Otto Frank Looks to His Daughter Anne Frank’s Writing to Find Inspiration in Helping Those Less Fortunate

The story of Anne Frank and her family and friends in the Annex is too well-known to justify repeating here. What is less well-known, however, is the important work her father did after the Holocaust to preserve Anne’s memory, and views of life, into the future.

After Auschwitz was liberated, Anne’s father, Otto Frank, returned to Amsterdam. On his way back, he heard of his wife Edith’s death. Back in Amsterdam, he did everything he could to find out what had happened to his two daughters Anne and Margot. He placed an advertisement in the newspaper and talked to survivors who were returning from the camps. He wrote to his sister, “I just can’t think how I would go on without children having lost Edith already…It’s too upsetting for me to write about them. Naturally I still hope, and wait, wait, wait.”

On July 18, 1945, he met two sisters who had been in Bergen-Belsen with Anne and Margot, and they told him that his daughters were dead. The next day Otto sent a postcard with this melancholy news to his family. Later he sent a letter to his brother Robert, asking him to forward it to their mother in Switzerland. As Otto wrote, “Again and again small groups of survivors returned from different concentration camps and I tried to hear something from them about Margot and Anne. I found two sisters who had been with Margot and Anne in Bergen-Belsen. They told me about the final sufferings and the death of my children.” After Otto told Miep Gies, who had hidden them in the Annex, about his daughters, she gave him Anne’s Diary papers. For all this time, she had been keeping them in the drawer of her desk, with the hope of returning them to Anne. She said to Otto as she handed him the Dairy: “Here is your daughter Anne’s legacy to you.” Miep herself stated, “I didn’t hand [Otto] Anne’s writings immediately on his arrival, as I still hoped, even though there was only a slight chance, that Anne would come back…When we heard in July 1945, that Anne, like Margot, had died in Bergen-Belsen, I gave what pieces of Anne’s writing I had back to Mr. Frank. I gave him everything I had stored in the desk drawer in my office.” In August 1945, Otto wrote friends, “I know you were informed by Robert of all that happened and I am convinced you share the great loss I had to undergo. No use enlarging upon it, we all have to bear our fate. I try hard to stay firm…”

Otto first mentioned the Diary to his mother in a letter dated August 22, 1945: “As luck would have it, Miep was able to rescue a photo album and Anne’s Diary. I didn’t have the strength to read it.” Though a month later, Otto had begun reading it, writing to his mother: “I cannot put down Anne’s Diary. It is so unbelievably engrossing…” At the end of the 1960s, Otto recalled how he felt when he started to read the Diary that first time: “I began to read slowly, only a few pages each day, more would have been impossible, as I was overwhelmed by painful memories. For me, it was a revelation. There was revealed a completely different Anne to the child that I had lost. I had no idea of the depths of her thoughts and feelings.” In her Diary, Otto read about the plan Anne had to publish a book after the war about the time she spent in the Annex.

The edited and compiled manuscript of Anne’s Diary, typed by Otto Frank’s hand, found its way via a number of different contacts to the Dutch historians Jan Romein and his wife Annie. Annie attempted to find a publisher, but her attempts were unsuccessful. This led Jan to write a short article about the Diary, and the article appeared on April 3, 1946 on the front page of the Dutch newspaper “Het Parool”. Publishers then expressed interest. “The Diary of Anne Frank” was first published on June 25, 1947. Otto later said of this moment, “If she had been here, Anne would have been so proud.” In a 1947 letter to his cousin Dora in America, he explained that Anne’s Diary had been published and had surprised everyone with being hugely successful, with four public readings. He also noted that it might be translated into English, which it soon was.

Since it was first published, Anne Frank’s Diary has become the most powerful memoir of the Holocaust. Its message of courage and hope in the face of adversity have very broad appeal, and it is taught in many schools as part of the curriculum. It has been translated into 70 languages in over 60 countries, with over 30 million copies sold to date. The Anne Frank House at Prinsengracht 263 was established in 1957 with the aim of opening it to the public, but also to promote Anne’s ideals, a goal reflected in its charter from its very inception. It opened as a museum in 1960, and over a million people visit it each year. Otto was always interested in youth, and the International Youth Center at Anne Frank House opened on May 3, 1961. In 1963, having moved to Switzerland, Otto established the Anne Frank Foundation, for the purposes of promoting projects in the spirit of the message of Anne Frank, to contribute to better understanding between societies and religions, to play a part in encouraging peace between people and nationalities, and to promote international contact among young people.

Hiding from the Nazis in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building in Amsterdam, she became a writer. The now famous diary of her private life and thoughts reveals only part of Anne’s story, however. “Tales from the House Behind” was published later, containing text newly translated, complete, and restored to the original order in which Anne herself wrote them in her notebook. “Tales from the Secret Annex”, as it became known, is a collection of Anne Frank’s lesser-known writings: short stories, fables, and personal reminiscences.

Typed letter signed, September 26, 1969, to Gary. “Dear Gary, a few days after I had received your kind letter, I went on holiday and only returned a short while ago. This is the reason why my answer to you is delayed.

“I am satisfied to learn from your letter that Anne’s Diary and the film based on it, made such a strong impression on you, that you feel you ought to do something in her spirit.

“It is very difficult however for me to give you advice, as the Anne Frank Foundation has not center in the States as yet. One of its aims is to work against discrimination and as there are surely a number of organizations in USA working on the same field, you should join one of them and help in their activities.

“We know that in the richest country of the world America there is so much poverty and misery that everyone with ideals can do some welfare work.

“Did you read Anne’s tales, published by Bantam Books under the title ‘Tales from the House Behind’? In some of these tales f.i. “The Fairy, “Riek,” give Anne’s strong feeling for the poor and underprivileged people is showing.

“I think if you look around you can find many ways to be helpful.”