nor do we want to fall into their clutches ourselves. So we’ll leave of our own accord and not wait to be hauled away.»
«But when, Father?» He sounded so serious that I felt scared.
«Don’t you worry. We’ll take care of everything. Just enjoy your carefree life while you can.»
Diary, 5 July 1942
Otto and Edith nonetheless tried to give Margot and Anne as many light-hearted moments as possible. They organised children’s birthday parties and film evenings. From the very beginning, Otto had been an exceptionally loving and attentive father.
Jetteke Frida, Margot’s best friend, on Otto. © Anne Frank Fonds/AVE
In summer 1941, when everyday life for Jews in the Netherlands became increasingly difficult and there were frequent reports of deportations, Otto Frank started to look for a hiding place for himself and his family. He found it in the annex of his office building at Prinsengracht 263. Together with his closest employees, he prepared a shelter for his family.
In January 1942, the Nazi dictatorship decided to annihilate the entire Jewish population. The systematic deportation of Jews began shortly afterwards. When, on 5 July 1942, Margot receives the written summons to report for so-called labour duty in Germany, Otto and Edith immediately decide to move the family to safety in the prepared location.
On 6 July 1942, the Frank family goes into hiding in the secret annex at Prinsengracht 263. Later, the three members of the Van Pels family join them, followed by Fritz Pfeffer. The eight people in hiding are looked after by Otto’s trusted former employees.
Otto shows a visitor the concealed entrance to the secret annex. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
On 4 August 1944, after two years in hiding, the eight people in the secret annex are betrayed, arrested by the Gestapo, and taken to the Westerbork transit camp. One month later, the Frank family is deported to Auschwitz. On 5 September 1944, their transport reaches the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Otto is separated from his wife and two daughters.
On 27 January 1945, utterly exhausted and very ill, he experiences the liberation of the camp by the Russians. As Otto was in the sick barracks, he escaped the death march of the prisoners towards the west.
Otto speaks about how he survived Auschwitz.
Otto’s return to the Netherlands started on 23 February 1945. First of all, he was transported by train to Katowice in Poland. There, witnesses informed him of the death of his wife, Edith. In early April, he travelled on to Odessa on the Black Sea. On 2 May, Otto boarded a ship that took him to Marseille. He sent a telegram to his sister Leni in Basel, his first sign of life in over two years. On 3 June, Otto Frank arrived in Amsterdam. He was still unaware of the fate of his daughters.
After the war, Otto Frank was stateless, destitute, and had nowhere to live. Returning to Germany was out of the question and, without a passport, he could not travel to his family in Basel. He lived with Miep and Jan Gies in Amsterdam. Otto tirelessly looked for his daughters while at the same time trying to get back on his feet in terms of business.
The first letter from Otto to his mother after being liberated from the concentration camp, Auschwitz, 1945. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
In July 1945, the International Red Cross confirmed that Margot and Anne Frank had died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. It was only then that Miep Gies gave Otto the red-checked autograph album, two black notebooks, and more than 200 loose sheets written on by Anne that she had gathered for safekeeping after the violent raid on the secret annex.
In the autumn, Otto started to read his daughter’s texts. He soon decided to publish Anne’s legacy. Otto Frank compiled a typescript (Version C) of Anne’s Diary (Version A), a fragment of the Diary that Anne had already edited (Version B), and four texts from the notebooks. He showed this to relatives, friends and numerous Dutch publishing houses. In summer 1948, the first edition of the Diary was published by Contact publishing house under the title «Het Achterhuis»
Otto Frank continued to live with Miep and Jan Gies in Amsterdam. He divided his time between the Diary, attempts to rebuild his business, and friends. Otto also contacted a former neighbour from Merwedeplein, Elfriede Geiringer-Markovits (Fritzi). He had met her daughter Eva in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Mother and daughter had survived Auschwitz, like Otto, but Fritzi had lost her husband and son there.
Eva Schloss speaks about how Otto and her mother Fritzi Geiringer-Markovits got to know each other after the liberation. © Anne Frank Fonds/AVE
In 1952, 63-year-old Otto Frank moved to Basel to live with his sister Leni Elias. One year later, Otto and Fritzi Geiringer got married. They lived in a small room under the roof in the house of Otto’s family in Herbstgasse. From 1961 onwards, they lived in Birsfelden near Basel.
Otto and Elfriede (Fritzi) Geiringer-Markovits at their wedding, Amsterdam, 1953. © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
Otto on the moment when he received Anne's diary from Miep Gies.
Otto was dedicated to the Diary until his death on 19 August 1980. He wanted to make his daughter’s message accessible all around in the world. In 1963, Otto Frank established the “Anne Frank Fonds Basel” and designated it as his universal heir.
Otto Frank with a school class in Italy, 1963 © Anne Frank Fonds, Basel
In her diary, Anne calls her father Pim. He is the calm anchor and undisputed authority among the eight people in hiding. Anne describes how he mediates between the adults, takes on many of the unpleasant and dangerous tasks, and repeatedly organises new reading and school material for the three youths.
Anne loves her father and openly admires him, in contrast to her frequently strained and quite ambivalent relationship with her mother. She writes a lot about her relationship with her father; alongside her diary, he is her most important discussion partner in the secret annex.
«I won’t say much about Father and me. The former is the most modest person at the table. He always looks to see whether the others have been served first. He needs nothing for himself; the best things are for the children. He’s goodness personified. Seated next to him is the Annexe’s little bundle of nerves.»
Diary, 9 August 1943