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 Otto Frank on 23 july 1968.Photo by  for 

Top 10 Amazing Facts about Otto Frank

Otto Heinrich Frank was a German businessman who later became a resident of the Netherlands and Switzerland.

1.He Valued Jewish Traditions Despite Not Observing All Religious Laws

 Jewish Prayers e Photo by Anton Mislawsky on Unsplash

Otto Frank was a German liberal Jew who valued Jewish traditions and holidays but did not observe all religious laws and is best known as Anne鈥檚 father after ensuring her daughter鈥檚 diary is published. and without him, there would not have been an Anne Frank House.

2. The Sole Member Of His Family Who Survived The Holocaust

Holocaust effects Photo by  on 

He was the father of Anne and Margot Frank and husband of Edith Frank and was the sole member of his family to survive the Holocaust. He inherited Anne’s manuscripts after her death, arranged for the publication of her diary and named it 鈥淭he Diary of a Young Girl in 1947, and oversaw its adaptation to both theater and film.

After graduating from high school, Frank is reported to have spent the summer studying art history at the University of Heidelberg.

3. He was Recruited into the Army in 1915 and Promoted Before the End of World War I

Army uniform Photo by Hannah Wernecke on Unsplash

Otto returned to Germany after his father’s sudden death in 1909. He worked at a company that produced horseshoes before being enlisted in the army in 1915 during World War I.

 He was part of a 鈥楲ichtmesstrupp’, a unit that analyzed where enemy artillery fire came from. When the war ended, Otto had been promoted to lieutenant and was decorated. After his return, he joined the family bank.

4. He Married a Holocaust Survivor Like Him After the Death of His First Wife

At the age of 36, Otto married Edith Holl盲nder. They then settled in Frankfurt n and had two daughters, Margot (1926) and Anne (1929). Initially, they enjoyed a good life until the German crisis.

During this time country had been hit hard by the global economic crisis of 1929 and many people living in dire poverty. Hitler and his party took advantage of the feelings of dissatisfaction, and their support increased. Meanwhile Frank was working in the bank that his father initially ran, but had been taken over by him and his brothers l its collapse in the early 1930s.

In 1953, he again married Elfriede Geiringer, a Holocaust survivor after the passing on of his wife. She assisted him with the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel. Currently, Geiringer’s daughter, Eva Schloss, is a Holocaust survivor, peace activist, and international speaker

5. He set up a Hiding Place For His Family And Employees In 1942 During The War

 In the spring of 1942 even in adversity, Otto decided to set up a hiding place in an empty part of his business premises during the second world war. If necessary, there would be enough room for his own family and the family of his employee Hermann van Pels, seven people in all. Otto asked four of his closest employees to take care of him and his family if they would have to go into hiding. All of them agreed.

 Though the hiding place was not quite ready when Margot received a call-up on 5 July 1942 to report to a labor camp in Nazi Germany. Still, Otto and his wife decided to move to Prinsengracht 263 with Margot and Anne the next morning.

6. He Loved Reading Charles Dickens Books

We are also told that he loved reading when not busy with the companies, Otto loved to read Charles Dickens, with a dictionary at hand, according to Anne. Anne: 鈥淎 little Latin never reads novels but likes serious and dry-as-dust descriptions of people and countries.鈥�

7. Otto was a Mediator and Peacemaker

While assuming that living with other partners in hiding would make life less monotonous, it turned out that more problems arose because of differences in character and views. Otto was therefore forced to mediate in the countless larger and smaller arguments.

In her diary, Anne wrote: 鈥淒addy goes about with his lips tightly pursed, when anyone speaks to him, he looks up startled, as is he is afraid he will have to patch up some tricky relationship again. (…) Quite honestly, I sometimes forget who we are quarreling with and with whom we’ve made it up.鈥�

Miep Gies remembered Otto in the Secret Annex as 鈥榯he calm one, the children鈥檚 teacher, the most logical, the one who balanced everyone out. He was the leader, the one in charge.鈥�

8. The Daughter Regarded Him As One Of The Kindest, Smartest, Most Thoughtful, Persons

As per the daughter, “Frank is one of the kindest, smartest, most gentle, and thoughtful fathers imaginable. He almost always supported her and frequently took her side during family arguments.”

Anne feels a special closeness to her father since she sees herself as more similar to him than to her mother or sister.

9. Frank鈥檚 Daughter was a Champion for Reconciliation and Human Rights

Otto鈥檚 daughter though she died long before him, was a strong crusader for reconciliation as evidenced by Anne’s diary.  Her works have raised a lot of interest among other authors.

About the letters, Otto wrote: 鈥業 often end my letters by writing: 鈥淚 hope that Anne’s book will impact the rest of your life so that insofar as it is possible in your circumstances, you will work for unity and peace.鈥�

Otto died on 19 August 1980. Shortly before his death, he said in an interview: 鈥業 am almost ninety now and my strength is slowly fading. But the mission that Anne passed on, keeps giving me new strength – to fight for reconciliation and human rights across the world.

10. Otto Received His Daughter’s Diary In 1945 After Her Death

1945, when he met with the Brilleslijper sisters, who had been imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen with Anne and Margot. They told him about their miserable last months and their deaths due to illness and exhaustion. After the death of Ann and Margot, Miep handed Anne’s diaries over to Otto. At first, he could not summon the courage to read them, but once he started, he was gripped by her writing.

He copied passages from the diaries and asked family and friends to read them. Some of them pushed him to have her diaries published, but that was easier said than done. Eventually, Otto found a publisher, and Anne鈥檚 diary was published two years after the war:

鈥淎nne would have been so proud if she had lived to see it,鈥� Otto wrote about that first Dutch edition. Translations into French, German, and English were soon to follow.

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