ANNE FRANK

Ronald Wilfred Jansen

Anne Frank

Reminders of a Jewish girl’s life

RWJ-PUBLISHING

‘ I WANT TO GO ON LIVING EVEN AFTER MY DEATH ! ’

(Anne Frank)

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

FRANKFURT AM MAIN

AACHEN

AMSTERDAM

THE SECRET ANNEX

CAMP WESTERBORK

AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

BERGEN-BELSEN

EPILOGUE

ITINERARY

OVERVIEW OF PEOPLE

WEBSITES

COLOPHON

PROLOGUE

Annelies Marie ‘Anne’ Frank (hereafter referred to as Anne) has come to symbolise the Holocaust, and her diary has conquered the world. A plethora of biographies and books containing historical photos have been published on her life. The travelling exhibition Anne Frank—A History for Today ¹ is the most visited Dutch exhibition outside of the Netherlands. The exhibition Anne Frank: Her Life in Letters (2006) ² depicts her life in hiding with an impressive, panoramic video presentation of excerpts from her diary. Less well known to the public is the physical trail of Silent Witnesses, which serves to remind us of Anne in the (urban) landscape.

My interest in the persecution of Jews in general and of Anne in particular came about gradually. From 1994 to 1996, I participated in international voluntary projects through the Dutch volunteer foundation SIW—projects in the former concentration camps Sachsenhausen and Dachau ³ located in Germany. I wanted to enter into a dialogue with young adults from different countries. I was edging towards the second half of my thirties, whilst most of the others were in their early-twenties. Fortunately, one is never too old to learn.

We discussed Nazism and the dangers of neo-Nazism, with all of us horrified by the stories told by former camp prisoners and members of the resistance. A number of historians led discussions in the presence of local residents. Fortunately, some of them had the courage to face up to this black page in German history. Many (elderly) Germans, however, remain unwilling to face their past. We also participated in excavations and other activities; such activities were intended to foster mutual understanding, but with the secondary aim of facilitating fun together.

What struck me during these activities was the contrast between the current silence in the former concentration camps, combined with the hardships of the prisoners, on the one hand, and the harsh shouts of the camp guards during the war, on the other. I was struck by the cruelty of the Nazi regime. Especially shocking were the lampshades made of human skin. Some of the younger participants were unable to deal with the horrors of the Nazi regime. American army videos displayed shocking images of the corpses of former prisoners in Buchenwald and other camps.

I visited the Achterhuis (the Secret Annex) for the first time in 2001. Visitors tend to be deeply impressed when they visit the Secret Annex, and I was no exception. I could feel the tension of the people in hiding, and I quickly realised Anne had become caught in the Nazi web: she had been snatched away from her usual environment. Anne had a keen interest in culture, religion, science and social matters, and was always concerned with the welfare of others. As a German refugee, she felt at home in Amsterdam and was eager to reach maturity. Her murder just because she was Jewish leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. Her life was nipped in the bud.

I felt the urge to record Anne's life, not by means of a biography or a book containing old photographs—after all, so many of those have already been published—but in a different manner.

In 2008 and 2009, I went on a memorial tour, visiting Anne’s various places of residence (hereafter referred to as main locations): her addresses in Frankfurt am Main and Aachen, the Merwedeplein in Amsterdam, the Secret Annex in Amsterdam where she went into hiding, and the Westerbork, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps where she was imprisoned. ⁴ I converted this historical journey into a (photo) book. ⁵ The publication of the photo book proceeded with difficulty. The Anne Frank Fonds in Basel only permitted the use of five of Anne’s quotes. ⁶ I wanted to publish the photo book in 2009, the year Anne would have celebrated her 80 th birthday. Since I was unable to find a regular publisher for the book, I decided to publish it myself. I quickly made a selection of photographs and edited them with the use of Photoshop; I purchased historical photographs from a stock agency; I did the layout myself and published the book in 2009 through a POD ⁷ publisher. For the English version of the book, I had to pay Random House ⁸ a (modest) amount of money because I had used a few quotations from Anne’s diaries. Unfortunately, however, my attempts at obtaining subsidies were fruitless.

Nevertheless, I was not put off. I positioned several historical photographs next to current ones taken from the same perspective, which painfully revealed the void left behind by Anne. Many people thought this approach was challenging, and consequently wanted to bring my photo book to the attention of the general public. ⁹ Hanna ‘Hanneli’ Elisabeth Goslar (born in 1928, hereafter referred to as Hanneli) was a friend of Anne’s and liked my photo book.

The Anne Frank Stichting (The Anne Frank House) noted my original approach ¹⁰, and the Anne Frank Fonds in Basel remarked that my photographs bridge the gap between past and present. ¹¹ In spite of this, however, neither organisation was prepared to publish my book ¹², which was a great pity. I decided, however, that I would not be deterred by any of this, and would add a final sequel to the photo book and booklet.

This book will be my last work on Anne, and it will be a supplement to the existing historiography of Anne. I wrote this book as a result of getting to know more about the main locations and the surrounding environment of Anne’s residences, her hiding place, and various locations she liked to visit.

Another reason for writing this book is that time is running out for people who knew Anne to tell their story. In a similar vein, the book pays specific attention to the reasons behind why the places that remind us of Anne are disappearing.

The major monuments erected after the war, which commemorate Anne, the war and the persecution of the Jews, are mentioned in this book but not elaborated upon since its central theme is Anne’s residential environment. These monuments serve to illustrate how Anne, along with other war victims, is being commemorated.

Various sources were consulted during the course of writing this book. Since the book is being financed by private funds, it does not include any photographs of Anne purchased from stock agencies or elsewhere. ¹³ Ad Tiggeler ¹⁴ allowed me to use his collection of old postcards to illustrate this book. It contains excellent images, some 1 less well-known, including photographs of De Wolkenkrabber (‘The Skyscraper’, a block of flats looking out on Merwedeplein, Amsterdam). My gratitude also goes out to Jos Wiersema, who allowed me to use historical photographs from his collection ¹⁵; images that go beyond the usual pictures.

Some materials from the photo book have been reused in this publication, supplemented by current photos of a number of places Anne visited, which I learnt of in 2010 and 2011 and had overlooked when making the photo book.

Anne maintained a scrapbook with photographs. Some of the places depicted in these photographs have not been identified exactly, even if they show Anne in front of a clearly recognisable background. Following the war, so much attention went to publishing The Diaries that not all old pictures were researched adequately with regard to their origin. The bitter fruits of this are now being harvested: the location of some of the buildings can no longer be established with certainty. Fortunately, however, I was able to recognise some of the places in these photographs when I was physically tracing Anne’s footsteps.

For other photographs, however, I have not been able to establish location. One black-and-white photograph ¹⁶ shows an informal yet slightly uneasy gathering of three teenagers looking into the camera. Both boys are wearing neat suits that are in sharp contrast with their decrepit environment of bare vegetable gardens and unpainted sheds.

The youngest boy is wearing clogs. A girl in a light dress gives the photographer a rather surly look whilst pulling one of the cords on her cardigan. This girl is Anne. The two boys standing next to Anne are Herbert Wilp (1928-2002, hereafter referred to as Herbert) and Hermann Wilp (1925-1945, hereafter referred to as Hermann), who came from Neuwied near Koblenz. Following the Kristallnacht ¹⁷, Herbert and Hermann fled to Amsterdam. It is unknown where this picture was taken or what relationship existed between Anne and these boys.

Prior to travelling across Anne’s locations, I studied the relevant literature in order to garner insight into what has been written about 1 Anne and where she stayed. Many books have been written about Anne. Melissa Müller’s biography is well-structured and contains a wealth of background information on Anne. ¹⁸ The level of other writings differs greatly ¹⁹, with practically all writers elaborating on others’ themes.

The biography by Carol Ann Lee (hereafter referred to as Carol) contains several mistakes. ²⁰ A meticulous description of Amsterdam locations reminiscent of Anne may be found in Bob Polak’s book Naar buiten, lucht en lachen! Een literaire wandeling door het Amsterdam van Anne Frank [Outside: fresh air and laughter! A literary walk through Anne Frank’s Amsterdam] (Amsterdam, 2006). His book was of great use to me. My book also contains information published before, supplemented by new facts about Anne’s places of residence and presented from a new perspective.

The Letters ²¹ and The Diaries ²² Anne wrote are the main primary sources for reconstructing Anne’s day-to-day environment, and are influenced by the opinions and interpretations of Anne, who, in turn, was influenced by her upbringing, environment and the spirit of her time. There is no information on how the others experienced the hiding: with the exception of Otto Frank (1889-1980, hereafter referred to as Otto), none survived the extermination camps. In spite of the chaotic circumstances in the Secret Annex during the fatal raid on August 4, 1944, excerpts of Anne’s diaries remained intact. Many of the letters Anne wrote whilst living at Merwedeplein have undoubtedly been lost.

Margot kept a diary in the Annex ²³ that most probably also has been lost, or perhaps Margot’s diary is still hidden somewhere under the floorboards of the building at 263 Prinsengracht, in an old forgotten attic or orphaned in an archive that has escaped inventory. Who knows? New information about Anne still occasionally crops up from hidden places. In 2008, one of Anne’s postcards turned up in a gift shop in Naarden, the Netherlands ²⁴, along with a picture of a former admirer. ²⁵ The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research ²⁶ discovered some 1 letters by Otto, revealing that he wanted to flee the Netherlands with his family.

The period from December 6, 1942 up to December 22, 1943 ²⁷ is absent from the A version of The Diaries. The A version is the first version of The Diaries; the B version is the version rewritten by Anne herself, which she planned to publish in the form of a novel after the end of the war. The B version was never completed, probably because Anne was arrested, and ends on March 29, 1944. I prefer to take the A version, written by Anne between June 12, 1942 and August 1, 1944 as a point of reference because it is the uncensored version in which Anne wrote down her thoughts unreservedly and without consideration of her audience. In some places, the B version contains information that is lacking in the A version.

Otto contributed to a C version of The Diaries: The 1947 Dutch edition of Het Achterhuis [The Secret Annex], published by Contact, from which certain sensitive passages were removed by Otto ²⁸. The academic publication of The Diaries ²⁹, meant to scientifically refute the accusations by far-right extremists who claim The Diaries to be a forgery ³⁰, contains sensitive extracts written by Anne, which Otto had systematically kept out of previous publications.

A booklet containing difficult words that Anne wrote down ³¹ and the card catalogue of books ³² kept by Anne and Margot have not been found. An accounts book in which Anne noted down texts that appealed to her whilst she was in hiding has been preserved: the Mooie Zinnenboek , her Book of Beautiful Sentences (Amsterdam, 2004). (Please refer to the Bibliography section, Translator’s Note, for more information on English editions and translations of titles in the). Some separate notes from the Secret Annex by Anne were preserved, and she also wrote stories, and in 1944 worked on a novel whilst hiding in the Annex. These were published in Dutch as Verhaaltjes, en gebeurtenissen uit het Achterhuis. Met de roman in wording Cady’s leven (Amsterdam, 2005), and in English as Tales from the Secret Annex. Including her Unfinished Novel Cady’s Live (Halban Publishers, 2010). The stories this book contains are partly anecdotes from the Annex, partly made-up fairytales and partly derived from 1 memories of the Jewish grammar school she attended, the Joods Lyceum. Both her stories and her prospective novel contain autobiographical elements: ‘It isn’t sentimental nonsense for it’s modelled on the story of Daddy’s life.’ ³³ Anne does not elaborately describe her residential environment in her writings, presumably because it was a given to her—just like it is a given for us that we are free to walk down the street. One only notices that something is missing when it is gone. It was the same for Anne. During her period in hiding, she became more aware of the value of nature, fresh air and having some elbow room, and she described the chestnut tree, the birds and the sky above Amsterdam. Comparably, Anne did not write about her residential environments in Aachen and Frankfurt in any detail; she lived there only very briefly, and may not have remembered much about those places of her early childhood. During her hiding period, Anne mainly felt Dutch and probably did not feel any need to be reminded of her native country.

I was unable to obtain permission to consult the Frank family archives. I am unsure as to whether this would have proven useful; the exhibition Anne Frank—Her Life in Letters in the Amsterdam Museum in 2006 ³⁴ did not lead to new insights into Anne and her places of residence. Moreover, some other authors have already conducted extensive research in the Anne Frank Stichting archives.

I was unable to find specific sources, such as postcards or letters, Anne may have written in one of the concentration camps. She may have been prevented from writing—or perhaps she came to lack the strength. Many of the materials from the camps in which Anne stayed have been lost to posterity, meaning that her life in the camps can only reconstructed through the eyewitness accounts of others.

I sought contact with people who (superficially) knew Anne and who were able to tell me about locations she had visited but did not mention in her writings. Whilst travelling along Anne’s locations generally went fine, the contact with her former friends and acquaintances was more difficult. At times, their memory failed them, and they would make contradictory statements. Asking additional question occasionally led to irritations.

Even today, some people continue to argue about who was or was not a friend of Anne’s. ³⁵ Some people who knew Anne and Margot are tired of the war and the attention that goes out to Anne. ³⁶ Some do not like to be reminded of the loss of their family.

Some who were born during or shortly after the war are too young to remember anything concrete about that time. For many survivors, a visit to their old neighbourhood, the Rivierenbuurt, is very difficult. Hilde Goldberg-Jacobsthal (born in 1925, hereafter referred to as Hilde) had not been to her neighbourhood since 1943. ³⁷ Sometimes a person’s health prevented me from having any contact; they understandably wanted to be left alone. Unfortunately, I had not been able to contact Hermine ‘Miep’ Santruschitz (1909- 2010) before she passed away. Miep was the last surviving helper of the people in the Annex.

In 2010, I had a telephone conversation with Anne’s friend Hanneli. This led to some new information on Anne’s places of residence in Amsterdam. I am grateful to her and to the many others who helped me, such as Bernard ‘Buddy’ Elias (born in 1925, hereafter referred to as Buddy), all of whom are mentioned in the ‘Special thanks to…’ section of this book.

Various websites offered me the opportunity to publish a general request for information about Anne and her residential environment. ³⁸ Through the ‘Zuidelijke Wandelweg’ ³⁹ and ‘Anne in de buurt’ ⁴⁰ community projects, I was able to reach people who did not belong to Anne’s direct circle of friends but who did have important information on her previously unknown places of residence. ‘Zuidelijke Wandelweg’ and some other websites contain valuable information on the Rivierenbuurt, where Anne spent many years of her life.

Several German papers ⁴¹ only wanted to publish my request for sharing information about Anne if I paid them for it, which I declined because Anne is not a commercial product to me. What she left us is public cultural heritage.

Persons who have (in)direct experience of the war in Amsterdam provided me with a large amount of useful information about the war. ⁴² Karel N. L. Grazell (born in 1928, hereafter referred to as 1 Karel), who became one of Amsterdam’s municipal poets, and Max C. van der Glas (born in 1938, hereafter referred to as Max) ⁴³, who is a writer and Holocaust survivor, did not know Anne in person, but they do know Amsterdam and its history extremely well. ⁴⁴ I reached people through the internet whom I would not have been able to reach through any organisation. I would gather information on the architecture of buildings and neighbourhoods in Amsterdam mainly from websites of the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (NAI, the Netherlands Institute of Architecture) ⁴⁵, Gemeente Amsterdam Bureau Monumenten & Archeologie (BMA, the Amsterdam municipal agency for monuments and archaeology) ⁴⁶ and Joods Amsterdam (Jewish Amsterdam). ⁴⁷ Some elements that have disappeared from our landscape for good can be reconstructed virtually. I was fortunate enough to see Anne’s chestnut tree ‘live’ from the Annex before it was blown down in 2010, but it can also still be admired in The Secret Annex Online. ⁴⁸ The Secret Annex Online also served as a reminder during my reconstructions, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has difficulty walking and would otherwise not be able to visit it.

I did not find any local papers that the Franks may have read during the war. Presumably, local papers were not distributed during WWII because paper was scarce and the strict German censorship suppressed their publication. Anne does not mention the Amstelodamum magazine that appeared during the war. However, an entrepreneurs’ magazine dated January 11, 1940 states that Anne solved their puzzle and could collect her prize. ⁴⁹ However, consulting archives, reading, interviewing people or looking up information on the internet did not suffice for the purposes of this book. Travelling deepened my connection with Anne’s environment, the distance between her places of residence, the size of her living space, and the elements reminiscent of her in the (urban) landscape. I could only experience the void Anne left behind by perceiving the world from her point of view.

I visited Amsterdam and Aachen again in 2010 and 2011 for the purpose of gathering additional information. The persons and 1 organisations involved provided permission to visit and record the locations inside and out, and I am very grateful to them.

Hopefully, the reader will be inspired to visit Anne’s places of residence and share their experiences with others so that more people will take up an interest in Anne’s cultural heritage, which extends beyond the Secret Annex, her diaries, and old photographs.

This book will hopefully contribute to the inventory and the preservation of the monuments that remind us of Anne. Private individuals, cultural institutions, research institutes and the government can contribute to this. A great deal of information about Anne is scattered, and there are things we still do not know.

It is important that the study of Anne’s cultural heritage stimulates research into the physical traces left behind by other war victims so that they all get the attention they deserve ⁵⁰; after all, Anne is just one of millions of Holocaust victims.

¹ http://www.annefrank.org/en/Education/Travelling-exhibition/Introduction-international- exhibition/ .

² http://www.ymere.nl/ymere/index.asp?id=125 (Dutch only).

³ I published a small report on my journey in the Dachau Newsletter by the Foundation for Friends of Former Dachau Prisoners: Nieuwsbrief Dachau (Stichting Vriendenkring van Oud- Dachauers. Nr. 9 – December 1994) pp. 8-9. (Dutch only). The local media also covered the Jugendbegegnungszeltlager (youth gathering) in which I participated (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 10 August 1994), p. 7 (German only).

⁴ Reports of my journey were published on http://joodsactueel.be/2011/01/03/in-de- voetsporen-van-anne-frank-1929-1945/ and in a heritage magazine: Jansen, Ronald Wilfred. Stille Getuigen. Sporen van Anne Frank in het (stedelijke) landschap [Silent Witnesses. Reminders of Anne in the (Urban) Landscape], in: Monumenten. Hét tijdschrift voor cultureel erfgoed [Monuments. The Cultural Heritage Magazine] (Volume 32, issue 5, May 2011) (both Dutch only).

⁵ My English photo book: Jansen, Ronald Wilfred, Anne Frank. A Memorial Tour in Current Images (2009) and its Dutch original are listed in the catalogue of the German National Library ( http://d-nb.info/998592757 ). The English version is part of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum library collection. ( http://catalog.ushmm.org/vwebv/search?searchCode=GKEY%5E&searchType=0&searchAr g=memorial+tour+in+current+images ). ‘ In his photo book, Ronald Jansen reveals how our physical landscape contains reminders of Anne’s arrival and departure, presence and absence. Jansen tours Anne Frank’s home addresses, her hiding place and the concentrations camps where she was imprisoned, i.e. Westerbork, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. In his report of this project, which he himself describes as a memorial tour or historical journey, Jansen takes old photos from the archives and puts them next to the pictures he has recently taken from the same perspective. One of the photographs, taken in the summer of 1932, shows three-year-old Anne playing with water in her garden. The photo taken decades later portrays the stones that were once a part of this scene. The building and the courtyard [Ganghoferstrasse 24, Frankfurt am Main, Frank family residence] are still there, but there are no children playing. In this way, Jansen captures the void Anne left behind.’ (Borgman, Erik and Liesbeth Hoeven, Sporen van afwezigheid. Gedenken in stemmen, stenen en stilte [Traces of Absence: Commemorating in Voices, Stones and Silence] (Zoetermeer, 2011), p. 55. The residence stated in the books published by Unibook—which have been withdrawn from the market—is incorrect: Anne did not reside at 5 Liebfrauenstrasse in Eschweiler at this time but at 5 Elsa-Brändström-Strasse in Aachen. I am grateful to the Anne Frank Stichting for pointing this out to me (email dated 14 August 2009). The paperback edition available through CreateSpace does state the correct address and also contains a current photo of the building. This English edition is available in full colour (ISBN 9781466281936) or in black and white (ISBN 9781463714345). Since 2011, my photo book has been available in the Netherlands and Belgium through POD publisher www.mijnbestseller.nl (ISBN 9789491080555 (English version) and ISBN 9789491080432 (Dutch version)). In 2011, I also published a black and white paperback booklet on Anne Frank at Mijnbestseller: In de voetsporen van Anne Frank (Following the footsteps of Anne Frank, ISBN 9789081423847).

⁶ Email from the Anne Frank Fonds, 16 February 2009.

⁷ POD stands for ‘Print on Demand’. In POD, the author generally provides the text and lay- out. Most POD publishers in the Netherlands will provide registration at the central distribution centers in the Netherlands and Belgium (Centraal Boekhuis and Libris respectively). More information can be found on https://portal.boekhuis.nl/cbonline/ . The POD publisher will often take care of sales and distribution. Seeking publicity is usually the author’s task. Hoogeveen.nu (2 July 2009), Reformatorisch Dagblad (11 November 2009), Weekblad Meppel (25 August 2009), Auschwitz-Bulletin (53, no. 3, September 2009), the Krant van Midden Drenthe (19 August 2009), De Echo (‘Zuid’ edition, 3 February 2010), The Frankfurter Rundschau (13 June 2011) and the NIW (31) wrote about my publications. The Hoogeveensche Courant (26 June 2009 and 14 August 2009) wrote an elaborate article on my photo project. The Krant van Hoogeveen (25 August 2009), Dagblad van het Noorden (01 July 2009), Meppeler Courant (2 July 2009) and various other local (internet) media ( www.deloodsboot.nl ) and websites ( http://anne-frank.startpagina.nl/ , http://concentratiekampen.loggy.nl/ , http://www.goethe.de/ins/nl/ams/nlindex.htm?wt_sc=nederland , http://www.stiwot.nl/ ) covered my publications on the internet. My gratitude goes out to all of them for their interest—especially the Hoogeveensche Courant .

⁸ ‘Random House is the exclusive licence holder for all Anne Frank texts in English within the US and Canada. They paid us a lot of money in order to acquire those rights, which is the reason they can decide whether or not to grant publishing rights of English Anne Frank texts and whether or not they want to charge money for it. This is normal procedure in international publishing.’ (Email from the Anne Frank Fonds, 1 September 2009).

⁹ Verenigingsblad Waffel (June 2010, no. 44).

¹⁰ ‘This book contains beautiful photographs. It is an excellent idea to take pictures of the places Anne has been to.’ (Translation of a Dutch email from the Anne Frank Stichting, 14 August 2009).

¹¹ ‘So far two members of the board are each holding a copy of your book and they are both very impressed with the book and like it very much.’ (Email from the Anne Frank Fonds, 17 August 2008).

¹² Email from the Anne Frank Stichting, 17 February 2009. The Anne Frank Stichting was of the opinion that my book did not fit their objectives. I do not really understand their point, but of course I respect their decision. The Anne Frank Stichting employs its own writers who publish books on Anne and sell them in their shop.

¹³ http://www.gettyimages.nl/ .

¹⁴ http://members.casema.nl/a.tiggeler/ .

¹⁵ http://www.amsterdamsetrams.nl/ .

¹⁶ http://www.gettyimages.nl/detail/3229104/Premium-Archive .

¹⁷ The Kristallnacht was a pogrom organised by the Nazis against Jewish people in Germany (9-10 November, 1938).

¹⁸ Melissa Müller does a great job of separating main topics from side ones, structures her book well without losing sight of the chronological order of events and manages to place Anne in a broader context. Dutch edition: Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998) English edition: Anne Frank: The Biography (Macmillan 2013).

¹⁹ Even now, new books about Anne are being published, some of which provide a new perspective. An example is Francine Prose’s work Anne Frank. Leven en werk van een schrijfster (Amsterdam, 2009) which emphasises Anne’s artistic talents. English editon: Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife (Harper Collins Books, 2009). Anne’s life is also 19" available as a graphic novel (Jacobsen S. and E. Colón, Anne Frank. The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography (Anne Frank House, 2010)).

²⁰ Carol Ann Lee states that Hanneli and her family emigrated to the US in 1940 (Lee, Carol Ann, Pluk rozen op aarde en vergeet mij niet. Anne Frank 1929-1945 (Amsterdam, 1998) p. 82). English editon: Roses from the Earth: The Biography of Anne Frank (Penguin Books, 2000). In fact, Hanneli was deported to Bergen-Belsen. On page 83, Carol writes that Otto’s office was located at Singelgracht, but his office was at Singel (no. 400, Amsterdam). (Lee, Carol Ann, Pluk rozen op aarde en vergeet mij niet. Anne Frank 1929-1945 (Amsterdam, 1998) p. 68).

²¹ Anne Frank Stichting, Anne Frank. Haar leven in brieven [Her Life in Letters] (Amsterdam, 2006).

²² Official English title of The Diaries : The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical Edition. The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (New York, 2003). Original Dutch title: De Dagboeken van Anne Frank. Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (Amsterdam, 1990/2001).

²³ The Diaries, 28 September 1942.

²⁴ http://www.geheugenvanplanzuid.nl/tijdtijn/kaartAnneFrank.htm .

²⁵ De Telegraaf, 26 February 2008.

²⁶ http://www.yivoinstitute.org/

²⁷ In The Diaries (20 May 1944) Anne describes how a toppled vase ruins some of her work. This may have included entries from her diary.

²⁸ Otto had recently lost his family, so it is quite understandable that he left out Anne’s curses directed at her mother.

²⁹ De Dagboeken van Anne Frank , Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (Amsterdam, 2001).

³⁰ http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t215308/ .

³¹ ‘I learnt same more new words today, ‘bordeel’ [brothel] and ‘cocotte’ [floozie], I bought a separate booklet for those.’ ( The Diaries , 28 October 1942).

³² ‘Father made Margot and me a filing box with cards that are blanc on one side. This will become our card catalogue of books; we will both write down what books we have read, by whom they were written and the date.’ ( The Diaries , 27 February 1943).

³³ The Diaries , 11 May 1944.

³⁴ http://www.ymere.nl/ymere/index.asp?id=125 .

³⁵ Eva Schloss’ book ( Herinneringen van een joods meisje [Memories of a Jewish Girl] (Breda, 2005)) states that she became Anne’s friend. Eva lived at Merwedeplein during the same period as Anne. Anne does not mention her in her diary.

³⁶ ‘I NEVER read Anne’s diary, in spite of the fact that my daughter left it in our house for over a year. And probably I never will. My opinion on all those publications is the subject is being milked out (...) I think history has become too much focused on Anne, while so many other things were going on in the neighourhood [Francien lived near the Franks].’ (translation of a Dutch email from Francien Bachra, 21 December 2010).

³⁷ http://www.geschiedenis24.nl/andere-tijden/afleveringen/2002-2003/Hilde-Goldberg.html

³⁸ http://www.bijbelaantekeningen.nl/blog/2011/01/19/oproep-informatie-over-anne-frank- gezocht/ , De Weekkrant Amsterdam 11 January 2011 p. 4, http://www.dichtbij.nl/amsterdam- zuid/regionaal-nieuws/artikel/1882689/gezocht-getuigen-anne-frank.aspx , www.echo.nl 28 December 2010, http://hetverhalenarchief.nl/user-stories , Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad ( NIW ) 17 14 January 2011 p.37, http://rivierenbuurt.weblog.nl/2008/05/08/profielschets- stadsdeelvoorzitter/ , http://www.seniorennet.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=71829&sid=432713e3d58f49e9b534626b8 63b51a5 . , http://www.deweekkrant.nl/pages.php?page=1528934 , Weekblad De Echo Editie 20" Amsterdam Oud-Zuid 2 February 2011, http://www.joodswelzijn.nl/de-Benjamin-Joodse- agenda/Oproepjes-activiteiten-ingezonden-door-lezers.aspx . The Centraal Joods Overleg (CJO, the Netherlands Central Jewish Consulting Body) does not have a magazine and only places content on their website that is directly related to the CJO. Some organisations, such as Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen and the Stadtbibliothek Aachen, do not have a newsletter. The Westerbork Camp Memorial Centre (Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork) and the Anne Frank Stichting in Amsterdam did not reply when I asked for permission to publish a request for information about Anne.

³⁹ http://www.zuidelijkewandelweg.nl/ .

⁴⁰ http://www.anne-in-de-buurt.nl/ .

⁴¹ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ( www.faz.de ), http://www.zeitungsverlag-aachen.de/ , http://www.az-web.de .

⁴² Max C. van der Glas.

⁴³ http://www.geheugenvanplanzuid.nl/ingezonden/113.htm .

⁴⁴ This also applies to some of Anne’s other former neighbours who may have seen Anne without knowing. ‘I am afraid I cannot help you because I never met Anne. Still, our paths must have crossed regularly since we lived in Niersstraat across the school that Anne attended for a few years. By coincidence, I worked at Sporthuis Centrum in 1961, and there I became acquainted with a girl from Rotterdam who would travel up and down between Amsterdam and Rotterdam. She later found a room with the Vergnes family at 15 Merwedeplein . This means we know the roof terrace very well, although it was quite a feat to climb up there because it had no regular exit. Incidentally, I married that girl, and that will be 48 years ago this January [2011].’ (Translation of email from John Hendriks, 22 December 2010).

⁴⁵ http://www.nai.nl/bezoek/info .

⁴⁶ http://www.bma.amsterdam.nl/ .

⁴⁷ http://www.joodsamsterdam.nl/ .

⁴⁸ http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/ .

⁴⁹ The periodical’s title is The Consumer [De consument. Officieel orgaan op verkoopgebied verspreid door winkeliers aangesloten bij de Vakvereniging E.M.M] dated 11 January 1940. Page 7 lists the winners of puzzle 77 and 78. Anne Frank, 37 Merwedeplein won a photo album in group B (to be collected from shopkeeper J. v. Zalingen). In addition to a childrens’ page, the periodical contains recipes, a serial and advertisements. Mrs. S. L. L. Fransen presented the periodical as a gift to the Anne Frank Stichting in 1996. (Email from the Anne Frank Stichting, 15 December 2011).

⁵⁰ ‘Some are able to appreciate that [i.e. memories of Anne]. But we are her contemporaries and we lived in the same neighbourhood. We have seen so many houses being raided and none of those received the same attention. If I had had a say in it, the Merwedeplein residence would just have been rented out or sold.’ (Translation of a Dutch email from Francien Bachra, 8 January 2011) Her lively memories of the Rivierenbuurt can be read on: http://www.zuidelijkewandelweg.nl/ingezonden/francienvanderveenbachra.htm .

FRANKFURT AM MAIN

Anne’s Jewish ancestors in Germany were confronted with anti- Semitism and economic hardship as far back as the 17 th century. Anti- Semitism—hostility against Jews—is as old as the hills.

In 1806, emperor Napoleon I (1804-1815) established equal rights for Jews in Germany. Germany consisted of independent principalities at the time, with Prussia and Austria as its leading states. During the German Empire (1871-1918), Jews could participate in public, economic and social life like all other citizens.

During the course of the 19 th century, the German Empire industrialised rapidly; however, not everybody profited equally from these developments, and anti-Semitism rose amongst national- socialists, communists and conservatives. Many anti-Semitists were less successful in (banking) business and science than the Jews, and the government protected the Jewish community because they contributed considerable funds to the treasury.

Industrialisation, capitalism, fierce competition and theories centred on the survival of the fittest became prominent in economic practices. Many European countries sought to expand their territory and were engaged in a fierce battle for colonies and natural resources, which accelerated the rise of nationalism and racial classification theories.

During the German Empire, anti-Semitism was generally not expressed openly. Around 1900, however, the Bahnhofhotel Kölner Hof manager came to hate Jews to the extent that he prohibited them from entering his premises. The beer barrels were inscribed with degrading slogans about Jews, such as: Der Jude ist nicht ein Teutscher sondern ein Täuscher (Jews are not Germanic; they are cheaters), Nicht ein Bürger, sondern ein Würger (Not citizens but stranglers), Das Judentum […] verdient […] Ausrottung (Judaism deserves to be exterminated) and Kauft nicht bei Juden (Do not purchase from Jews) ¹. In spite of the open hostility against the Jewish, however, many Jews remained loyal to their native country.

Anne’s (great) grandparents adopted German customs and habits, working their way up into the well-to-do, educated upper class of Jewish entrepreneurs in Frankfurt am Main.

Because of its strategic location at the river Main, Frankfurt am Main grew into a major trade centre over the course of the centuries.

Otto Frank did not attend a Jewish school. Instead, he attended advanced secondary education at the public Lessing Gymnasium. Following his graduation in 1908, Otto enrolled in a postgraduate course on economics at the Heidelberg University. However, he quit his studies after a few months, choosing to take up a position with a bank; subsequently, through a fellow student, he was offered the chance to gain work experience at Macy’s department store in New York. Otto left for the United States in September 1909. Unfortunately, he had to return shortly afterwards because his father passed away on 17 September 1909. Following a brief return, Otto went back to the US. This time, he stayed for two years. He spent his first year working at Macy’s department store before taking up a position at a bank. He returned to Germany in the autumn of 1911. Otto started out working for a company in Düsseldorf, which produced window frames. After a while, he joined a company producing horseshoes. ² The suppressed frustrations and internal tensions came to a head in WWI: ‘Like the majority of Germans, the Jews responded to the August 1914 declarations of war with enthusiastic nationalism’. ³ The Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (Central Committee of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith) sent out an appeal: ‘To the German Jews! In this fateful hour, our native country is calling its sons to arms. It speaks for itself that every German Jew who is called for duty is prepared to sacrifice his life. Fellow believers! We appeal to you to dedicate your strength to your native country and exceed your duty! Take up arms voluntarily! All of you, men and women alike, should serve your country by personal service of any kind and by providing funds and resources! Berlin, 1 August 1914.’4 2 Incidentally, conscription made enlistment in the armed forces compulsory at this time.

Propaganda by the German empire, as well as the prevailing public opinion in Germany that Russia had started WWI, caused the patriotism of German Jews to increase. Because of the pogroms in Russia and the Russian expulsion of Jews, German Jews felt especially militant.

WWI was the first military conflict on an immense scale in which new technologies and poison gas were deployed. Many young soldiers died in the trenches. Over 17 million soldiers and civilians died during this Great War. Eventually, Germany was defeated.

Otto Frank had been an officer in the German army and took Germany’s defeat as a personal failure.

Following WWI, Germany was in an afflicted state. It was suffering from a severe economic crisis and pervasive unemployment. The country had been devastated. The Germans regarded the Treaty of Versailles (1919) as a major defeat. Germany was heavily impacted by its loss of territory, the forced dismantling of its army and the compensatory payments resulting from the Treaty.

During the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), the Jews were formally equal to other citizens; in practice, however, the crisis led to increased nationalism and anti-Semitism. Many blamed the Jews for the military defeat and the resulting hardships.

During this period, the Frank family bank experienced great difficulties as a result of the various restrictions imposed upon the currency trade. Privately, the Franks also experienced major financial losses; their savings had evaporated due to inflation, and their war shares, in which they had invested considerably with a view to German victory, had become void. ⁵ The pre-WWII patriotic enthusiasm of German Jews can be compared to the current patriotism of Jews in the Netherlands. Most Dutch Jews support the royal family and happily join in singing the national anthem Het Wilhelmus at official gatherings, both domestically and abroad. Notably, however, it was the same in Germany before the onset of WWII. ⁶ 2 Following the German defeat, many German Jews devoted themselves to supporting democracy and socialism, ⁷ with a great number of them actively involved in interest groups, such as the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten (national league of Jewish front soldiers), established in 1919, which looked after the interests of Jewish WWI veterans. Many Jews in Germany also provided support for the Ostjuden, who were subjected to heavy persecutions in Russia. As far as I am aware, the Franks were not (very) active in politics. After WWI, Otto reluctantly took over the bank from his mother and his brother Herbert Frank (1891-1987, hereafter referred to as Herbert). ⁸ Herbert was not a very talented banker, and his eldest brother, Robert Frank (1886-1953, hereafter referred to as Robert), ⁹ was not interested in taking over. ¹⁰ Otto was not a born banker, either. He had aborted his undergraduate course in economics and, according to Anne, was not particularly good at maths. ‘I flatly refuse to do these foul math problems every day. Daddy Agrees that they’re horrible. I’m almost better at them than he is, though neither of us is much good and we have to fetch Margot all the time,’ Anne wrote whilst in hiding. ¹¹ The family bank in Germany was performing poorly. In 1923, Otto opened M. Frank & Zonen—a Dutch branch of the German family bank—in a stately building on a canal in Amsterdam (604 Keizersgracht). This was risky business: there was a dire scarcity of currencies in Germany and various restrictions were in force pertaining to banks that wanted to trade currencies.

This coincided with the failed coup by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945, hereafter referred to as Hitler) on 9 November 1923, and his consecutive brief detainment during which he wrote Mein Kampf, which was to become the National Socialist bible. It was still relatively quiet in the Netherlands.

On 31 December 1923, Otto registered the bank’s Dutch affiliate with the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce. Otto appointed Johannes ‘Jo’ Kleiman (1896-1959, hereafter referred to as Johannes) as his main accountant. M. Frank and Zonen did not do well; the bank went into liquidation in 1924.

The premises on 604 Keizersgracht ¹² currently host various companies. The old architecture is still visible in many of its details, such as its letterbox and door knobs. There are many beautiful buildings with a rich history on Keizersgracht.

Otto married 25 year old Edith Holländer (1900-1945, hereafter referred to as Edith) on 12 May 1925, his birthday, in the synagogue in Aachen. Photographs show a radiant couple on their honeymoon in Italy. It was a marriage of convenience, and Edith’s capital was of great use to Otto. Edith received a monthly allowance from her mother Rosalie ‘Rosa’ Holländer-Stern (1866-1942, hereafter referred to as Rosa) from Aachen. ¹³ Otto had been engaged before. ¹⁴ ‘(…) I think Father married Mother because he thought she was the best replacement for his fiancée (...) it cannot be easy for a loving wife to know that she will never occupy the first place in her husband’s heart,’ Anne wrote in her diary. ¹⁵ After the wedding, the couple took up residence in the home of Otto’s parents at 4 Mertonstrasse in Frankfurt am Main. Otto’s father, Michael Frank (1851-1909, hereafter referred to as Michael), ¹⁶ had purchased this semi-detached house in 1901. When his father died, his widow, Alice Betty Frank-Stern (1865-1953, hereafter referred to as Alice), was left in charge. The large, stately urban villa was suitable for the well-to-do upper middle class. It was located in an elegant residential area, and had a separate entrance for servants, ¹⁷ three balconies at the front, a dome, a central tower, and a large garden.

Otto and Edith had two daughters. Their first child, Margot Betti Frank (1926-1945, hereafter referred to as Margot), was born on 16 February 1926. Halfway through 1927, when Margot had just started walking, the family rented an apartment in a villa at 307 Marbachweg in the Betramshöhe area on the outskirts of Frankfurt am Main in the Dornbusch district—approximately three miles north-east of Mertonstrasse. ¹⁸ The rent was affordable for the Franks. ¹⁹ The family lived at 307 Marbachweg, which was a semi-detached home like 4 Mertonstrasse, until late March, 1931. This large residence remains to this day, situated on a crossroads in a Frankfurt 2 am Main suburb. It was built by its former landlord with the support of the Frankfurt am Main Teachers’ Association.

The Franks inhabited the left side of the complex. The house actually comprised two separate living spaces, one on the first floor and one on the second, which were connected by a staircase. The family’s living room, dining room and library were downstairs. Otto and Edith were not intellectuals, but they did read widely. I suspect Otto was not very interested in Jewish history. In 1922, the Museum Jüdischer Altertümer ²⁰ opened in Frankfurt am Main (the Museum of Jewish Antiquities at 14/15 Untermainkai). I do not know whether the Franks visited this museum (with any interest).

In addition, the Franks’ residence contained a kitchen, bathroom, and a room for Edith. The small room was furnished with Edith’s elegant writing desk, which she had brought from Aachen, and a bookcase in which she kept her Hebrew prayer books. Otto was not interested in Jewish customs or the Torah. Edith’s family celebrated Jewish holidays, ate kosher foods ²¹ and were prominent members of the Jewish community in Aachen. I cannot tell whether Otto’s and Edith’s parent would have gotten along well.

Otto and Edith’s bedroom, Margot’s bedroom, Edith’s study and the maid’s room were upstairs. The guest room at the back of the house had a balcony with potted flowers. Edith loved flowers. At the back of the Marbachweg residence there was an entrance leading to the basement and a play area.

Edith’s parents and her brothers, Julius Holländer (1894-1967, hereafter referred to as Julius) and Walter Holländer (1897-1968, hereafter referred to as Walter), often came to visit from Aachen. Anne and Margot’s uncles would regularly take them by car to their grandmother in Aachen.

The landlord resided on the ground floor of number 305; the first floor was inhabited by the Stab family. Their neighbours at number 303 were the Naumanns.

On 12 June 1929, when Margot had just turned three, Anne was born in the Klinik des Vaterländischen Frauenvereins in der 2 Eschenheimer Anlage ²² in Frankfurt am Main—a joyful family occasion.

In summer, the family liked to sit on the balcony at the back of the house, which overlooked a small garden and the street. The children would swing or play in the Stabs’ sandpit. The Marbachweg area was a green area with plenty of space for children to play.

In October 1929, the year of Anne’s birth, share prices at Wall Street crashed, which initiated a worldwide economic crisis that would last for many years. Tens of millions of people suffered because of unemployment and poverty—not only in America but also in Europe. Germany was afflicted the most by the crisis because of the burdensome WWI compensatory payments. The global crisis also severely affected the family bank.

The bank had to move to less costly premises on the edge of the city centre, at 20 Bockenheimer Anlage. In her diary, Anne refers to her parents’ financial situation as follows: ‘Daddy was born in Frankfurt am Main, his parents were immensely rich, Michael Frank owned a bank and became a millionaire and Alice Stern had very rich and distinguished parents. Michael Frank had not been at rich when he was young, but he duly worked his way up. In his youth Daddy had a real little rich boy’s upbringing: parties every week, balls, festivities, beautiful girls, waltzing, dinners, a large home, etc., etc. After Grandpa’s death [in 1909] all the money was lost and after the World War [WWI] and the inflation nothing was left at all.’23 The crisis and the inability of governments to turn the tide provided fertile ground for fascism in Europe. Hitler’s national- socialists were rapidly gaining ground in Frankfurt am Main and throughout Germany and, as usual, blamed the Jews for the crisis and ensuing unemployment. Since Frankfurt am Main was an important financial centre and the Jews had always been very influential there, the national-socialists regarded Frankfurt am Main as the place from which the Jews wanted to establish their worldwide rule.

Jews were increasingly confronted with harassment. Otto’s parents were members of the B’nai B’rith association. ²⁴ This support 2 group, run for and by Jews, had been established in Amsterdam in 1924. Although Otto was not very interested in Jewish traditions, he was very concerned for the fate of the Jewish people.

According to author Melissa Müller, one-fifth of the population of Westend—a district in Frankfurt am Main—was Jewish, but not many Jews lived in the Marbachweg area. ²⁵ Jewish buildings, however, indicate that a Jewish community was active around Marbachweg. On 8 September 1929, the Jewish cemetery at Eschersheimer Landstraße was founded—not even half a mile from 307 Marbachweg. The synagogues taught Hebrew and organised readings. Der Freisinnige Verein für jüdisches Gemeindeleben ²⁶ (the Liberal Society for Jewish Community Life) provided education at the Westend Synagogue.

According to Melissa Müller, there was no synagogue close to Marbachweg. ²⁷ The main synagogue was located two and a half miles from Marbachweg, in the inner city. Melissa Müller indicates that the Franks did not attend the main (liberal) synagogue, but rather the Westend one. ²⁸ The Westend synagogue had been in use since 1910, and was designed by the architect Franz Roeckle (1879-1953). It was located at 30 Freiherr-vom-Stein-Strasse, and was the first synagogue in Frankfurt am Main outside the ancient city walls. There was another synagogue at 21-23 Unterlindau, the Synagoge der Israelitischen Gemeinde (synagogue of the Israelite community)—approximately two miles from Marbachweg.

Both men and women could attend the Westend Synagogue. The inner space and balcony comprised a total of 1,600 seats. Amongst the attendants of this synagogue were descendants of the Jews who had lived in Judengasse—a ghetto. Aside from the orthodox synagogue at Friedberger Anlage, this was the largest synagogue in Frankfurt.

Hitler’s popularity grew as a result of the crisis; he continued hammering away at how the Jews were the main cause of the crisis, and in his book, Mein Kampf, the dictator revealed his plan to exterminate all Jews. Unemployed working class people, side-tracked 2 military men and industrialists thought they could capitalise on the war industry.

The environment grew increasingly hostile of Jews. Otto decided to move to 24 Ganghoferstrasse when he discovered that his landlord felt sympathetic towards the Nazis. This must have been very painful for Otto: he had fought for his country in WWI and afterwards was discarded by the Germans as a Jew. Otto must have felt betrayed.

From 1930 onwards, Hitler’s propaganda blaming the German government for not having eradicated the Jews before WWI became increasingly prominent.

People sometimes say that children were not aware of the danger at hand. ²⁹ Margot and Anne were still very young; nevertheless, they must have sensed Otto and Edith’s tensions. Parents did their utmost to keep their children aloof from the Nazi danger.

Another reason why Otto moved to 24 Ganghoferstrasse was the decline of his banking business, which forced him to look for a cheaper apartment. His sister Helene Frank (1893-1986, hereafter referred to as Helene) ³⁰ had moved to Switzerland in 1930 because it provided new job opportunities for her husband Erich Elias (1890- 1984, hereafter referred to as Erich). His brother Herbert left the family bank and moved to Paris in 1932. During the move, Anne temporarily stayed with her neighbours and their daughter, Gertrud Naumann (1917-2002), ³¹ at 303 Marbachweg.

From late March 1931 to late March 1933, the Franks rented a five-room apartment on the ground floor of 24 Ganghoferstrasse. Unlike the one at Marbachweg, the urban villa at 24 Ganghoferstrasse did not have a balcony. It did, however, have a backyard and an inner court where Margot and Anne could play. The house was smaller than 307 Marbachweg. The family had taken their old furniture and furnished their home with pretty steel-blue couches and oval side- tables. ³² The white building had a protruding façade with window shutters, and was situated in a suburb of Frankfurt am Main that was known as the poets’ district: many physicians, lawyers and architects resided here. It was one of the many urban villas in the street.

Ganghoferstrasse was within walking distance from Marbachweg in a north-western direction, on the other side of Eschersheimer Landstraße. Although they lived a mile away from Marbachweg, Anne and Margot kept in touch with some of their old friends from the area. They also quickly made friends in their new neighbourhood.

Margot attended the Ludwig Richter Schule (10 Hinter den Ulmen, Frankfurt am Main). ³³ At this progressive school, Anne received Jewish religious education. ³⁴ There used to be a green meadow across the street where the children would play on the sandy hills; now, however, these have been built over. Margot loved to pull Anne on a little sledge. In the (back)yard, the children would play with water in an old metal bucket. The Franks were a tolerant family, and Anne and Margot would play with children from various backgrounds: Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. Margot attended a friend’s Communion celebration. When the Franks celebrate Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish winter festival, neighbouring children would join in. Whenever Anne’s cousins, Stephan Elias (1921-1980, hereafter referred to as Stephan) and Bernhard ‘Buddy’ Elias (born in 1925, hereafter referred to as Buddy), visited, the children would be spoiled and the house would be full of toys.

Some defended the Jews that had fought in the German army during WWI. In 1932, the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten (National League of Jewish Front Soldiers) handed the German president Paul Ludwig Hans von Beneckendorf und von Hindenburg (1847-1934, hereafter referred to as Hindenburg) the book Die jüdischen Gefallenen des Deutschen Heeres, der deutschen Marine und der deutschen Schutstruppen 1914-1918. Ein Gedenkbuch. (Jewish soldiers killed in action serving the German army, the German navy and the German defence troops 1914-1918. A memorial book.). ³⁵ This, however, did not decrease anti-Semitism: ‘I [Otto] remember that even in 1932, SA troops would march by singing: ‘When Jewish blood splashes off the knife’. ³⁶ Otto and Edith were burdened by financial problems and the antagonistic atmosphere; however, yet they wanted their children to 3 live a care-free life as much as possible. Their mother would regularly take Anne and Margot shopping in the Frankfurt am Main city centre. Edith would buy clothes for her children, who always looked impeccable. Edith once bought a beautiful, white fur coat for Anne and a pair of patent-leather shoes for Margot. After shopping, they often went to a café on Hauptwache in the centre of Frankfurt am Main. Edith would treat Anne and Margot to Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake). Edith and Otto must have noticed the anti-Semitic slogans chalked on the shop windows, indicating the doom at hand.

On 31 July 1932, fourteen million German citizens voted for Hitler, which made his national-socialist party, the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), the largest party in the new Reichstag parliament. ³⁷ On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg appointed Hitler as the Reichskanzler (national chancellor), heralding the end of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933).

Otto about Hitler: ‘We [Otto and Edith] were sitting around the table listening to the radio. Then came the news that Hitler had become Chancellor. This was followed by a report of the SA torch lit procession in Berlin and we could hear the screaming and cheering. Hitler ended his speech with the words, “Just give me four years.” Our host then said enthusiastically: “Let’s see what that man can do!” I was speechless, my wife stunned.’ ³⁸ On 13 March 1933, the Nazis celebrated their victory in the city hall (Römer) at Römerberg. Swastika flags waved on the porch. Following the takeover by the Nazis, the Jewish mayor, Ludwig Landmann (1868-1945), fled to Berlin and the Nazis instated their own front man. In Anne’s times, Römerberg was the city’s central square, with medieval buildings and a city hall. Hitler eliminated his opponents and outlawed the Jews.

Soon after the takeover, the SA (Sturmabteilung, the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party) barricaded the entrances of Jewish businesses. Otto’s (Jewish) family bank was greatly affected by the national- socialist rule and, before long, Otto was unable to afford the rent of 24 Ganghoferstrasse. ³⁹ He and his family temporarily moved in with his mother, Alice, on Mertonstrasse. ⁴⁰ The urban villa was in the Westend 3 area, close to the synagogue. This was the house in which Otto grew up, and he lived there with his family from late March 1933 to July 1933.

Friedrich Krebs (1894-1961), Frankfurt’s new mayor, ⁴¹ coordinated the dismantling of Jewish shops and the removal of all Jewish doctors, lawyers, and any other Jewish entrepreneurs, from their posts. The leading Jewish-owned department store Tietz, ⁴² founded by Hermann Tietz (1837-1907), had branches in all major European cities but, by Nazi order, the Dresdner Bank appointed Georg Karg (1888-1972) as the new director of the enterprise, replacing the Jewish-owned Tietz by Hertie-Warenhausunternehmen. Jews were banned from these ‘Aryanised’ businesses.

On 1 April 1933, Nazi students and the SA occupied the University of Frankfurt. With the help of these students, Jewish professors and students were expelled from university.

The University of Frankfurt (Goethe-Universität, Senckenberganlage 31) ⁴³ had been founded in 1914. Its campus was located near to Alice’s home on Mertonstrasse. ‘Shortly after Hitler seized power, the national-socialists expelled from the universities all Jewish and any opposing scientists and students. The University of Frankfurt was particularly adversely affected by these enforcements: teaching permissions of 100 Jewish scientists were withdrawn in the spring of 1933; one-third of all professors were forced to step down; another 16 teachers voluntarily left their posts out of political conviction; many students were expelled from the university and forced to give up their studies. Frankfurt’s internationally renowned, liberal university was turned into a ‘well-aligned’ educational institution.’ ⁴⁴ The Nazis were very influential in the construction industry; project managers and contractors were eager to accept Nazi projects. In 1930, IG Farben (Interessen Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft) moved into a monumental building at 1 Grüneburgplatz, built in the style of the New Objectivity.

IG Farben was a large chemical concern that produced Zyklon B, which would be used by the Nazis to kill millions of Jews in Eastern European extermination camps ten years later.

The Nazis implemented restrictions that isolated Jews from society. The school board refuse to enrol Anne in pre-school because she was Jewish. Margot attended the Varrentrapp school, where she had to sit apart from her non-Jewish classmates; she was seven at the time. Many Jews left Frankfurt am Main after the Nazis had assumed power. The sculptor Benno Elkan (1877-1960), for example, emigrated from Frankfurt am Main to London. ⁴⁵ After the war, Otto refers to this period in a letter: ‘When many of my fellow Germans changed into multitudes of nationalist, cruel, anti-Semitic criminals, I had to draw the obvious conclusion and, although I was very much aggrieved by it, I realised that Germany was not the only place in the world and left my country for good.’ ⁴⁶ The family banking business continued to decline, and Otto wanted to prevent his property from falling into the hands of the Nazis. He also wanted to protect his wife and children from Hitler’s violence.

Otto aimed for Amsterdam because he had some important contacts there. In 1933, Otto’s brother-in-law Erich offered him the opportunity to set up a business in the Netherlands, which is why he did not want to leave for Switzerland, London or the United States.

Apparently, Otto did not want to send his children to Palestine either. The Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden ⁴⁷ was a society that supported Jews who wanted to emigrate and Jewish children who wanted to move to Palestine. Alice left 4 Mertonstrasse and moved to Basel. She had a difficult time bidding farewell to 4 Mertonstrasse, having lived there for thirty years.

In Frankfurt am Main, Anne’s place of birth, I stayed in Hotel National near the Hauptbahnhof central station, and strolled along many of these places that are reminiscent of Anne.

When Anne was born, approximately 540,000 people lived in Frankfurt am Main, including 30,000 Jews. Frankfurt am Main had the second largest population of Jews in Germany, after Berlin. Three 3 out of four Jews were murdered during WWII, including Anne. There were other communities that also suffered greatly under the Nazi regime, such as the gypsies. Survivors had not just lost their family, but also their homes and possessions. Otto, the only survivor amongst the people hiding in the Annex, lost his wife and children.

The assassination of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath (1909- 1938) on 7 November 1938 in Paris, allegedly committed by the 17 year old Polish Jew Herschel Grynszpan (1921-1942), was a ‘good’ excuse for the Nazis to destroy Jewish property in Frankfurt am Main during the Reichskristallnacht (8-9 November 1938). The Westend Synagogue was damaged by a fire, and all other Frankfurt synagogues were completely destroyed by the Nazis.

Anne was nine at the time, leading a care-free life at Merwedeplein, oblivious of the horrors going on in her home town. The Nazis did not just damage Jewish properties in Frankfurt am Main, but throughout Germany. They ransacked over 1,600 German synagogues. Even the Museum Jüdischer Altertümer was destroyed and looted by gangs. The Gestapo deported the liberal rabbi of the Westend Synagogue, Georg Salzberger (1882-1975), ⁴⁸ to the Dachau concentration camp. Apparently, he was released: he emigrated to the UK in 1939. The Nazis also confiscated Jewish property. The so- called Judenvertrag that took effect on 3 April 1939 compelled Jews to sell their property for next to nothing, and they were held liable for the damage the Nazis had done. The Nazis enjoyed humiliating the Jewish community. Otto’s possessions were relatively safe because he had moved to Amsterdam and was running a business at 400 Singel.

Throughout WWII, the Westend Synagogue served as a furniture storage for the citizens of Frankfurt. Anne was already hiding in the Annex when British bombs destroyed Frankfurt am Main’s medieval city centre on 22 March 1944. The Westend Synagogue was severely damaged during this air raid, and the Hauptwache ⁴⁹ and the Klinik des Vaterländischen Frauenvereins in der Eschenheimer Anlage ⁵⁰ did not remain unharmed either. The Untermainbrücke ‘arose from its ashes’ following the war.

Nothing is left of the old medieval town that Anne would stroll through as a very young child. Many Jewish monuments have also disappeared for good. Some of the old buildings, such as the baroque café on Hauptwache, were reconstructed after WWII. Because of its strategic location at the river Main, Frankfurt managed to recuperate quickly. It is now a modern city and an important financial centre. The horizon is dominated by tall skyscrapers with lots of glass and steel; because of these buildings, Frankfurt am Main is sometimes referred to as Europe’s Manhattan. Old and new buildings are scattered randomly across the map in an architectural chaos. The clear medieval street plan no longer exists.

After the war, the Jüdische Betreuungsstelle der Stadt Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt Municipal Care for the Jews) ⁵¹ took care of the survivors. In 1945, four hundred of them returned to Frankfurt. On 9 November 1946, the Jews remembered their dead on the Jewish cemetery at 10 Rat-Beil-Strasse. ⁵² Only a handful of monuments to the rich, pre-war Jewish life have survived up to the present. For example, the Jewish cemetery at 238 Eckenheimer Landstrasse, ⁵³ founded in 1928, commemorates the 12,000 Jewish citizens of Frankfurt who, like Ann, died during the war, as does the cemetery on Rat-Beil-Straße.

The municipality did not attempt to restore the Westend Synagogue directly after WWII: there was a lack of finances as a result of the war and a lack of faith in the re-emergence of a flourishing Jewish community after the Holocaust. The first post-war religious function in the synagogue was held on 12 September 1945. The sermon was given by Rabbi Leopold Neuhaus (1879-1954), a Theresienstadt survivor. However, many Jews no longer felt at home in Frankfurt am Main, and ended up leaving for the United States and Israel. By 1949, over 5,000 Eastern European Jews had arrived in Frankfurt because they were no longer able to thrive in their own country.

On 6 September 1950, the Westend Synagogue was re- consecrated and, during the 1989-1994 restorations, many original 3 building elements were revealed. The current appearance of the synagogue is very similar to what the Franks would have seen.

Frankfurt University also was heavily damaged during WWII. ⁵⁴ It was rebuilt after the war and re-emerged as a major, international academic centre. The university has not allowed the Holocaust to pass into oblivion. In 2011, the historian Wolfgang Benz (born in 1941) delivered a lecture at the university’s Westend campus—the former premises of IG Farben at 1 Grüneburgplatz—which centred on national-socialist propaganda.

In spite of the heavy bombings on Frankfurt am Main by the allied forces, the IG Farben building survived the war. Since 2000, the Fritz Bauer Institute has been established in this former mass-murder plant. ‘The Fritz Bauer Institute is an interdisciplinary, independent research, documentation and educational organisation that studies the history of national-socialist mass crimes in general and the Holocaust in particular, as well as its impact up to the present. The institute is located in the IG Farben building on the Westend Campus of the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.’ ⁵⁵ A memorial plate at the entrance of the former plant states: ‘This building was designed by the architect Hans Poelzig [(1869-1936)] and erected between 1928 to 1931 as the headquarters of IG Farben Industries. Between 1933 and 1945, as one of the largest chemical concerns in the world, the company increasingly put its scientific knowledge and production technologies into the service of war preparations and the National Socialist regime of terror. From 1942 to 1945, IG Farben, together with the SS, maintained the concentration camp at Buna-Monowitz adjacent to the IG Farben factory at Auschwitz. Of the ten thousand prisoners made to work for the company there, most were murdered. In the Nazi extermination camps many hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Jews, were killed by Zyklon B gas, which was sold by an IG Farben company. From 1945 the building was the seat of the American military government and the High Commissioner for Germany. On 19 September 1945, the State of Hesse was proclaimed here. From 1952 to 1995 the building was the headquarters of the 5 th Corps of US Army. Aware of the history of the 3 building, the State of Hesse acquired it in 1996 for the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. In the future it will be used for teaching and research. Nobody can withdraw from the history of one's people. One should know that the past must not be based on forgetting else it returns and becomes the present.’ Visitors can take an architectural tour of this bleak building. ⁵⁶ Anne’s home at 307 Marbachweg also survived WWII. The Franks lived there until late March 1931. When I arrived there, I noticed that, since the old photographs were taken, the urban villa has hardly changed: it is easy to recognise the windows with their green shutters and the gabled roof. The birch tree in front of the 307 Marbachweg residence has grown tremendously since Anne’s times, and now occupies a prominent place in the garden. Anne would look out on a much smaller tree.

One of the current residents allowed me to take photographs outside the building. For security reasons, however, he preferred not to have any pictures taken in the courtyard or inside the house. Of course, I thanked him and respected his wishes. The 307 Marbachweg residence does not have a plate commemorating Anne. She used to have a beautiful view from the balcony, which is now obstructed by cars, fences and the foliage of a tree.

In Frankfurt am Main, the Holocaust is still being studied, and some of the younger citizens are interested in Anne and her legacy. The Jugendbegegnungsstätte Anne Frank e.V youth group ⁵⁷ is located in the Dornbusch district, half a mile from Marbachweg and a mile from Ganghoferstrasse. ⁵⁸ Fortunately, the urban villa at 24 Ganghoferstrasse also survived the war: the suburb was never bombed. The Dornbusch district is situated in the north of Frankfurt am Main. Anne lived there from late March 1931 to late March 1933. Most of the buildings in this street still breathe a thirties atmosphere. The upper floor of 24 Ganghoferstrasse allows a nice view of the street and its urban villas. I like such houses; their individual architecture, the history of their residents and the fact that they are not all the same like terraced 3 houses. I simply ignore the cars, asphalt road, street lighting and road marks that remind me of the present.

I was received on a friendly note by the current residents of 24 Ganghoferstrasse. I rang the doorbell and was lucky to find them home because the letter I had sent them through TNT (currently PostNL) came back to me: the villa has multiple inhabitants and I had not directed my letter to a particular person. The current residents informed me that 24 Ganghoferstrasse is visited regularly by students and journalists who are interested in Anne’s story.

I asked the inhabitants whether they recognised the place in the old photo that shows Anne and her sister playing with one of their friends. They did, and enthusiastically pointed me to their backyard. When I took a current photograph of the backyard from the same perspective, I could feel the emptiness Anne left behind.

I appreciate the interest the inhabitants of 24 Ganghoferstrasse take in the history of their home and its previous residents; it makes me feel supported in my project. There is more overgrowth at the back of the house now, and most of the paving stones have made way for a lawn. The sandpit Anne used to play in has disappeared from the backyard. The outline of neighbours’ house is still partly the same, although the open veranda is now a closed veranda.

Three and a half miles south of 24 Ganghoferstrasse was 4 Jordanstrasse where the Franks stayed with Otto’s mother Alice from late March 1933 to July 1933. It is not easy to find 4 Jordanstrasse because the street names changed after WWII. From 1917 through to 1933, Jordanstrasse was known as Mertonstrasse, a name which was then changed to Dantestrasse. Strangely enough, the current Jordanstrasse starts with a number 6. The friendly owner of a café in the current Jordanstrasse handed me an old black-and-white photograph showing the beautiful stately mansions of the 1930 Jordanstrasse. Alice’s home was also in this street: it had a large dome and was surrounded by lush overgrowth. Unfortunately, her former house in Jordanstrasse was demolished following WWII. The neighbourhood’s old atmosphere is completely gone.

After WWII, some of Frankfurts’ inhabitants blamed the Jews for the terrors of the war. Gradually, however, when people were able to look back on the war more objectively, they became a little more understanding towards the Jews.

In 1957, 2,000 teenagers travelled from Hamburg to Bergen- Belsen to commemorate Anne’s death. The memorial plate on the façade of 24 Ganghoferstrasse was placed on their initiative. Its inscription reads: ‘This used to be Anne Frank’s house (born on 12/06/1929 in Frankfurt A. Main). She became a victim of the national-socialist persecution and died in the Bergen-Belsen KZ-Lager in 1945. Her life and death—our obligation. The youth of Frankfurt.’ ⁵⁹ There was a memorial service in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt in the same year. ⁶⁰ The plate at 24 Ganghoferstrasse is the only sign I have seen on the former residences of Anne in Frankfurt am Main that commemorates her as a war victim. Although Frankfurt am Main does show some interest in her, there is a noticeable lack of a prominent statue of Anne in the centre of her place of birth.

There are, however, some general references to the war in the city centre. The commemorative plaque on Römerberg reads: ‘In this place, on 10 May 1933, national-socialist students burnt the books of literary authors, scientists, essayists and philosophers.’ The edge of the plaque reads: ‘This was merely a prelude, for where people burn books, people will eventually burn people.’ ⁶¹ This is a quote from Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). The books burnt by the Nazis had been written by Jewish authors and social critics, such as Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) and Bertold Brecht (1898- 1956).

There are a few references to Anne outside of the city centre, such as the Anne Frank School ⁶² and the Anne Frank Strasse. The Jewish Monument at Battonnstrasse commemorates the Jewish inhabitants of Frankfurt am Main who were murdered, including Anne. ⁶³ It is located next to the former synagogue that was destroyed during Kristallnacht in 1938. The Historic Museum in Frankfurt am Main 4 organised exhibitions about Anne. The exhibition Anne Frank in the World, 1929-1945 took place in the Paulskirche ⁶⁴ in 1985. ⁶⁵ In 1992, the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt am Main (14/15 Untermainkai) ⁶⁶ opened the Museum Judengasse, which exhibits the history of Judaism in Frankfurt am Main and commemorates the Jewish inhabitants of Frankfurt who were killed by the Nazis. In 2008, I visited a special photographic exhibition Special Express to Death: Deportation on the German National Railway about the role the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) played in transporting Jews and gypsies to the concentration camps. Anne is listed in the Gedenkbuch Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945 (Memorial Book: Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National-Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933-1945) by the German Federal Archives ⁶⁷ that accompanied the exhibition.

Anne’s photograph was probably not on display in this exhibition since she was not deported directly from Germany to the extermination camps in the east. When she was deported from the Westerbork camp to Auschwitz, however, she will have been transferred onto the German National Railway once she had crossed the German border.

The exhibition also displayed many children of Anne’s age group who had lived in Germany or had fled to France and who were killed by the Nazis. Steffi Bernheim, for example, was born on 11 January 1930 in Berlin. The Bernheims fled Germany and went to live in Paris, France, on 60 Rue de Provence. Steffi was arrested during a large-scale razzia and sent to Auschwitz on transport 23 on 24 August 1942, where she joined her mother, who had been imprisoned earlier.

Her father, Walter, and brother, Norbert, followed on transport 57 on 18 July 1943. ⁶⁸ This family’s fate is no less tragic than that of the Franks.

I experience my environment best when I walk. I ended up walking many miles to visit Anne’s locations. In spite of my hiking shoes, I had blisters on my feet. The current residents of 24 Ganghoferstrasse were considerate enough to offer me a ride back to 4 my hotel near Frankfurt central station, where I could enjoy a good night’s sleep.

¹ Source: (various) labels from the Kölner Hof hotel dated around 1900 and containing anti-Semitic texts. Archives of the Jewish Historical Museum , inventory no. 00004698.

² http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Frank/All-people/Otto-Frank/. 

³‘ Wie die Mehrheit der Deutschen, reagierten die Juden auf die Kriegserklärungen im August 1914 mit vaterländischer Begeisterung zu machen.’ From: Rachel Heuberger and Helgo Krohn. Hinaus aus dem ghetto…Juden in Frankfurt am Main 1800-1950 [Out of the Ghetto: Jews in Frankfurt am Main 1800-1950] (Frankfurt am Main, 1988), p. 129.

⁴‘ An die deutschen Juden! In schicksalsernster Stunde ruft das Vaterland seine Söhne unter die Fahnen. Dass jeder deutsche Jude zu den Opfern an Gut und Blut bereit ist, die die Pflicht erheischt, ist selbstverständlich. Glaubensgenossen! Wir rufen Euch auf, über dass Mass der Pflicht hinaus Eure Kräfte dem Vaterlande nu widmen! Eilet freiwillig zu den Fahnen! Ihr alle –Männer und Frauen- stellet Euch durch persönliche Hilfeleistung jeder Art und durch Hergabe von Geld und Gut in den Dienst der Vaterlandes! Berlin, den 1. August 1914.’ From: Rachel Heuberger en Helgo Krohn. Hinaus aus dem ghetto…Juden in Frankfurt am Main 1800-1950 (Frankfurt am Main, 1988), p. 130.

⁵ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 27. Original German edition: Das Mädchen Anne Frank. Die Biographie . English edition: Anne Frank. The Biography (Macmillan, 2013).

⁶ Max C. van der Glas, email dated 22 December 2010.

⁷ Rachel Heuberger and Helgo Krohn. Hinaus aus dem ghetto…Juden in Frankfurt am Main 1800-1950 (Frankfurt am Main, 1988), p. 147.

⁸ http://www.freebase.com/view/en/herbert_frank .

⁹ http://www.freebase.com/view/m/073jm1t .

¹⁰ Some authors describe Otto as a born banker. ‘Otto was de enige van zijn broers die zich interesseerde voor de bankzaken.’ [Otto was the only one amongst his brothers who was interested in banking.] From: Hans Ulrich, Wie was Anne Frank? Haar leven, het Achterhuis en haar dood (Laren, 2010), p. 27. English edition: Who was Anne Frank: Her Life, the Secret Annex and her Death. (Verbum, 2011).

¹¹ The Diaries , 14 October 1942.

¹² 604 Keizersgracht, see http://monumentenregister.cultureelerfgoed.nl/ .

¹³ ‘Otto did not marry Edith because of her dowry.’ Buddy Elias, email dated 30 December 2010.

¹⁴ Cor Suijk (born in 1924, hereafter referred to as Cor) is the former director of the Anne Frank Stichting. In the beginning of the 1980s, he received four original pages from The Diaries from Otto’s inheritance in which Anne states that Otto never loved Edith much, because he could not forget his first love whose parents would not let her marry him. Otto wanted Cor to receive these papers after his death. Insiders already knew about these pages from the A version of Anne’s diary. These four pages, however, were part of the rewritten (B-)version by Anne, which she planned to publish after the war. 4 Otto Frank, who passed away in 1980, wanted to make these extracts public after his demise. The NIOD added a note to the 8 February 1944 entry of Anne’s diary: ‘In the 47 lines omitted here [the four retrieved pages] Anne Frank gave an extremely unkind [which is incorrect, Anne shows empathy for her mother] and partly unfair picture [also incorrect, Anne describes her parents’ marriage as not characterised by real passion but by correctitude] of her parents’ marriage. At the request of the Frank family this passage has been deleted.’ From: De Dagboeken van Anne Frank [The Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition.] Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (Amsterdam, 1990), p. 499. A nasty quarrel ensued. According to Cor (email dated 13 January 2011), various sources, e.g. the NRC national paper 13 March 2001 issue, incorrectly stated that he had sold the retrieved pages written by Anne Frank to the NIOD. ‘ When, after a long, antagonistic row between the NIOD, the Anne Frank House and the Anne Frank Fonds about my possession of the pages, the government prosecutor concluded after thorough investigation that I was the legal owner, I donated the pages to the NIOD. Three months later, the Dutch government, as a token of appreciation, decided to support my educational institute in the United States [ www.c-hef.org ] with a considerable amount of money.’ The Anne Frank Fonds is of the opinion that it holds the rights to the diaries. The missing pages were published in The Diary of Anne Frank: the Critical Edition by the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (1st Dutch ed. Amsterdam 1986, 1st English ed. New York 1989).

¹⁵ The Diaries , 8 February 1944.

¹⁶ http://www.freebase.com/view/m/073j4gd .

¹⁷ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 23.

¹⁸ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 23. After WWI, Frankfurt am Main expanded and new districts were built, such as Bergen-Enkheim and Frankfurter Berg.

¹⁹ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 23.

²⁰ http://juedischesmuseum.de/museumsgeschichte.html?&L=1 .

²¹ Foods prepared according to Jewish dietary law.

²² The exact location of this hospital ‘of the fatherland’s women’s association’ could not be traced: it was destroyed during WWII. Buddy Elias (email 30 December 2010): ‘Yes as much as I know Anne was born in that Klinik. Address unknown to me.’

²³ The Diaries , 8 May 1944.

²⁴ http://www.bnaibrith-amsterdam.org/ .

²⁵ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 24. 26 https://www.uzh.ch/khist/static/Online_Docs/100_Jahre_Westend_Synagoge_100_a ni.pdf .

²⁷ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 24.

²⁸ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 24. Some others doubt whether the Franks attended the Westend Synagogue. ‘Ob Familie Frank die Westendsynagoge besuchte weiss ich nicht. Auf jeden Fall war die 4 Westendsynagoge jedoch seit Ihrer Gründung bis zur Progromnacht eine Liberale Synagoge. Erst nach dem 2. Weltkrieg wird sie als orthodoxe Synagoge benutzt (…)’. [I do not know whether the Franks attended the Westend Synagogue. In any case, the Westend Synagogue was a liberal synagogue from its establishment up to the night of the Pogrom. Only after the Second World War did it become an orthodox synagogue (...)’] Email from Rachel Heuberger, Manager Hebraica and Judaica Collection, Frankfurt university library, dated 27 June 2010.

²⁹ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 25.

³⁰ http://www.freebase.com/view/en/herbert_frank .

³¹ http://www.freebase.com/view/en/gertrud_naumann .

³² Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 33.

³³ http://ludwigrichterschule.de/2009/ (German only). According to Mr. Erhard Claudy (email dated 24 June 2011) the Ludwig-Richter Schule in Frankfurt am Main still owns a poor quality photograph with Margot Frank on it.

³⁴ http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Frank/Life-in-Germany/Happy-years/ .

³⁵ The ‘Bund jüdischer Soldaten’ (RjF) was banned by the Nazis in 1938: http://www.bundjuedischersoldaten-online.com/39994.html (German only)

³⁶ http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Frank/Life-in-Germany/Crisis-and-anti- Semitism/

³⁷ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_July_1932

³⁸ http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Frank/Life-in-Germany/Crisis-and-anti- Semitism/

³⁹ http://www.frankfurt1933-1945.de (German only)

⁴⁰ Melissa Müller refers to this street as the Mertoustrasse (incorrect spelling) Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998) p. 36.

⁴¹ http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Krebs_(Politiker) (German only).

⁴² http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/HERTIE-WARENUND- KAUFHAUS-GMBH-company-History.html .

⁴³ Translated from German content on: http://www2.uni-frankfurt.de/38072330/geschichte (German only, an English summary can be found at http://www2.uni-frankfurt.de/43281596/history).

⁴⁴ http://www2.uni-frankfurt.de/38072330/geschichte (German only, an English summary can be found at http://www2.uni-frankfurt.de/43281596/history).

⁴⁵ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Landmann .

⁴⁶ http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Frank/Life-in-Germany/Emigration-plans/ .

⁴⁷ http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206371.pdf .

⁴⁸ Additional information on Georg Salzberger can be found on http://www.judengasse.de/ehtml/P147.htm (German only).

⁴⁹ http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Tijdlijn/#!/en/Subsites/Timeline/World- War-Two-1939-1945/The-Arrest/1945/The-ruins-of-the-Hauptwache-the-main- po lice - s tati o n - i n - Fr a n k f u r t - a m - Ma i n - A p rilM a y - 1945 - / .

⁵⁰ http://www.ffmhist.de/ffm33-45/portal01/portal01.php?ziel=t_hm_frank1 (German only).

⁵¹ http://www.ffmhist.de/ffm33-45/portal01/portal01.php?ziel=t_jm_hist_ab1945 (German only). 4

⁵² Rachel Heuberger and Helgo Krohn, Hinaus aus dem ghetto… Juden in Frankfurt am Main 1800-1950 [Out of the Ghetto: Jews in Frankfurt am Main 1800-1950] (Frankfurt am Main, 1988), p. 202.

⁵³ http://www.jg-ffm.de/index.php/juedische-friedhoefe (German only).

⁵⁴ http://www2.uni-frankfurt.de/38072330/geschichte (German only, an English summary can be found at http://www2.uni-frankfurt.de/43281596/history).

⁵⁵ http://www.fritz-bauer-institut.de (German only, a partial English version can be found at http://www.fritz-bauer-institut.de/institut.html?&L=1). 

⁵⁶ http://www.frankfurt-uehrungen.de/frankfurt_tour3_e.htm . 

⁵⁷ http://www.jbs-anne-frank.de/ (German only).

⁵⁸ http://www.jbs-anne-frank.de/ (German only).

⁵⁹ Translated from German content on: http://jd-f.de/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=10 (German only).

⁶⁰ http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Timeline/#!/en/Subsites/Timeline/Postwar- period-1945--present-day/Saved-from-Demolition/1957/Commemoration-of-Anne- Frank-in-Frankfurt-am-Main/ .

⁶¹ Translated from German: http://www.stadtgeschichte-ffm.de/service/gedenktafeln/buecherverbrennung.html (German only).

⁶² http://www.anne-frank-schule-frankfurt.de/ (German only).

⁶³ http://www.jg-ffm.de/index.php/juedische-friedhoefe (German only).

⁶⁴ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul%27s_Church,_Frankfurt_am_Main .

⁶⁵ http://www.historisches-museum.frankfurt.de/index.php?article_id=73&clang=0 (German only).

⁶⁶ http://juedischesmuseum.de/startseite.html?&L=1 .

⁶⁷ h ttp://ww w . b un desar c h i v .de/ g eden k b u c h /i n de x .h t m l.e n .

⁶⁸ Information leaflet Special Express to Death. Deportation on the German National Railway .

AACHEN

Whilst Otto was setting up his business in Amsterdam in July of 1933, Anne, Margot and their mother departed for Aachen by train from the Centralbahnhof in Frankfurt am Main. Anne would never again see Frankfurt am Main, the city where she was born. Her short story Paula’s Flight mentions the ‘Frankfurt a/M central station’. ¹ In an interview she gave shortly before she died, Gertrud, the girl who lived next door to Anne in Frankfurt am Main, said wistfully: ‘I would have loved to hold Anne in my arms once more after she arrived in the Netherlands. I used to change her diapers when she was little, feed her and play with her. I was attached to her and Margot, to the entire family and their friends and acquaintances. Actually, the Franks did not really want to go to the Netherlands. But what else could they do? I knew the Franks and loved them dearly and could never forget them.’ ² Aachen was a ready choice; Edith’s family was from Aachen. Abraham Holländer (1860-1928) (hereafter referred to as Abraham) ³, Rosa’s husband and Anne’s grandfather, relocated to Aachen in 1890 and began a scrapyard on Grünen Weg. Currently, this is a large industrial area. Anne’s other grandmother, Alice, was from Aachen as well. Anne’s grandmothers may have met each other at an early stage. Abraham passed away in 1928, approximately a year before Anne was born. During Anne’s residence in Frankfurt, she stayed with Rosa, who lived in a stately detached home they had purchased at 5 Liebfrauenstrasse (currently 5 Elsa-Brändström-Strasse) ⁴, the same house where Edith was born. Although the Jewish community in Aachen supported each other, Rosa was going through a difficult period. The Holländers were forced to sell the house on 5 Liebfrauenstrasse due to financial reasons in 1932—four years after Abraham’s demise—with Otto and Edith’s consent since they were partial owners. Since then, Rosa and her three children had been living in rented apartments. ⁵ ⁶ 4 The Franks travelled by train to Aachen to celebrate Hanukkah ⁷ with Rosa. The very young Anne strolled along the streets of the ancient, medieval city centre with her mother and grandmother, where splendid monuments remind passers-by of its imperial past.

The Aachener Dom or Aachen Cathedral at Münsterplatz ⁸ has been an episcopal seat since 1930. Originally, the Dom was constructed as the royal church of Charlemagne (742/748-814). The central octagonal section of the Dom was built between 796 and 804 after Byzantine example. The Dom contains the relics Charlemagne brought from Jerusalem in 799: the Child Jesus’ swaddling cloth, Jesus Christ’s loincloth, the Virgin Mary’s dress and the cloth in which the severed head of John the Baptist is said to have been wrapped. The Dom also contains the vault of Charlemagne, King of the Franks (768-814), who was crowned emperor in 800. The Aachen cathedral became a pilgrimage site in the Dark Ages and is currently on the UNESCO world heritage list.

The Gothic city hall ( Katschhof ) ⁹ was built in the 14 th century and was renovated into a baroque urban palace in the 17 th and 18 th centuries. The city hall was damaged heavily during the great fires of 1656 and 1883. The northern façade is embellished with sculptures of 50 German rulers; 31 of these kings were coronated in Aachen.

Since 1825, a neo-classicist building on Theaterplatz houses the theatre. In 1920, the city of Aachen became responsible for the building’s maintenance. Many renowned artists worked in Aachen and began their career here, such as conductor Leo Blech (1871-1958).

In the evening of 9 November 1938 (Kristallnacht), the Nazis watched Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi’s (1813-1901) opera Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) at the Aachen Municipal Theatre on Theaterplatz—a restricted area for Jews at the time—on the occasion of Hitler’s unsuccessful coup of 9 November 1923.

The Jewish community would meet in the synagogue (on the then Promenadenstraße; currently 23 Synagogenplatz), founded in 1862 and situated only a mile from Pastorplatz. There were pinnacles on both front corners. The sunlight entered the spacious hall through a large circular window high up in the building. The walls were 4 decorated with mosaics and ornaments. Above the entrance, there was an organ loft with space for the choir. The prayer area was divided in two by a wide aisle. On Jewish festival days, the men would wear hats whilst the women would be dressed elegantly. ¹⁰ This is the synagogue in which Otto and Edith were married.

After the prayers, visitors would leave the synagogue through its main entrance, accessible through a wrought iron gate decorated with Stars of David. Children used the narrow path around the synagogue to release their excess energy. ¹¹ Next to the synagogue were the other Jewish community buildings: the administrative office, a meeting facility, a youth centre, space reserved for the Ostjuden and the caretaker’s residence.

After Hitler’s takeover on 30 January 1933, the hatred of Jews rose in Aachen and throughout Germany. Margot had already moved to the Amsterdam Merwedeplein in December 1933. A memorial plate in Aachen states that Anne stayed with her grandmother Rosa on Monheimsallee from July 1933 through to January 1934, ¹² only a short walk from the Town Hall and market. Anne stayed with Rosa until February of 1934. ¹³ The following year, Anne went to stay with her grandmother at 1 Pastorplatz, where Rosa rented a terraced house with several rooms along with her sons Walter and Julius, Anne’s uncles. About nine households lived at 1 Pastorplatz at that time. ¹⁴ On Saturday 1 April 1933, the general boycott of Jewish businesses in Germany took effect in Aachen as well. The windows of Jewish shops were plastered with Stars of David by the SA. They also wrote slogans on Jewish lawyers and doctors’ practices, such as ‘Jews, go to hell!’, ‘Do not purchase from Jews!’ and ‘Death to the Jews!’. ¹⁵ The Nazis prohibited Jews from holding posts at the university. The SA molested Jews on Adalbertstrasse—less than half a mile from Monheimsallee and Pastorplatz. Rosa will have done everything to protect her grandchild from these terrors.

A month before they instated the general boycott on Jewish businesses, the Nazis had established their first concentration camp in Dachau. In spite of this extreme hostility against their people, many 5 Jews in Aachen and throughout Germany kept their faith in their native country.

On 16 December 1934, the magazine of the Jewish community in Aachen (Jüdischen Gemeinde Aachen) stated: ‘We strive for a second emancipation and have faith in this, because we believe in a positive development and are convinced that such development will take place by historical-psychological necessity (…).’ ¹⁶ So many Jews were killed by the Nazis during WWII, however, that after the war many surviving Jews decided to abandon Germany for good and emigrate, such as to Israel (starting from 1948) or the United States, for example.

Nazi leaders formally affirmed the hostile attitude towards Jews by introducing the Nuremberg racial laws on 15 September 1935, which were intended to establish whether someone was Jewish or a pure-blooded Aryan. Jews were deprived of all civil rights, and they were not allowed to interact (or have sexual intercourse) with non- Jewish persons. To the Jews, these were extremely distressful measures since they had actively supported German society and had fought for Germany during WWI. Many Jews even lost their lives fighting for Germany in WWI.

This anti-Jew policy was intended to make the Jews leave Germany by their own ‘free’ will. Between 1 January 1933 and 30 September 1935, 158 of the 1,345 Jews residing in Aachen left the city, 58 leaving to live in the Netherlands. ¹⁷ A silent march in protest of Nazi violence, carried out in 1937, did not lead to any improvement.

During Kristallnacht in 1938, mobs destroyed the synagogue on the then Promenadenstraße (currently 23 Synagogenplatz). In 1941, the Nazis began deporting Jews to the extermination camps in the East. Significantly, 700 Jews from Aachen were murdered there, including the head of the local Jewish community, Dr Adolf Rosenthal (1873-1944) ¹⁸, who was killed in Auschwitz. ¹⁹ Aachen is situated on the border of Germany, in its western-most area, and was heavily affected by the war. In July of 1941, the first of a series of five air raids on Aachen destroyed most of its city centre.

The city was liberated by the Americans on 21 October 1944, after six weeks of heavy fighting. In 1946, the American occupation was replaced by a Belgian one. Aachen had almost 11,000 inhabitants at that time. A large number of war criminals—who had been responsible for murdering Jewish inhabitants of Aachen—escaped punishment. Not the victims but the perpetrators were being protected. The chief offenders of the Aachen pogrom faced trial on 12 June, 1947, with many of them acquitted of their charges. The national- socialist wartime mayor also got off scot-free. ²⁰ Following the war, many of those who were Nazi leaders during the war obtained lucrative posts in the German government or elsewhere in the world.

A new Aachen city centre was thrown up after the war, which reconstructed most of the old buildings. Many of the original buildings in the centre that were reminiscent of the rich, Jewish life have been lost forever. The city hall’s Krönungssaal still contains 19 th century frescoes by Alfred Rethel (1816-1859) and copies of regalia and of the Gothic and Baroque interior. The new Aachen theatre stages operas, plays, dance performances and concerts. The Roman hot springs have been reinstated, and are now used as healing baths.

Some of the buildings where Anne used to live survived the war. The urban villa at 5 Liebfrauenstrasse (renamed 5 Elsa-Brändström- Strasse in 1937) was damaged heavily during an air raid but was restored after WWII. Rosa’s place at 42-44 Monheimsallee did not make it through the war and was replaced by a lawn in a park.

A monument next to the new synagogue commemorates the destruction of the old one (currently 23 Synagogenplatz). The Jewish community has shrunk considerably, and now comprises only 500 members. Many people refuse to learn from history: Jews are still being harassed in many places, with Aachen no exception. There will always be frustrated people who take out their frustrations on minorities. The Aachen synagogue was plastered with swastikas in the night of 4 July 2011.

At 1 Pastorplatz, Stolpersteine (cobble stones) have been installed in the pavement in memory of Anne, Margot and Edith who died (i.e. were murdered) in Nazi concentration camps. ²¹ The brass plates were 5 made on the initiative of the Anne-Frank Grammar School in Aachen by the artist Günter Demnig (born in 1947) on the occasion of Anne’s 80 th birthday in 2009. Such monuments are slightly raised in comparison to other stones, and may cause one to trip, raising awareness of the surrounding buildings whose former residents were murdered by the Nazis. Stolpersteine were made for the Nazi victims: their name, as well as the date and place they were killed (mostly in concentration camps), are engraved on the Stolpersteine. ²² The area surrounding 1 Pastorplatz has become quite decrepit over the course of time. On a Sunday afternoon, I saw homeless people, worn-out benches and an old phone booth. There is a heavy iron gate in front of the building. An iron roll-down shutter serves to discourage burglars. The name plates indicate that a number of entrepreneurs are located at 1 Pastorplatz.

One may find various references to Anne in Aachen, such as public buildings named after her. Students of the Anne Frank Grammar School read her diary and have visited the Secret Annex in Amsterdam. ²³ On what would have been Anne Frank’s 80 th birthday in 2009, the Anne Frank Grammar School, the Aachen police force and the Volkshochschule Aachen, its general secondary school, participated in a day of projects on the theme of National Socialism. ²⁴ Plays based on The Diaries are being staged: in 2007, the Grenzlandtheater Aachen ²⁵ staged such a play for the Anne-Frank Grammar School. Although Anne’s memory is alive amongst the younger generation, there is no prominent statue of Anne anywhere in Aachen—as in Frankfurt am Main.

¹ Anne Frank Verhaaltjes, en gebeurtenissen uit het Achterhuis. Met de roman in wording Cady’s leven (Amsterdam, 2005), p. 70. English edition: Tales from the Secret Annex. Including her Unfinished Novel Cady’s Live (Halban Publishers, 2010).

² Carol Ann Lee. Anne Frank. Het leven van een jong meisje [The life of a Young Girl. The Definitive Biography] (Amsterdam, 2009), p. 71.

³ http://www.freebase.com/view/en/abraham_hollander .

⁴ Not to be confused with the current 5 Liebfrauenstrasse, Eschweiler, Germany.

⁵ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 88. Original German edition: Das Mädchen Anne Frank. Die Biographie . English edition: Anne Frank. The Biography (Macmillan, 2013).

⁶ Other sources state that Rosa lived on Monheimsallee since the death of her husband in 1928 ( http://www.wgdv.de/wege/monheimsallee.htm , (German only).

⁷ http://www.jhm.nl/cultuur-en-geschiedenis/woordenlijst/c/chanoeka (Dutch only), English summary on http://www.jhm.nl/culture-and-history/glossary/h/hanukkah

⁸ http://werelderfgoedfotos.nl/fotos/119-dom-van-aken.html .

⁹ http://www.aachen.de/EN/ts/140_museums/140_70.html .

¹⁰ Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen [Jews in Aachen] (Aachen, 1988), p. 125 (German only).

¹¹ Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988), p. 122 (German only).

¹² http://www.aachen.de/de/kultur_freizeit/pdf_kultur_freizeit/gedenktafeln.pdf .

¹³ An address book states that Rosa lived on Monheimsallee in 1934 (Email from the Stadtarchiv Aachen [Municipal Archives], 24 November 2010).

¹⁴ Emails from the Stadtarchiv Aachen [Municipal Archives], 23 November 2010 and 24 November 2010.

¹⁵ Original German slogans: ‘Juda verrecke!’, ‘Kauft nicht bei Juden!’ and ‘Juden den Tod!’ Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988), p. 34 (German only).

¹⁶ Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988), p. 51 (German only).

¹⁷ Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988), p. 51 (German only).

¹⁸ Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988) , p. 85 (German only).

¹⁹ http://www.holocaust.cz/en/victims/PERSON.ITI.596766 .

²⁰ Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988), p. 72 (German only).

²¹ Murder would imply an active act. In the case of the Jews, however, I still refer to this as murder.

²² http://www.stolpersteine.com/start.html .

²³ http://www.anne-frank-gymnasium.de/?page_id=6 (German only).

²⁴ http://www.vhs-aachen.de/ (German only). 5

²⁵ http://www.grenzlandtheater.de/ (German only).

AMSTERDAM

Following Hitler’s appointment as Reichskanzler (National Chancellor) on 30 January 1933, the first German Jews migrated to Amsterdam. Many of these refugees joined Het Nederlands Verbond voor Progressief Jodendom (The Dutch Association for Progressive Judaism). 1,2 Generally speaking, the Dutch were afraid German immigrants would make it more difficult for them to survive during the crisis, and so the German Jews were not always received with open arms. Some were jealous of the fact that these first German Jews rented houses in the Amsterdam Zuid area, immediately south of the city centre, which could not be afforded by some Dutch Jews. Many of the prejudices against German Jews pertained to their being wealthy and German, rather than Jewish. In the meantime, however, the Dutch government permitted German immigrants to take up residence in Amsterdam if they could afford the residence permit, as they were viewed as being economically self-sufficient and also would bring in money.

The Franks chose to come to Amsterdam. Since the 17 th century, the Netherlands had enjoyed a reputation of being a (relatively) tolerant country open to dissenters. There was, however, still a fair degree of discrimination against Jews and other social groups in the Netherlands during the 1930s—even though structural persecution of the Jews, such as in Germany, was unheard of as yet.

Otto had some important business relations in Amsterdam and was familiar with the Dutch language. Edith’s family had Dutch roots: their surname ‘Holländer’ bears witness to this. ³ Still, Edith would never really feel at home in the Netherlands.

Another reason for choosing Amsterdam was the long-standing presence of a Jewish community: approximately 10% of the Amsterdam population was Jewish at around 1930, amongst which liberal Jews were a minority.

Since Hitler’s takeover in 1933, an increasing number of liberal Jewish started living in the Rivierenbuurt area. The population of 5 German Jews was concentrated on Merwedeplein, which is located in the Rivierenbuurt area. Otto and Edith were undoubtedly aware of this newly constructed neighbourhood in Amsterdam Zuid.

Otto also wanted to come to Amsterdam because he could maintain his family there. Unlike in Germany, Jews were still allowed to own businesses in the Netherlands (as yet). In their native country, the Franks could certainly no longer build a private or professional life. Moreover, the Netherlands, like Switzerland, had managed to remain neutral during WWI. Many Jewish immigrants did not think the Netherlands would become involved in a potential war.

The triangular Merwedeplein is the centre of the Rivierenbuurt area in the south of Amsterdam. Its name ‘Rivierenbuurt’ refers to the wide, orderly lanes bearing the names of rivers in the Netherlands. The Rivierenbuurt is bordered by the Amstel at a walking distance towards the east and the north.

I followed the signs that read ‘Rivierenbuurt’ and took the S109 exit. There was an event at the RAI conference venue on Europaplein and I became stuck in a traffic jam. Since I was a stranger to the neighbourhood, I decided to ask a traffic policewoman for directions. Even though she lived in Amsterdam, she did not know where Merwedeplein was. I located Jekerstraat, which leads to Merwedeplein, on Google Maps. It was a Sunday, and I parked my car in the last vacant parking space on Merwedeplein, free of charge.

Starting from Merwedeplein, I asked the well-known football player, Wim Kieft (born in 1962), for directions, and a bit further on I asked another gentleman—who is of Anne’s generation—who turns out to have lived around the corner from where Anne lived.

Then I noticed a block of flats in the background and recognised the Wolkenkrabber apartment building from the old photographs, which, due to the wide-angle effect of old cameras, seems smaller in relation to its surroundings than in reality. The sun is shining and there is a bright blue sky. It is a quiet area with a few children playing outside.

It would eventually take me eight days to visit all of Anne’s locations in Amsterdam.

On my second day in Amsterdam, I forgot to put on my hiking shoes and, after a day’s walk, reached the Amsterdam Central Station limping heavily.

On my next outings, I took breaks more often, drank more and made sure I wore my hiking shoes, ensuring my ankles were supported and I could focus on taking photographs and looking around.

There was a lot of construction work going on during the period Edith and Otto came to Amsterdam—particularly the works related to Plan Zuid, the 1917 urban development plan by H. P. Berlage (1856- 1934, hereafter referred to as Berlage).

The Amsterdam working-class neighbourhoods dating from the 19 th century, such as De Pijp in Oud Zuid, contain long rows of small houses on narrow streets. In contrast, the Rivierenbuurt was mainly inhabited by middle-class families in more spacious houses around generous squares, public gardens and playground areas.

The Wolkenkrabber, a block of flats in the Rivierenbuurt, was designed by the versatile Jan Frederik Staal (1879-1940, hereafter referred to as Staal). This twelve-storeyed building—as remarkable a building today as it was back then—still dominates Merwedeplein. The building was constructed using a mixture of concrete, yellow bricks, steel and glass. Construction on the Wolkenkrabber and its 284 apartments began on 12 March 1929—even before Anne was born— and was completed in 1932. When the Franks had just moved to Merwedeplein in 1933, the finishings were still being worked on.

The Wolkenkrabber’s main entrance is located on Daniël Willinkplein—renamed Victorieplein in 1946. Its main entrance, staircase and lifts are located in the circular central area, made up of glass and steel. This area actually rises higher than the roof itself and is bordered on both sides by small balconies and large, horizontal windows with steel panes. The brick walls on both ends contain small, vertical windows. The uninterrupted gallery of first-floor balconies highlights the central entrance.

The walls of the buildings on Merwedeplein are typical of the Amsterdam School of Architecture, with protruding façades that have 5 been designed to form a unity. The buildings surrounding the Wolkenkrabber are noticeably lower than the apartment complex itself. The contrast emphasises the tower block’s height. In 2009, there was a sign on Victorieplein (formerly known as Daniël Willinkplein) commemorating the large-scale razzia on 30 June, 1940, and the deportation of Jews, for example, to extermination camp Auschwitz. On this square, right in front of the Wolkenkrabber, the Germans would round up Jews.

The ‘big’ kids would meet at the bicycle stand, currently Fysioplus on 2 Deltastraat, situated on the corner of the Wolkenkrabber.

‘Something amusing happened yesterday, I was passing the bicycle sheds when someone called out to me. I looked around and there was the nice-looking boy I met on the previous evening at Wilma’s home [Wilma de Jong, born 1926. She lived on 41-III Churchilllaan and Eva in Anne’s diaries is based on her character.] He came shyly towards me and introduced himself as Hello Silberberg [Helmuth ‘Hello’ Silberberg, 1926-2011]. ⁴ I was rather surprised and wondered what he wanted, but I didn’t have to wait long. He asked if I would allow him to accompany me to school. (…) Hello is sixteen [Anne was 13] and can tell all kinds of amusing stories.’ ⁵ Hello lived with his grandparents at 191-II Rooseveltlaan and was Anne’s third boyfriend, the previous ones being Sol ‘Sally’ Kim(m)el (born in 1928) and Lutz Peter Schiff (1926-1945).

Hello and Sally survived the war. Wilma de Jonge (1926-1943) ⁶ was gassed in Auschwitz on 10 September 1943, along with her mother and younger sister. Her older brother had already died in August 1942. Her father was murdered in Sobibor in April 1943. ⁷ Walking around Amsterdam-Zuid, in the vicinity of Lekstraat, for example, I noticed many Amsterdam School architectural elements, such as the protruding façades, the red bricks, curved walls, and façades adorned with sculptured natural stone.

The buildings on Deltastraat and the higher residential blocks on Merwedeplein were designed by Staal, ⁸ who is often said to belong to the Amsterdam School. Staal was a bit of an outsider, however: he 5 incorporated New Objectivity into his works—an architectural style that arose around 1920 at the Bauhaus institute in Germany. In essence, New Objectivity was functionally minded, and focused on the idea that an object’s form should be in accordance with its intended use. The architectural design of the Wolkenkrabber and the residential buildings on Merwedeplein are expressions of this attitude of New Objectivity.

Although the apartments on Merwedeplein display various features that belong to the Amsterdam School, all houses, including those in which the Franks lived, have a uniform appearance. The straightforward sandstone façades, large windows, white window frames and small balconies are all influenced by New Objectivity.

There is a noticeable symmetry in the layout of the streets around Merwedeplein, between Churchilllaan (known as Noorder Amstellaan up to 1946), Rooseveltlaan (known as Zuider Amstellaan up to 1946) ⁹ and Scheldestraat, which is lacking in the rest of the Rivierenbuurt area. Deltastraat starts at the Wolkenkrabber, and branches out into two onto Merwedeplein: on the left there is a row of houses with uneven numbers starting from 1; on the right there are even numbers starting from 2.

Biesboschstraat, which ends at the back of the Wolkenkrabber, functions as the axis of the Rivierenbuurt area. The hind façade of the Wolkenkrabber, with its flue and contiguous steel fire stairs, places extra emphasis on this symmetry. Vrijheidslaan (known as Amstellaan, up to 1946) leads straight from Berlagebrug to Victorieplein (known as Daniël Willinkplein up to 1946). The Wolkenkrabber (front side) is located on the Y crossing of Noorder Amstellaan, Zuider Amstellaan and Amstellaan, and is a central landmark in the Rivierenbuurt area.

According to The Diaries, Anne was always at the centre of attention. Hannah’s mother used to say, ‘God knows everything, but Anne knows best’. ¹⁰ Theo Coster characterised Anne as ‘pert’: she did not hesitate to speak before her turn in class. Hannah also related that Anne was at the centre of attention, yet Jacqueline van Maarsen (born in 1929) doubts whether there were as many boys courting Anne as 6 she describes in her diaries. ¹¹ Incidentally, Jacqueline also indicated Anne was not nice to Hannah. ¹² Eva Geiringer (born in Vienna in 1929) fled to Amsterdam in 1940 along with her mother Elfriede Geiringer (1905-1998, hereafter referred to as Fritzi), father Erich Geiringeren (1901-1945) and brother Heinz Geiringer (1926-1945). Jacqueline van Maarssen (born in 1929, hereafter referred to as Jacqueline) lived at 4 Hunzestraat, near Hermine ‘Miep’ Santruschitz (1909-2010, hereafter referred to as Miep) and Jan Gies (1905-1993, hereafter referred to as Jan), and claims the Franks and the Geiringers never met. ¹³ This, however, is not very probable: these families lived close to each other, were both Jewish, and Otto apparently liked Fritzi. The Jewish family lived at 46 Merwedeplein: ¹⁴ ‘We lived across from the Franks, whom I liked to visit. Mister Frank was very nice. He always spoke German to me, because I did not understand Dutch very well yet.’ ¹⁵ Although Anne and Eva most probably knew each other by face and were of the same age, Eva Geiringer probably was not one of Anne’s friends. Anne does not mention Eva ¹⁶ in her diaries.

Anne’s green-brown eyes, lifelines, spirited nature, interested attitude and honesty went down well with not only her classmates but also her teachers. Anne enjoyed the limelight and loved to show her friends how, for instance, she could voluntarily dislocate her shoulder. They were impressed.

Although Anne liked to be around people, she also could keep herself amused by writing on her own. In 1940, Anne solved a local shop owner’s riddle and won first prize. ¹⁷ Anne regularly visited her friends and vice versa. Hannah ‘Hanneli’ Elisabeth Goslar (born in 1928, hereafter referred to as Hanneli) originally lived at 31 Merwedeplein, but relocated to a more spacious apartment on 16 Zuider Amstellaan later on. Anne thinks the place is a lively mess: ‘And the kind of household the Goslars run; of the five rooms on Zuider Amstellaan one is rented out, Mrs. Goslar’s parents live in the porch next to it but eat with the family, then there is a maid, the baby, the ever absent-minded and distracted Mr. Goslar, and the always nervous and irritable Mrs. Goslar, who is expecting again. Lies with her two left hands is as good as lost in this bear garden.’ ¹⁸ Susanna ‘Sanne’ Ledermann (1928-1943, hereafter referred to as Sanne) lived at 37-II Noorder Amstellaan and attended a different primary school to Anne, although their friendship remained close. Sanne, like many others, died in Auschwitz.

When Anne was young, there was still a lot of space for children to play outside. There were a lot of sandy plots around Rivierenlaan (renamed President Kennedylaan in 1964), especially at the current RAI area on Europaplein. These plots had been raised but had not as yet been built over because of the war. Towards Zuidelijke Wandelweg and Mirandalaan, the encircling dyke marked the border of Amsterdam at that time. Cows grazed on the polders and, in winter, the children would skate on the frozen over pools. Near to Mirandalaan, there were more raised sandy plots.

Anne and her friends also had plenty of space to play on Merwedeplein. Playing hide-and-seek, tag, hopscotch, balls, hula hoop, slagbal (similar to softball) and skipping were fashionable. They would play outside often. If any snow fell in winter, Anne would play with her little sledge.

From the 1950s, Amsterdam was expanding rapidly and new districts, such as Buitenveldert, and new neighbouring municipalities, such as Amstelveen, were thrown up. The area south of the ring road, Ringweg Zuid, has been built over completely. The green area south of Rivierenbuurt of Anne’s times is no longer there.

In those days, people would be outside most of the time during summer. Adults had not yet been caught in the web of TV and computers. Front doors would stay open and families would chat with each other.

In Anne’s days, there were many different shops on the not-yet asphalted Waalstraat and Rijnstraat: bakeries, butchers, greengrocers and bookshops, often family-owned companies of hard-working people—some of them Jewish—who thought highly of paying personal attention to customers.

Since there were not that many car fumes yet, Anne must have smelt the various aromas coming from the shops. There was not as much noise from hooting cars or smelly air pollution. However, children would have to watch out for horses and carriages.

After the war, the number of Jewish-owned shops had decreased dramatically. The current range of shops hardly compares to its pre- war variety. There is only one bookshop left in the entire Rivierenbuurt area: publisher and bookshop Jimmink B.V. on 62 Rooseveltlaan, formerly known as Boekhandel Blankevoort on 62 Zuider Amstellaan. Anne would pay regular visits to this shop.

The Wolkenkrabber and Merwedeplein still exude a 1930s atmosphere. Most of the buildings have been preserved, and there have been very few changes to the district’s original urban design.

A 1941 photograph ¹⁹ displays Anne showing off her new coat. I noticed that the skyline of the houses in the back have remained the same, although their outlines are more difficult to distinguish now since the trees and shrubs have grown significantly over the years. ²⁰ Some of the shrubberies have made way to playground equipment.

The scene is blotted with a great number of cars and traffic signs. Some buildings are marred by plastic window frames, dormers or verandas at the front. In Anne’s days, the streets and pavements were even. Nowadays, the roads are marked with signs all over: zebra crossings, give-way marks and directional lines—all on a vast base of asphalt.

In 1966, a statue of the urban designer of Plan Zuid was erected in the public garden in front of the Wolkenkrabber on Victorieplein: Hendrik Petrus Berlage (1856-1934, hereafter referred to as Berlage) ²¹ sculptured by Hildo Krop (1884-1970, hereafter referred to as Hildo). ²² The inscription on the pedestal reads, BERLAGE MASTER BUILDER 1856-1934. Berlage looks out on his only creation in Rivierenbuurt—a bridge named after him: the Berlagebrug.

Berlage designed the Berlagebrug in collaboration with the division ‘Bridges’ of the Amsterdam Public Works Department. The bridge was inaugurated on 28 May, 1932, and the festivities included swimmers diving off the bridge into the Amstel. The Berlagebrug 6 connected Rivierenbuurt to Transvaalbuurt and Watergraafsmeer, and marked the end of the small ferry service that had provided the cross- river connection up to then. It was the remotest bridge from the city centre and the largest in Amsterdam at the time, measuring 80 metres long and 24 metres wide (approximately 260 by 80 feet). Berlage had directed much attention to the bridge’s decorative finishing and symbolism.

The large tower on its city centre side bears an image of the Genius of Amsterdam rising from the water. This ceramic plate was designed by Hildo. The three green rings at the feet of the Genius of Amsterdam symbolise its ring of canals. The bridge’s parapets have been drawn up in wrought iron with a brass top. Berlage used stones of various colours to construct the bridge: grey natural stone, yellow Bavarian granite, red bricks and green tiles. Anne would cross this bridge many times nine years later, biking her way to the Jewish Grammar school or Joodsch Lyceum.

On 8 May 1945, the Berlagebrug played a major part when the main forces of the Canadian army reached Amsterdam. The liberating troops crossed the Berlagebrug and were cheered on by a large number of Amsterdam’s inhabitants. Looking back at the liberation with hindsight and our current knowledge, it has a bitter aftertaste: many Jewish children had become Holocaust victims and, during the war, political leaders had done very little to counter the mass murder on Jewish citizens.

I stood on the bridge, looking out on the Amstel. In this dynamic city, the river exudes a peaceful atmosphere. I saw a young man rowing a boat. Margot was a member of a rowing club; perhaps she, too, rowed under the Berlagebrug 70 years ago.

Before she arrived in Amsterdam, Anne stayed with her grandmother in Aachen. Edith regularly travelled from Aachen to Amsterdam in order to find a suitable home. Otto mainly focused on erecting an Opekta branch—an affiliate of Pomosin-Werke in Frankfurt am Main—and rented one or more rooms on the second floor of 24 Stadionkade.

On 16 August, 1933, Otto and Edith registered at the Amsterdam municipal registry offices. On 15 September, 1933, Otto registered his company with the Chamber of Commerce. His company was located at 120-126 Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, in the Candida building.

Miep from Austria was Otto’s assistant.

Opekta produced gelling agents—thickeners used in making jam—that were added to food products by manufacturers. These seasonal products were very popular. Reinier Saul (1910-1977) ²³ designed Opekta's marketing material. ²⁴ It is likely that Otto travelled to work on tram 24 from Olympiaweg. ²⁵ Otto lived close to the Olympic Stadium and rented a small office space with a kitchenette in the high-class Candida building.

The Candida building was designed in 1930 by architect F. A. Warners (1888-1952). In her memories, Miep notes: ‘The building before me was the most modern on the street, practically a skyscraper. The beige-stone entrance was covered by a circular awning. Nine totally glass-enclosed storeys soared towards the cloud-filled sky, broken up by taupe-coloured stones. This unusual building was named, in black lettering on the street level ‘Gebouw Candida’.’ ²⁶ Warners was a pioneer of the ‘storeyed building’ in Amsterdam, and his office was at 13 Okeghemstraat. The designers did not opt for a steel frame, but chose a cheaper solution instead; a concrete frame consisting of a core of reinforced concrete on a foundation of Bavarian granite. The walls are not load-bearing and consist of warm- coloured bricks combined with a ‘matter-of-fact’ series of steel- framed windows. The seamlessly adjacent windows in two horizontal series allow plenty of light to enter the building. The floors are linked by a staircase or a so-called paternoster lift located in the centre of the building. The building has an inner courtyard from where you can see the fire stairs linking the balconies on the outside. The office block has a stately entrance and spacious staircase, and is located close to the Amsterdam Central Station. ²⁷ The Candida building now hosts various offices and companies, as well as a hotel. Its horizontal direction is dominated by the light floor linings and window sills, and the decorative brickwork in between. On the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal side, the lining above the ground floor continues around a semi-circular canopy. The canopy highlights the entrance and acts as a floating support for the glass column of the full-length oriel above.

The main entrance was used by the directors of the various firms and their customers. Visitors would have to report to the porter seated in a glass cubicle immediately after the entrance. Staff would enter the building on the rear side, on Spuistraat. The porter’s lodging and the bike cellar can also be reached from staff entrance at the rear. From the rear entrance, the staff would enter the central hall with its staircase and lifts.

The building keeps abreast of time. Its façades have recently been cleaned, and the steel windows have been replaced by synthetic ones. Some of the other buildings on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal were important during the war as well.

The post office at 192 Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal played an indispensable role in international communications because it had telegraphic equipment and was therefore protected by sandbags against potential air raids. This stately neo-Gothic building now hosts the Magna Plaza shopping centre. ²⁸ It is a national monument.

During the war, 292 Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal hosted a large telephone company operated by the Germans. During the present time, it still hosts various companies.

Amsterdam was full of German soldiers, army vehicles, roadblocks, checkpoints and advertising columns displaying propaganda posters. De Telegraaf, a Dutch national newspaper, and the Deutsche Zeitung in den Niederlanden (as of 1942), were located at 225 Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal ²⁹ (currently Kas Bank NV and Amsterdam, BPG), whilst another national newspaper, the Algemeen Handelsblad, could be found at 232-240 ³⁰ (currently Clubcenter ECI Boekenclub Centrum).

The Frank family regularly went to the Amsterdam Central Station. The German entrepreneur Philip Holzman and Co. from Frankfurt am Main secured the tender for the Amsterdam Central Station at 9 Stationsplein, which was constructed between 1881 and 1889 according to a design by the architects P. J. H. Cuypers (1827- 1921, hereafter referred to as Cuypers) and A. L. van Gendt (1835- 1901). The principals used Gothic and Renaissance architectural elements and sculptures.

Visitors enter the building at its palatial front through its midsection flanked by towers. The 360-metre-long building has been constructed on reclaimed islands in the IJ lake. L. J. Eijmer (1843- 1889), civil engineer at the Dutch National Railway, designed the roof structure, which consists of 50 arched trusses spanning almost 45 metres.

Cuypers designed the truss decorations and the roof structure’s head façade. In 1922, a second roof structure was added on the IJ side. Towards the end of the building period of this ‘traveller’s palace’, its east wing named Koningspaviljoen (King’s pavillion) was also completed. It had wide doors on each side, and was only to be used by dignitaries.

A grand stairway covered with ribbed arches leads from its entrance hall up to a landing. A frieze above the landing displays the four phases of human life: a child on leading strings, a student, an adult man immersed in his work, and a staring old man. Across the landing, one enters the abundantly decorated King’s Hall—the royal family’s waiting room. The main topics of the decorations and paintings are the royal house and authority.

In 2009, an information sign at the Amsterdam Central Station reminded passers-by of the barbed-wire roadblocks by the Germans in the city centre.

The Frank family moved to Merwedeplein on 5 December, 1933. ³¹ Like many of the apartments on Merwedeplein and the Noorder and Zuider Amstellaan, their apartment was owned by the Hilwis public limited construction and exploitation company (N.V. Bouw- en Exploitatiemaatschappij Hilwis). ³² When the Franks just moved in, construction was still going on but this came to a halt during the war. Children would play on the heaps of sand scattered around the neighbourhood.

Apparently Anne is also eager to join her family in Amsterdam. ‘Rosa will have a hard time keeping the child there for a few more weeks [this would eventually become two months],’ Edith wrote on 5 December 1933. ³³ Julius and Walter, Edith’s two brothers, took Margot to Amsterdam. Anne wanted to go along, too, but she was made to stay with her grandmother a little longer. ³⁴ ‘In the Netherlands, after those experiences in Germany, it was as if our life was restored to us. In those days it was possible for us to start over and to feel free,’ Otto said. ³⁵ Compared to Germany, it was relatively quiet in the Netherlands, although the Dutch branch of the National-Socialist movement (NSB) was on the rise, and there were regular encounters between fascists and communists or those in favour of the NSB and its opponents in the streets of Amsterdam. On 30 March 1935, 16,000 people attended the NSB’s third General National Gathering in the RAI Association building on Ferdinand Bolstraat. ³⁶ A tobacco shop on Kalverstraat called De Driehoek sold the German anti-Semitic magazine Der Stürmer—even though the Dutch government prohibited its distribution.

Merwedeplein was still a peaceful oasis in an Amsterdam full of unrest. In those days, housing associations would still deliver the houses to their tenants in decent shape, meaning the Franks did not have to do any wallpapering: Edith furnished the house with their steel blue seatings, closets, her writing table, the Biedermeier pendulum, the library, and chests full of books, and all the other furnishings brought from Frankfurt am Main.

According to Edith, their apartment on Merwedeplein was smaller than their urban villa at 24 Ganghoferstrasse. Edith complained about not having a scullery or a cellar on Merwedeplein. She liked the fact that their home let in plenty of light (which I also noticed during my visit to the Frank family residence) and that she did not need a housekeeper and was able to handle everything herself. Edith apparently did not complain about the absence of a garden or a large balcony.

The furniture from Frankfurt am Main probably fitted well in their new apartment as she did not complain about this either. Edith did not understand that their home was spacious and cheap by Dutch standards. It was a comfortable place. The large bedrooms were equipped with sinks. It had central heating, a phone, a toilet, bathroom, and warm and cold running water. A French balcony could be accessed through the kitchen. Many of the Jews who came to Holland could not afford such places. Most Jews in Amsterdam lived in tiny, decrepit homes in the Jewish area around Waterlooplein in the city centre, sometimes with several families packed into one room. During the German occupation, this area was turned into a ghetto.

Some of the richer Jews looked down on the poor, working-class Jews who often acted as merchants on the market. They would mock them, calling them ‘the orange Jews’. Whilst the Frank family was better off than the Jews on the market or the less skilled Jewish craftsmen, they certainly did not belong to the wealthy elite.

According to an advert in the Algemeen Handelsblad newspaper dated 26 February 1932, the heading of which proclaimed ‘Wolkenkrabber on Daniël Willinkplein now completed’, ³⁷ the annual rent of an apartment in Wolkenkrabber was around 1,600 guilders, whilst the Franks paid about 75 guilders a month.

From the Wolkenkrabber, one would have a view of the entire city and the Zuiderzee (currently IJmeer, Markermeer and IJsselmeer). Every apartment was equipped with a refrigerator, which was a very modern convenience at the time. ³⁸ The apartment in Wolkenkrabber had four bedrooms and a maid’s room.

People more wealthy than the Franks also lived on Noorder Amstellaan, renamed Churchilllaan in 1946, and Waalstraat. On Beethovenlaan, along the Amstel west of the Rivierenbuurt area, there were luxurious urban villas owned by important lawyers and well-to- do entrepreneurs. The Franks would take advantage of the shops, butchers and fishmongers opening in their area.

The apartment seemed to please the family and the rent was affordable, meaning they stayed here until they went into hiding. Anne would lovingly call Merwedeplein ‘the Merry’. Edith was still not fully able to get used to the new place: she missed her old surroundings in Germany, as well as her neighbours, acquaintances and friends. Otto already knew Amsterdam quite well and therefore easily adapted to his new environment. Children such as Anne were especially flexible and quickly felt at home in their new place. Anne and Margot rapidly learnt to speak Dutch (almost) without an accent.

I went up the stone stairway outside, which gives access to a deep landing with two doors. I felt excited knowing that Anne walked these stairs—I was walking in her track. The door on the left is the entrance to Anne’s former residence. I rang and was kindly received by a foreign writer who was working there at the time. She asked me to wait a little while, since Mr. T. Perez of the Stichting Amsterdam Vluchtstad (Amsterdam City of Refugees Association), whom I was supposed to meet, had not yet arrived.

Following in the wake of Mr. Perez, I entered the apartment by a steep stairway that gives access to a central landing connecting the various rooms. The Franks’ former residence has been refurnished in the style of the 1930s. The layout is (almost) the same as in Anne’s time. The writer staying there at the time reminded me that this was Anne’s former residence and, for privacy reasons, did not want me to visit her parents’ former bedroom, which I respected.

I began setting up my camera and its equipment whilst the writer and Mr. Perez were seated at the table in the Frank family’s former dining room. I tried to stay calm for I only had an hour to take the photographs.

The living room and dining room look out onto the street and are separated by sliding doors. The living room was furnished with