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."