In , Otto Frank and his family went into hiding in a secret annex above his office. In , the Gestapo raided the annex and the family was sent to Auschwitz. Frank was the only one to survive. He died in Basel, Switzerland, on August 19, Frank had three siblings: an older brother, and a younger brother and sister.
His father, Michael, ran the family bank. After graduating from high school, Frank spent a summer studying art history at the University of Heidelberg.
Following this summer semester, Frank worked at a local bank for one year. He had also recently begun studying economics. When a former classmate set up an internship for Frank at Macy's Department Store in Manhattan, New York, he jumped at the chance to gain business experience.
Unfortunately, in , just a couple of weeks after Frank arrived in New York for his internship, his father passed away. Frank quickly headed home for the funeral. Determined to forge ahead in his career, Frank soon returned to the states and spent the next two years working there—first at Macy's and later at a bank.
It was he who tutored Anne, Margot, and Peter, it was he who always tried to soothe members of the group when tempers flared up and nerves were frazzled, and it was he who consoled and encouraged Anne and, presumably, the other members of the group, when the strain of being cooped up, in hiding, and under nightly bombardment became almost too much for them to bear.
He readily shared his hiding place with another family, the Van Daans, and later on with another man, Mr. When the Nazis discovered the hiding place, all the members of the group, together with the two business associates who had been helping them, Mr. Koophuis and Mr. Kraler, were taken to Gestapo headquarters. Frank told Mr. Koophuis how bad he felt, knowing that his friend was being imprisoned for helping him. Koophuis told him not to give it another thought, that it had been his decision and he would not have done anything else.
The group traveled together, without their Gentile helpers, by train to the reception camp at Westerbork. Although conditions there were bad, the families were still together, so their spirits were not too low.
They knew the possibility of deportation to Poland existed, and they were aware of what happened at Auschwitz, Treblinka, Maidanek, and other concentration camps. On the other hand, they knew that the Allies were advancing and that the Russian Army was already deep in Poland, so that if luck were on their side, they might survive until the war was over. Although the sexes were housed in separate barracks at Westerbork, Mr. Frank was able to visit his wife and daughters in the women's barracks.
He spent some time at a company that produced horseshoes. The First World War initially seemed to pass Otto by, but he enlisted in When the war ended, Otto had been promoted to lieutenant and was decorated. After his return, he joined the family bank. The couple settled in Frankfurt am Main and had two daughters, Margot and Anne They had a good life, although they worried about the future.
Germany was in crisis. The country had been hit hard by the global economic crisis of and many people lived in dire poverty. Hitler and his party took advantage of the feelings of dissatisfaction, and their support increased. In early , Otto and Edith took the plunge. They decide to leave Nazi Germany because of their business problems and the growing antisemitism of Hitler and his followers.
In the Netherlands, Otto worked hard to get his company going and build a new life for his family. Meanwhile, the developments in Nazi Germany continued to give cause for concern. From onwards, Otto looked into options for setting up a business in Great Britain, but the plans never worked out.
Things looked better financially when Otto started selling spices and herbs in addition to the pectin in The second company was named Pectacon. Hermann van Pels joined the company and took on part of the work. The feeling of freedom came to an abrupt end when the German army invaded the Netherlands in May of From 15 May onwards, the Netherlands was occupied territory. The Nazis kept introducing new anti-Semitic measures. With the help of his employees and Jan Gies Miep's husband , Otto succeeded in keeping his companies out of Nazi hands.
In the course of , the situation got worse: Jewish men were arrested during raids and taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp. After a while, reports of their deaths started coming in. Otto made every effort to emigrate to the US with the help of a former fellow student in order to escape the persecution of the Jews.
But he never managed to get all the necessary documents together, and the option ran out when the US got involved in the war. At that point, all borders were closed. In the spring of , Otto decided to set up a hiding place in an empty part of his business premises. He almost always supports Anne and frequently takes her side during family arguments.
He is generous, kind, and levelheaded, while the other adults in the annex can be stingy, harsh, and emotional. Unlike Mr. Dussel, for example, Mr. Frank always tries to save the best food for the children and takes the smallest portion for himself.
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