The archives of the Frank family have been combined and made accessible to the public for the first time.
When the Jewish Museum of Frankfurt reopens, the Frank Family Center, which was established in 2012, will be accessible to the public. A main focus of the centre is the history of Anne Frank's family: the permanent exhibition will introduce visitors to the history and legacy of the Frank and Elias families. The substantial estate, which consists of documents, letters, writings and photos, will be made accessible to researchers in the museum archive. The library will contain a separate inventory of items from the family’s history and information about the publication and reception of the Diary of Anne Frank. In addition, a range of educational offers will provide new forms of access to the history of the family.
Establishment of the Frank Family Center
After his return from exile in Amsterdam, Otto Frank established the Anne Frank Fonds foundation in Basel, making it his sole heir and the publisher of his daughter's diaries. In 2012, together with the Elias-Frank family and the city of Frankfurt, the Anne Frank Fonds decided to permanently house the family's extensive estate consisting of letters, photos, furniture, porcelain and books in the Jewish Museum of the home town of the families.
Buddy Elias, who was born and spent the first years of his life in Frankfurt with his cousins Anne and Margot Frank before going into exile, saw the opportunity to place the history of his family into a wider context of Jewish history that transcends the Shoah. In the Jewish Museum, he saw a partner who would enable «our archives to be made accessible to research and the public and to be placed in an academic and publicly visible setting.» Over recent years, numerous objects and documents pertaining to the history of the family have been handed over to the museum and processed for this purpose.
Tasks and objectives
The extensive collection of objects and the original documents of the Frank-Elias family, which have been compiled in a family archive, form the basis of various research projects. Special research workplaces in the museum library make it possible to review the inventories. The museum's new on-line collection allows the everyday objects of the Frank collection that are being researched to be presented to a broad public.
A small selection of the collection, which consists of approximately 1300 objects and more than 6000 documents and photos, will be on display in the permanent exhibition. There are plans to include further objects and the stories associated with them in temporary exhibitions.
The President of the Anne Frank Fonds Basel and co-founder of the Frank Family Center, John D. Goldsmith, made the following statement about the opening: «This is an important step in the exploration of the history of a Jewish family that was persecuted in the Holocaust. At the same time, placing the archives in the context of the family's home town makes it possible to take a closer look at the prosperous life of the Frank family from a pre-war perspective.»