Frank Family Emigration Plans Illuminated: Notes from the Straus Historical Society

A few years ago, a file with documents chronicling Otto Frank's desperate attempts to to escape with his family from the Nazi-occupied Netherlands in 1941 was found in New York at the YIVO archives. A noteworthy article from the Straus Historical Society Newsletter describes many of these documents in detail and provides much insight into the obstacles Jewish refugees faced in finding a safe haven. It also sheds light onto the enduring friendship between Frank and his college friend Nathan Straus, Jr. -- then head of the U.S. Housing Authority -- who spearheaded the campaign to bring the Franks over, in spite of the paper walls set up by the antisemitic U.S. State Department.

On Otto Frank's often-criticized decision to stay in the Netherlands, the article points out that:

It is easy to wonder from the prospective of 2007 why Otto
Frank and his family... remained in the Netherlands while conditions there were deteriorating. David Engel, the Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies at New York University compared the correspondence to a blind chess game where the rules kept changing. He states, "Understanding the situation of the Jews in the Netherlands under Nazi occupation, like understanding any aspect of the Holocaust, requires suspension of hindsight." While Jews were being deprived of their property and livelihood and becoming more socially isolated, they continued to live in relative security. In other words, in Otto Frank's case, neither the push nor the pull factors were as strong in 1940-41 as they had been in 1933. Hence he preferred what seemed to him like the nuisances that encumbered an otherwise comfortable life under Nazi occupation in the Netherlands to the insecurity of life as a double refugee in a new country, even if a new country could be found."

We also learn more about the efforts of the small network of people and agencies in the U.S. who worked tirelessly to secure the Franks' escape from Europe: the influential Straus family, Edith Frank's recently arrived brothers, and National Refugee Service director Augusta Mayerson, among others, tried to maneuver around the strict and ever-changing State Department immigration guidelines.

At the time one needed an affidavit from someone in the States willing to sponsor him as well as a trust fund placed in his name. Recognizing that a relative would have more influence than a family friend, Nathan [Straus] suggested that Edith Frank's two brothers, Julius and Walter Holländer, who were living in Massachusetts, would more likely meet with a favorable result if they sponsored the Franks. The Boston Committee for Refugees was contacted... Since both brothers had only recently immigrated, and did not have sufficient income to show they could support the Frank family, Nathan offered to put up the necessary money. There was concern that too many people wanted to be sponsored at the same time. Julius and Walter's two employers submitted affidavits of support for Margot and Anne. Julius and Walter would sponsor their mother, Rosa Holländer, who was living with the Franks. On June 11th Nathan sponsored Otto and Edith.

And about how frustrating and convoluted the road to escape eventually became:

The Nazis forced the American consulates in their sphere of influence to close down, which meant that the Franks would have to book passage (proof of which was necessary for obtaining an American visa) from a neutral European country with an open American consulate and a harbor on the Atlantic. So Otto Frank decided to try for Portugal -- an option that failed because he needed transit visas through Belgium and France, as well as permission from the Nazis to leave Holland, all of which wouldn't be granted if Frank couldn't produce an entry visa from another country.

Nathan wrote to Otto on September 11th, "I am prepared to submit the necessary affidavits of support just as soon as you are able to assure me that you can leave Holland and get permission to go to a country where there is an American Consul."

Then came the State Department rule that potential refugees whose close relatives were still living in German-occupied countries weren't eligible for a visa: Either all five of the Franks had to get entry permits at the same time, which was virtually impossible even for someone with Otto Frank's connections, or they couldn't leave the Netherlands at all.

Which is when Otto tried Plan B: obtaining incredibly expensive Cuban tourist visas that would allow him and his family to wait their turn for American visas in the relative safety of the Western Hemisphere.

Letters throughout November work out the details of how Otto Frank could obtain the Cuban visa. The Strauses agreed to arrange the bond and pay for transportation costs. The Holländer brothers would pay the attorney fees, visa fees and outgoing passage fees from Cuba. Ms. Mayerson wrote to Julius Holländer on November 12th, "It takes from ten to twenty-one days to obtain a legal Cuban visa. We have recently been informed that persons in occupied areas are being denied exit permits. It may be therefore that even after the Franks have obtained Cuban visas they may fail to obtain the necessary exit permits from Holland."

On November 18th Julius Holländer wrote to the Strauses, "The National Refugee Service, Inc. informed me on November 12 of your decision to contribute in a generous way to the immigration of Mr. Otto Frank and family. ... The most important issue for the time being is the providing of the exit permits. Because I was advised not to pay for the Cuban Visa before I would be informed by my brother-in-law that exit permits would be granted, I sent a cable to Amsterdam asking him to make sure that the permits are available." He then wrote to the National Refugee Service on the 22nd, "Whereupon I cabled again to make positively sure, that exit permits would be given, before I would be able to deposit amount for visas and tickets." Otto Frank's travel agent in Amsterdam cabled, "Exit permit can only be given after Cuban visa is sent over. Please care only for Otto Frank for the time being to confine financial risk." On the 28th Julius Holländer ordered the Cuban exit permit.

One Cuban visa -- for Otto -- was issued at the beginning of December 1941, but it's unclear if he ever saw it. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether he did, because a little over a week later, in the wake of Germany's declaration of war on the United States, Cuba canceled the entry permits it sent to applicants in Europe, leaving the Franks stranded in occupied Holland to await the consequences:

On June 22, 1945 a letter by G. V. Saxl of the Migration Department describes Julius Holländer's efforts to contact his family. He had been advised that they were in Paris. Apparently he did not know at that time that only Otto Frank survived. On June 26, 1945 a letter by Ann S. Petluck, director of the Migration Service states, "We have been advised that the above mentioned family reached France recently and are supposedly residing at the above address." By January 31, 1946 Ms. Petluck wrote, "... we are in receipt of a report advising us that Otto Frank is reputed to be living at 263 Prinsengroocat, Amsterdam. They mentioned that Mrs. Edith Holländer is deceased and that the daughters are still missing."

Yad Vashem Commemorates the Gieses

After the death of Miep Gies earlier this month, Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial group (famous for honoring the Righteous Among the Nations), created a commemorative profile for Miep and her husband Jan, replete with photographs and documents from their archives, none of which I'd ever seen before.

Here are a few of the pictures:



Miep signs the guestbook during a visit to Yad Vahem in the '70s.


Tree planted in honor of Miep and Jan Gies on the Avenue of the Righteous


Miep's signature in the guestbook at Yad Vashem. (I also noticed what looks like Hanneli Goslar's signature in the lower left-hand corner of the page -- as Lies Pick.)


You can also find a wealth of other material related to Anne Frank on the Yad Vashem website. Especially valuable is the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, which I'll highlight in an upcoming post.

Inheriting Anne Frank

Anne Frank and Jacqueline van Maarsen's friendship was short-lived -- spanning the nine months they were forced to attend the Jewish Lyceum in 1941-42. But what it lacked in time was made up for in intensity. In the opening pages of her Diary, Anne calls van Maarsen her best friend; and it is to her alone whom Anne writes a farewell letter from her isolated Secret Annex. For a long time after the war, van Maarsen chose to remain silent about her connection to Anne and the Diary (where is she referred to as "Jacque" or Jopie"). Hoping to clear up common misconceptions about her now-famous friend, she eventually came clean about her past and published a series of books on their relationship and her own tale of survival. She even appeared in the documentary Anne Frank Remembered.

The newest installation of van Maarsen's memoirs, called Inheriting Anne Frank, was just released in the UK last month, and looks like a worthwhile read. (Unfortunately, it isn't scheduled to be released here the US until this summer.)

More about the book from the Financial Times:

Following the end of the war and Frank’s death, van Maarsen struck a close and lasting friendship with Otto, her friend’s father, and became involved in his efforts to share the message of his daughter’s diary. The published work received a mixed reception from her contemporaries and an overwhelmingly positive one from young people.

Nonetheless, van Maarsen is critical of the commercialisation of the diary and its legacy, and of some of the work of the Anne Frank Foundation.

But Inheriting Anne Frank is also a historical document about the author’s own life, and in particular her relationship with a formidable mother, who died in 1992 aged 101. A lovely companion to what remains the most famous diary in the world.

"Memories of Anne Frank": A Trailer

Via the forum (Hat tip: Charlie and Italiangirl):



This film -- made for Italian TV and scheduled to air on the 27th -- is supposed to be a loose adaptation of the book Memories of Anne Frank, which relates the wartime experiences of Hanneli Goslar, who in addition to being one of Anne Frank's closest childhood friends, was one of the last people to encounter the living Anne Frank -- through a straw-filled security fence at Bergen-Belsen.

Though I should probably hold off on judgments until I've actually seen the film, I can't resist sharing a few first impressions:

-- It bothered me that some of the scenes (I'm mostly thinking of the ones set in the camps) seemed awfully reminiscent of Anne Frank: The Whole Story. But maybe that's because both films are based on the same sources and there are only so many ways a filmmaker can recreate the concentration-cbamp experience.

-- In spite of that, I think the camp scenes looked pretty true-to-life. In particular, I thought the Auschwitz inmate orchestra was an authentic touch. And scene with the Nazis blowing up the crematoria in an attempt to hide the evidence of their crimes. This really did happen during Anne's time at Birkenau (right after the Sonderkommando revolt in October 1944) but, to my knowledge, hasn't been covered in any other film about her.

-- What's up with the blond kid they cast as Hanneli? Seriously? It's like they didn't even try.

All said, it still looks like it's going to be worth watching. I really like the idea of seeing such a familiar story unfold through someone else's eyes. Unfortunately for me, however, I have no access to Italian TV, so guess I'll have to wait until the DVD comes out to see it all for myself.

Demolishing the Claims of Holocaust Deniers Against the Diary, Part One

^Yeah, I'll come up with a catchier post title later.

From time to time on this blog, I hope to highlight the logical and historical poverty of Holocaust deniers by using the Diary (mostly the Critical Edition) to demolish their most ridiculous attacks on Anne Frank and her work -- one of their very favorite targets.

A cherished tactic used to discredit the Diary is to claim that one or another of the many historical events Anne refers to in the diary would have been unknown to someone like her (i.e., a Jew in hiding).

Thus, we find gems like these:

It's interesting in many, many places but I found this especially telling:

"Our many Jewish friends are being taken away by the dozen. . . We assume that most of them are murdered. The English radio speaks of their being gassed."

This entry from her liary was entered on 9 October 1942 which means that Ms. Frank (while hiding in a warehouse in Amsterdam with seven other people) was aware of the gassings but Winston Churchill was not?

Which is total garbage.

According to the Revised Critical Edition, the reference to gassing is actually not in the original draft of the entry for October 9, 1942, but in the rewritten version (known as version B), written sometime in the spring of 1944, when Nazi atrocities against the Jews were certainly common knowledge in every Allied government, to say nothing of people living under Nazi rule.

And even if the gassing of Jews really had been a part of the original entry, a footnote in the Critical Edition at the bottom of the this passage and sourced to the Written Archives Center of the BBC kindly points out that:

In June 1942 the British press and the BBC began to refer to the gassings in Poland. Thus the 6 p.m. news on the BBC Home Service on July 9, 1942, included the following item: "Jews are regularly killed by machinegun fire, hand grenades - and even poisoned by gas.

The reference doesn't necessarily have to be to Auschwitz-like gas chambers, either: The Nazis had been using mobile gas vans as early as 1940 to kill the mentally ill, and they were extensively used at Chelmno, the Nazis' first extermination camp, by the end of 1941.

Books to Watch For: A History of the Frank Family

This has apparently been out since October, but I'm just hearing about it now. And it's only available in German, as far as I know.

Written by Mirjam Pressler -- familiar to Anne Frank enthusiasts as the editor of the newest edition of the Diary, and as it's Dutch-German translator -- with help from Bernd Elias's wife, Gerti Wiedner, this book, called Grüße und Küsse an alle: Die Geschichte der Familie von Anne Frank (Greetings and Kisses to All: The History of the Family of Anne Frank), is described as a comprehensive history of Anne Frank's family, presenting us with snapshots from other points in history than the one we tend to associate with the family Frank. We get sketches of a boy who would grow up to become Anne Frank's great-great grandfather, living in Frankfurt's notorious ghetto, the Judengasse, and the relative who, according to the book at least, became Germany's first Jewish professor. There are also some wartime and postwar scenes of the Frank family, which by then had been scattered to several countries. And reportedly a great deal of previously unpublished photos and facsimiles throughout, which I'm really looking forward to seeing.

Having not read it myself yet, I can't speak to anything beyond the mostly positive summaries and reviews I've seen online. But it looks promising and I think I'll end up buying it soon. I can't help thinking of the downside, though, which is: it only covers the better-known half of Anne frank's family tree -- Otto's side (maybe because there were more close survivors -- who knows?) -- further obscuring the history of her mother's forgotten family, the Holländers, which will have to wait for another book to come along before it can be brought to life.

Miep Gies Remembered

"We are never far from Miep's thoughts..."

-- Anne Frank (May 8, 1944)



As people living in the 21st century, nearly 70 years removed from the Holocaust, most of us have never learned about that dark period in history without the Diary as our guide. Our road to Auschwitz begins in the Secret Annex. Anne Frank's story is so familiar to us that we often take her -- and the fact that we know about her -- for granted. But without the incredible courage and quick instinct of Miep Gies, who furtively returned to the Annex after the Nazis raided it to collect Anne's personal papers off the floor, Anne Frank and her diary would be unknown to us today -- another name and another story lost among the staggering millions.

When Miep Gies, the only living member of the brave group who helped hide Anne Frank and her family, died on Monday, we lost our last living link to the world of Anne's diary -- a world in which Miep and the other helpers not only provided the hidden Jews with the essentials they needed to survive, but stood by them as friends and protectors. Miep always insisted that her wartime deeds weren't special or heroic, just reflexive. But the truth is that what she did was brave and didn't have nearly enough parallels. We can only imagine how history might have turned out had more people in occupied Europe taken a similar approach toward their Jewish friends, instead of looking the other way while the Nazis decimated an entire people.

In this age of moral ambiguity, when right and wrong have been reduced to various shades of gray, Miep Gies symbolized the impact an ordinary person who strives to do the right thing could have on a world where so much evil is done. How many of us, having read the Diary, have pondered our own responsibilities toward others? And by rescuing Anne's words from historical oblivion, Mrs. Gies made a contribution to the study of the Holocaust that is impossible to calculate as long as people continue to remember -- and I hope that is forever.

Rust in vrede, Miep.

Origins

"At long last after a great deal of reflection I have started... in my head it is as good as finished... although it won't go as quickly as that really, if it ever comes off at all." -- Anne Frank

So, here it is: a journal about a journal. Well, sort of. I hope to explore more than just the Diary. The life, the afterlife -- everything and anything pertinent to Anne Frank and her world will find a place here.

Happy reading.