Hi guys
As you may have heard in our latest edition of The Engage
Podcast I started our series of ‘General Interest’ podcasts (which can be found
here). Where we talk about our interests outside of the wonderful world of Star
Trek. As my first choice I decided on a particularly interesting individual
involved with the Second World War.
Not a famous General (such as Field Marshall Montgomery) or
Prime Minister (such as the wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill) as you
might expect. This individual is just as remarkable (and important) in her own
right as any politician or General.
I’ve chosen the thirteen year old diarist Annelies Marie
Frank…better known to the world as Anne Frank (Wikipedia & annefrank.org).
Anne Frank for all those who don’t recognise her name was a
thirteen year old Dutch diarist who wrote about her daily life in hiding over a
two year period (July 1942-August 1944) during the Nazi occupation of Holland.
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| A picture of Anne from 1941 |
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| The Frank family |
Anne hid in a secret annex with her family. Her father Otto, her mother Edith
and elder sister Margot.
She also shared the annex with another family called
the Van Pels and a dentist called Fritz Pfeffer. The annex was situated in
Amsterdam, above Otto Franks Opekta business which sold fruit extract called
pectin.
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| Secret annex occupants, and helpers |
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| Otto Frank and the secret annex helpers [from left to right] Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Otto Frank, Victor Krugler and Bep Voskuijl |
They survived through the help of four helpers, who worked
for Opekta. They were Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. The eight individuals and two of the four helpers were arrested by
the Gestapo on the 4th of August 1944, after being tipped off by an
anonymous source.
Anne Frank is an interest I’m passionate about because I’ve
always been interested in history (particularly the Second World War) from a
young age. This meant that it was awfully difficult trying to choose a specific
subject to talk about…as I’m interested in so many. But the unfortunately short
life of Anne Frank poses many important questions about what it means to be
human, the morality and most crucially ethics.
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| United Kingdom DVD cover for the 2009 five part Mini-Series for "The Diary of Anne Frank" |
Back in 2009 I was able to watch the BBC adaptation of her
wartime diary, which was produced as a five part Mini-Series (Starring Ellie Kendrick in the lead role as Anne). Because of the amazingly accurate portrayal
of everyone associated with the secret annex, and the way it manages to
translate the realism of being in hiding during a time of war. Meant that by
the end of this superbly realistic series my interests in the story behind the
young writer had reached a peak.
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| Book cover for the 2009 reissue of "The Diary of Anne Frank" (acommpanying the five part Mini-Series) |
So I decided to get a copy of her diary, once I started
reading her diary I immediately started to understand how it must have felt to
have lived through a very traumatic period of human history. For someone who
was brought up in the 1990’s it’s quite a difficult thing to try and imagine.
But for whatever reason the way she wrote her diary meant that for the first
time, I felt ‘connected’ and emotional about what happened to her and all those
who lived in the secret annex unlike any other historical event I’ve studied.
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| My picture of me and Mum outside The Anne Frank House Museum, back in 2011 |
I was also lucky enough to visit Amsterdam with my Mum back
in 2011, where we visited The Anne Frank House Museum. Which was an amazing
place to visit. It’s not until you actually step into the annex that you start
to realise just how cramped it actually it is (the hiding place in 3D).
[English version narrated by Tamsin Greig, voiced by Ellie Kendrick]
This makes it even more astounding how eight people lived in the confided space for two years, three months before being discovered on the 4th of August 1944.
[English version narrated by Tamsin Greig, voiced by Ellie Kendrick]
This makes it even more astounding how eight people lived in the confided space for two years, three months before being discovered on the 4th of August 1944.
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| Cross section of Prinsengracht 263, including the secret annex (highlighted in red) |
After the unexpected discovery of the Secret annex by the
Gestapo the eight people who had called it ‘home’ for all that time, were taken
to Gestapo (RSHA) Headquarters to be interrogated and held overnight. They were
then transferred to the Huis van Bewaring (House of Detention), an overcrowded
prison on the Weteringschans. On the 7th of August 1944 they were
then moved to the Westerbork Transit Camp.
Meanwhile the helpers were also being punished for their
involvement with the Achterhuis (other name for the annex). Bep (Voskuijl) and
Miep (Gies) were the two helpers who got let off the lightest, as they were
questioned and threatened by the Gestapo. Johannes (Kleiman) and Victor (Kugler)
were arrested and then jailed in the Amersfoot penal camp. Johannes was
fortunately released after seven weeks in imprisonment. Victor was less
fortunate spending the rest of the war doing work in numerous Labour Camps.
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| Auschwitz Concentration Camp gates |
After spending 27 days (3rd of September) at the
Westerbork Transit Camp the group from the annex were then deported to the
notorious Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
Following three days travelling in cramped conditions they
arrived at the camp. Once there the 1,019 passengers were divided into
different groups. The men were forced into one group, separating them from the
women and children. Whilst another group (made up of 549 people) were taken horrifically
directly from the train into the gas chambers.
Within the group from the annex, Hermann Van Pels died as a
victim of the gas chambers soon after the group’s arrival. Towards the end of
December, Fritz Pfeffer also died from an illness at the Neuengamme
Concentration Camp.
By October of 1944 the Frank women were due to join the
transport going to the Liebau Labour Camp. But Anne had contracted scabies and
was prohibited to go. Because of this Edith and Margot opted to stay with Anne.
It was thought after the war, that if the women had gone to
Liebau Labour Camp they would have had a better chance of surviving.
Because they decided not to go to Liebau Labour Camp Anne,
Margot and Auguste Van Pels were selected to be relocated to Bergen-Belsen Death Camp, where the women had a low chance of surviving.
Edith Frank was left behind at Auschwitz Concentration Camp,
where she later died of starvation (6th January 1945). It should be
noted that the Auschwitz Concentration Camp was liberated on the 27th
of January 1945. After spending sometime at the Bergen-Belsen Death Camp to Auguste
Van Pels got separated from Anne and Margot on the 6th of February
1945, when she was initially transferred to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. After a bit of time there she was then sent to the Theresienstadt Concentration
Camp, but sadly before she arrived there Auguste was murdered. Due to all the
confusion the date she died is unknown. But it is estimated that she died sometime
between the 9th of April-8th May 1945.
Around the same
time at the beginning of May 1945 the next member of the annex died. Peter VanPels died at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp after joining a Death March, exestuation
possibly lead to his death. Although the date he died is unknown, the
International Red Cross designated his death as the 2nd of May 1945.
Which would have been three days before the Camp was liberated on the 5th
of May 1945.
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| International Red Cross patch |
The last two members of the secret annex to lose their lives
in a Concentration Camp were Margot Frank and the young diarist Anne. Strictly
speaking they died a few days apart in early March 1945. But I thought I would
talk about them last, as I think it will have more of an impact.
After Auguste Van Pels was transferred to another camp,
conditions for the Frank sisters slowly worsened in the Bergen-Belsen Death
Camp.
Disease pandemics were thrift and easily spread around the camp, mainly due to a lack of hygiene in the camp. The most common diseases found in Concentration Camps were Dysentery, starvation, Rickets (Vitamin D deficiency), food poisoning, Beriberi (lack of thiamine), Pallagra (Vitamin B and Protein deficiency), Marasmus (protein deficiency), Typhoid and Typhus.
Disease pandemics were thrift and easily spread around the camp, mainly due to a lack of hygiene in the camp. The most common diseases found in Concentration Camps were Dysentery, starvation, Rickets (Vitamin D deficiency), food poisoning, Beriberi (lack of thiamine), Pallagra (Vitamin B and Protein deficiency), Marasmus (protein deficiency), Typhoid and Typhus.
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| Anne & Margot's gravestone at the site of Belsen Death Camp (Bergen-Belsen Memorial) |
It is thought that the Frank sisters died from the latter,
when a Typhus epidemic spread through the camp in March of 1945 killing 17,000
people. Margot in a weakened state was the first sibling to perish, dying from
the shock of falling out of her bunk.
After seeing this, it is thought that Anne passed away a
couple of days later. Believing that her whole family had died.
The saddest part of the story is that if only they’d held on
a couple of weeks longer, the camp was liberated on the 15th of
April 1945 by Soviet troops.
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| Otto Frank standing in the secret annex on the morning of the official opening of The Anne Frank House Museum |
The only reason anyone’s ever heard of Anne Frank is due to her
father, who was the only member of the Secret Annex to survive. He was
liberated from Auschwitz by soviet troops on the 27th of January
1945.
On his six month journey back to Amsterdam (via Odessa &
Marseille) he was informed that Edith hadn’t been able to hold onto life long
enough for liberation.
Once Otto finally returned to Amsterdam on the 3rd
of June 1945, he headed straight to Miep Gies house, as he wanted to see what
information she had heard about the girls...but alias she did not.
So each day Otto would walk to Amsterdam Central Station (destination for trains from concentration camps) to find out any information concerning the whereabouts of his daughters.
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| My picture of Amsterdam Central Station, back in 2011 |
Although weeks later, the moment he feared slowly became
true, as he was told the tragic news about his daughters (from a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen Death
Camp).
Meaning that he was the only survivor from the group capable of enduring life in a concentration camp.
Meaning that he was the only survivor from the group capable of enduring life in a concentration camp.
Miep decided to house Otto, partly as he had nowhere to
return too…but to also allow them to ‘catch up’ whilst Otto was getting himself
back on his feet. This also gave her the perfect opportunity to give him his younger
daughter’s diary (containing five notebooks, and three hundred loose pages).
Which she recovered (from the ‘Secret Annex’) after sneaking up there following
the groups arrest by the Gestapo.
He always knew his youngest daughter wanted to become an
author or journalist when she grew up. She hoped that she could gain entry into
the profession with her wartime writings, possibly leading to their
publication.
This is something she worked towards even in hiding, as she
started to edit her diary. So that it was ready for publication after the war.
After hearing the radio broadcast by an exiled Dutch government official (Gerrit Bolkestein talking from London, England) urging people to keep accounts
(including journals, letters and diaries) that would provide a record of what
life was like under German occupation.
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| Het Achterhuis, the first Dutch edition of Anne Frank's diary, published on the 25th June 1947 |
It’s that edited version of Anne’s diary, Otto had published in the Netherlands under the title of “Het Acheterhuis” (which translates as the
“Rear Annex” in English) by the 25th June 1947.
It’s not until 1952 before the book (retitled as “The Diary
of a Young Girl”) began to be published in America, despite various fears including
the fact that it was too depressing. In spite of those fears the book has gone
on sell over thirty million copies to date, and has been translated into
seventy languages…in over sixty countries around the world!
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| My picture of statue of Anne Frank (by Mari Andriessen) outside the Westerkerk Church in Amsterdam, back in 2011 |
Since the books release, Anne has gone on to become a symbol
for equality, and the fight against prejudice and discrimination of people of
different race or religion. Unfortunately these are issues we’re still plagued
with to this day.
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| The eternal flame of remembrance |
Before I end, I would just like to ask you to please take a moment to remember all those caught up in the Holocaust.
(International Holocaust Remembrance Day is on the 27th January)
(International Holocaust Remembrance Day is on the 27th January)
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| Anne's Diary |
It’s with their help, I’ve been able to assure myself that I’ve done this topic justice as I think you realise (from this and the episode) it’s an interest quite close to my heart.
Probably more than I think, as I suspect reading Anne’s
Diary inspired me to start the ‘diary of our day’ in the form of this very Blog…so thank
you Anne!!!
This is Simon from The Engage Podcast signing out!
