Edith Holländer was born January 16, 1900 into a German Jewish family. Her parents were Abraham Holländer and Rosa Stern who were successful business people. The family was originally from Amsterdam, but started making there way to Germany around 1800. Edith had two older brothers and one older sister; however her sister died at 16 due to appendicitis. In 1924 she met Otto Frank and they were married in 1925; later she gave birth to two girls, Margot and Anne. When the Frank family had to movie to Amsterdam to escape the Nazis, Edith had an especially hard time adjusting. A family member said that she was German and didn’t feel at home living in the Netherlands. She didn’t learn Dutch easily and missed Germany. After the Nazis started to invade the Netherlands she went into hiding with her family. She lived 2 year with her family, the Van Pel’s, and Fritz Pfeffer(Mr. Dussel). After they were found and arrested; Edith was separated from Anne and Margot to be sent to a gas chamber. However Edith was able to escape this fate with a friend and hid in another section of the camp during Winter. Edith died of starvation in 1945, because she saved all her food for Anne and Margot. The camp was liberated 3 weeks later by the Red Army and her daughters were able to outlived her by one month.
History: Otto Frank
Otto Frank was a business man and the only survivor of the Secret Annex. He was born May 12, 1889 in the German Empire to Alice Betty and Michael Frank . Him being born in 1889 and being a survivor of the Holocaust means he lived through both WW1 and WW2. In his early life, during WW1, he served in the Imperial German Army. In August 1915, he was promoted lieutenant and served at the Battle of Cambrai. On the 12th of May, 1925, He married Edith Holländer and had two children. Their eldest daughter was Margot Frank and youngest was Anne Frank. When the Nazi’s and anti-Jewish decrees took hold of Germany, Otto moved his family to live with is mother-in-law in Aachen; then moved to Amsterdam. He attempted to get a visa for his family to the US or Cuba, but when war was declared it became impossible. Otto then decided to go into hiding with his family in July 6, 1942 after Margot received a notice to report to a labor camp. He lived in the Annex with 7 others for two years. They then were found in 1944 of August by the Nazi’s and in September Otto was separated from his family and sent to Auschwitz. During his time in Auschwitz wrote to his mother who was able to escape to Switzerland. January 27, 1945 the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by Soviet troops. By that time Otto was to near death and found himself in the sick barracks. He later learned of the death of his family, and that he was the only survivor. In 1945 Anne’s death was confirmed and her diary was given to Otto. He at first didn’t read it, but later was convinced to publish it. Although some thing in the diary was edited out; on June 25, 1947, the first edition of the book was issued in Dutch under the title “Het Achterhuis“. In 1905, he remarried and moved to Switzerland. Later he and Johannes Kleiman (one of the helpers) established the Anne Frank Foundation to save the building that once hid them, and turned it into a museum (opened 1960). Otto later died August 19, 1980 in Basel, Switzerland of lung cancer. He lived to be 91 years.
History: Margot Frank
Margot Frank was the oldest daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Holländer and had one sibling, Anne. She was born February 16, 1926, in Frankfurt, Germany. Margot, like her sister also had a diary she wrote in, but as since been missing. Before Adolf Hitler became chancellor, she originally went Ludwig-Richter School in the Frankfurt suburbs. After the rise of antisemitism in Germany, she and her family moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands to escape. Before she had to go to a Jewish school, she went to an elementary in Amsterdam, where she got excellent academic results. In all, Margot Frank was said to be very clever and was respected, but she was also reserved, timid and obedient. She didn’t argue as much as Anne did, and had a better relationship with their mother. She was admired a bit by Anne for being clever and good looking, and was said to have wanted to be a midwife. On February 1945, Margot died of typhus and shock when she was 19. Her sister died soon after of the same causes. She was buried in a mass grave with her sister in an unknown location; however, a tombstone dedicated to both of them is in the former Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp in Germany. More on Margot Frank.
History: Anne Frank
Anne Frank was one of 8 people that hide in The Secret Annex while Germany was under Nazi control. She was born in the 12th of June 1929, to Edith and Otto Frank. She was the original writer of “The Diary of a Young Girl”, also known as “The Diary of Anne Frank”. In this diary she wrote about what it was like being Jewish while living in Nazi occupied Amsterdam. She originally wrote in Dutch, but the Diary has since been translated into over 60 languages. In her early life, she showed talent in both reading and writing and was said to have written frequently; although she refused to disclose any information on what she was writing. Her sister, Margot Frank, show talent in arithmetic. Anne originally went to a Montessori school, while Margot went to public school. After the Nazi’s invaded the Netherlands, they both were forced to transfer to a Jewish Lyceum. In the end they both died in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp, due to an out break of Typhus and shock. Anne was 15 when she died. The camp later was burned to prevent spread of the illness, Anne and Margot were buried in a mass grave in an unknown location and there is a tombstone dedicated to them in the remains of the former camp. Interview with one of the helpers.
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