by Ben Hughes

Created on: January 26, 2008   Last Updated: February 04, 2012

Perhaps one of the most famous and understated Holocaust survivors is Otto Frank, better known through is daughter, Anne. Otto Heinrich Frank fought for his native Germany in World War One before being terrorized as a Jew in the 1930s. It was thanks to him that Anne Frank's diaries were published and he spent the rest of his life tirelessly promoting her message of tolerance and compassion.

Born into a banking family in 1889, Otto served in the Imperial German Army during the First World War, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant.

He married Edith Hollander in 1925 and their first daughter, Margot, was born a year later, followed by Anne in 1929.

As Hitler's fierce Nazi regime took control of Germany in the 1930s, Jews came under increasing pressure and due to Otto's protective nature over his family, he moved them to Aachen in 1933 en route to the safety of Amsterdam.

In 1938 as the threat from Germany grew ever greater, Otto tried to arrange visas for his family to emigrate to the US or Cuba. He was granted a single visa for himself in 1941 but it's unclear if it ever reached him; if it did, he decided not to leave his family behind.

Margot received a call-up notice in July 1942 and in a desperate measure to protect his family Otto led them into hiding in the upper rooms of the Opekta premises on the Preinsengracht where they lived with Hermann van Pels, his wife and their son and were joined at a later date by Fritz Pfeffer as well.

For over two years, Otto managed to keep his family safe until they were betrayed by an anonymous informant in August 1944. After being arrested and imprisoned in Amsterdam, Otto and his family were sent first to Westerbork transit camp and then on to Auschwitz. It was here that Otto was separated from his family and he would never see them again and they were never to know just how much he loved them dearly.

In January 1945, Otto was liberated by Soviet troops and on his return to Holland he began to trace his missing family and friends.

When Anne's death was confirmed a few months later, Otto received her diary and her other papers which had been kept from their hiding place in Amsterdam.

He eventually read them and typed them up, hoping to publish them to demonstrate the plight of his family. It was published in Amsterdam in 1947 and, after initially having difficulty finding a publisher, an English translation followed five years later. Otto could've found fame and fortune with his daughter's diary but he refused to use it directly for his own advantage, instead keeping a low profile and letting her words speak for themselves.

He married former Amsterdam neighbour and Auschwitz survivor, Elfriede Geiringer-Markovits (1905-1998) in 1953 and she joined his cause.

In response to a demolition order placed on the building in which Otto Frank and his family had hidden during the war, he and friend Johannes Kleimann helped establish The Anne Frank Foundation in 1957, with the principal aim of saving and restoring the building, to allow it to be opened to the general public. With the aid of public donations, the building (and its adjacent neighbour) was purchased by the Foundation. It opened as a museum in 1960.

Otto spent the remaining years of his life working to promote Anne's diaries and her faithful account of her terrifying life in hiding. He died in 1980, the silent and loving powerhouse behind the young girl the whole world knows about.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Frank

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