Anne Frank: How a father kept his daughter’s legacy alive by publishing her diary

HE lost his family in death camps in World War II but Otto Frank had his daughter’s inspirational words to bring some solace.

Jewish family killed by Nazis during World War Two (II), Otto Frank with his daughters Margot & diarist Anne in Frankfurt in 1930-31. Pic copywright AFF/AFS. Holocaust

AFTER Auschwitz was liberated in January 1945 and the inmates allowed to leave, one man headed home to Amsterdam to his wife and two daughters. During his journey Otto Frank learnt that his wife Edith had died in Auschwitz. Arriving in June, Frank searched in vain for his daughters, only to later discover that Margot and Anne had both died in Bergen-Belsen.

His heartbreaking story would not have been widely known if Frank’s secretary and friend Miep Gies had not saved Anne’s diary. She gave the book to Frank saying: “Here is your daughter Anne’s legacy to you.”

When the diary was published it became a bestseller, read by millions around the globe. Frank received letters from readers as far away as Australia, some of which are now on display as part of the exhibition Anne Frank: A History for Today at the Sydney Jewish Museum.

While Anne’s story is familiar, her father’s life has been somewhat overshadowed by his posthumously famous daughter. He was born Otto Heinrich Frank in Frankfurt Germany in 1889, the son of a banker. Although the family was Jewish they were not devout. Frank had a sense of community with other Jewish families but culturally his family was no different than other Germans.

School photograph of holocaust victim Anne Frank, who kept a diary of the family's life in hiding from the Nazis during World War II.

After leaving school Frank studied art history at the University of Heidelberg, but later switched to economics and took a summer job in a bank. He travelled to New York in 1909 to take an internship at Macy’s store. Soon after his arrival in America his childhood sweetheart (whose name has never been revealed) broke off their engagement to marry someone else.

He spent two years at Macy’s before returning to Germany in 1911. In 1914 he was drafted into the army, serving on the Western Front in World War I, rising to the rank of lieutenant. After the war he returned to manage the family bank, taking over from a brother who had failed at the job. Frank socialised with other families of similar standing and met eligible daughters of industrialists and bankers. After years as a bachelor he met Edith Hollander, daughter of an industrialist from Aachen, and they married in 1925. Their first daughter Margot was born in 1926 and Annelies (Anne) in 1929.

It was a dream existence for a while but the fractured German economy forced the closure of Frank’s family bank. The rise of the Nazi party and the growing anti-semitism in Germany brought about a move first to Aachen then to the Netherlands in 1936.

He found another venture, making pectin — the setting agent used in jam — and life went on until the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940.

The cover of the book Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl.

As the strictures against Jewish citizens tightened and Margot was called up for a work camp, in July 1942 the family went into hiding. The Frank family shared a tiny concealed space with four others until an informant gave away their hiding place in August 1944.

Initially sent to Auschwitz, Margot and Anne were later moved on to Bergen-Belsen. Only Otto survived. Frank found it hard to read the diary for some time but when he did he was astonished at her writing talent. He set about preparing it for publication. He felt it was important that people know about Anne and her story.

A heavily edited version was first published in Dutch under the title Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) in 1947 and was later published in English in 1952 as Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl. It was later renamed The Diary of Anne Frank.

Otto Frank and second wife Fritzi in Amsterdam in 1960.

Frank married Elfriede “Fritzi” Geiringer, a neighbour who also survived the death camps, in 1953 and spent his final decades looking after his daughter’s legacy.

Anne’s words were an inspiration to millions of readers, many of them young girls. Among them was Queensland girl Anne Finlayson who wrote, in 1956: “You may wonder why a total stranger should be writing to you like this. My reason for doing so is an endeavour to convey to you personally my very deep and sincere appreciation of your daughter Anne’s diary, which I count among my most cherished possessions.” Finlayson corresponded with Frank up until his death in 1980.

This week in eastern Germany, Hubert Zafke, a former Nazi SS medical orderly who worked at Auschwitz when the Franks arrived, went on trial for “complicity in the murder of more than 3000 prisoners at the camp”.

For further information on the exhibition and opening times please call Sydney Jewish Museum on 02 9360 7999 or visit sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au

Originally published as Anne Frank: How a father kept his daughter’s legacy alive by publishing her diary