by Betty Carew

Created on: January 12, 2009

Otto Frank would probably have been as obscure as so many of the Holocaust survivors except for his little daughter Anne Frank. She was the one that brought Otto Frank to the attention of so many people due to the diary she left behind that was written while the whole family hid from the Nazis. This is the most read diary in the world and Otto Frank helped publish it. Besides the diary Otto frank had a life that proved to be very interesting on its own.

Otto Frank moved his family from Germany to Amsterdam when Hitler started his rise to power. Holland and so many other countries had greatly underestimated the threat of this man right along with Otto Frank. Most of his and his wife Edith's family emigrated directly to England, Switzerland and South America which Otto could have done at that time. Otto Frank stayed whether it was due to his business or the underestimation of what was to come.

Otto Frank and his daughter Anne were two very opposites. While Anne was straight forward and definitely ingenious her father was complicated and paradoxical. There was a dark side to Otto Frank that didn't surface until we saw it through Anne's eyes. Although he seemed to be a good father to Anne and we know this from her writings he also had a very colorful past.

Otto Frank was married to Edith Frank and let it be known to anyone that would listen that it was only a marriage of convenience. Would this not have made the family somewhat dysfunctional? Edith was a very intelligent woman, she was attractive and very much in love with the man she married. Can you imagine how this woman felt at the critical hands of this man? It was so obvious that even Anne remarked on the distance that seemed to be between her mother and father. He never ventured more than being civil to her.

Anne did not get along with her mother but she idolized her father. It was different for her sister Margot who was treated very similar as Edith. There was no affection between Frank and either of these women but he doted on Anne so much so that he nicknamed her "Hunny Kungha". He was not aware that Margot also kept a diary but it was never found. If it had been we may have had a peek into a different perspective of this family.

The closeness to his daughter Anne could sway some people's option that it was a relationship that was inappropriate at times. Frank felt close enough to Anne to confess to her that he had one time had an affair with another woman and that it had left him incapable of having feelings

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