Victor Kugler: The Man Who Hid Anne Frank

I first encountered Anne Frank when I was in the 4th grade. After hearing about her in school my best friend and I rushed to the library that same day to check out her diary. There was only one copy, so we decided to read it together. Because I was a faster reader, I peeked ahead to the end of the book, curious to find out what had happened to Anne after the war. Where was she now? What had happened to the rest of her family?

I was shocked to discover that Anne had died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp a few days before the camp was liberated. Although our teacher had told us the family had been discovered, he neglected to mention that Anne’s father was the only one to survive the war. I think this was the first time I had show more encountered a “story” where everything had not turned out all right for the protagonist. I was devastated. And yet I persevered in reading Anne’s diary and, like so many people before and since, I was changed by this lively, curious, and talented young woman.

When I was 17, I visited the Secret Annexe in Amsterdam where Anne and her family had hidden. I saw the bookcase door and the photos of movie stars Anne had pasted to the wall. I saw how small the space was where eight people had hidden for so long and how exposed their hiding place was to the outside world. It is truly astonishing that they escaped detection for as long as they did.

Those who sheltered the Franks and van Daams did not seek publicity, fame, or recognition, and it was many years before any of them stepped forward to supply the other side of the story. In 1987, Miep Gies wrote Anne Frank Remembered, and in 1997, Memories of Anne Frank recounted the story of Anne’s friend Hannah Goslar. And now Victor Kugler’s story fleshes out the picture of what happened to Anne and her family.

Victor Kugler: The Man Who Hid Anne Frank, by Eda Shapiro and Rick Kardonne, is an important book in its contribution to Holocaust history, and it has an interesting publication history. One of the authors, Eda Shapiro, met Kugler in Canada where he eventually settled after the war. In 1969, she began a series of interviews with him that lasted for the next four years. In 1973, Shapiro was instrumental in having Kugler honored as a Righteous Gentile. After Shapiro died in 1992, her husband worked to have the memoirs published, and eventually journalist Rick Kardonne took on the task of organizing the interviews and providing additional information, including a succinct overview of Holland’s role in World War II, and theories postulating why so many Dutch Jews perished in the Holocaust.

Why did Kugler’s personal memories take so long to come to light? I suspect it was his modesty and humility, which ultimately seemed to limit how much he shared with Shapiro, and this is a definite drawback in the book. I suspect Kugler did not see his actions as being particularly heroic and could not have anticipated that future generations would be interested to know the details of how he fed and clothed those in hiding, obtained extra ration cards, and kept the spice business going. Many of those details of the day-to-day challenges of hiding the Secret Annexe residents are not found here.

Kugler’s most detailed recollections begin the day the Secret Annexe residents were discovered and arrested. Kugler and Mr. Kleiman, one of the others responsible for hiding the group, were also arrested. Kugler spent about eight months in various prisons and forced labor camps and came close to death on numerous occasions. Still Kugler found ways to pass information on to the Dutch Underground before he found a way to escape (true to Kugler’s low-key approach, while waiting for darkness to fall to cover their escape, he mended his clothes).

After the war, Kugler lived a quiet life in Toronto, and even after Anne’s diary was published, few knew that he was Mr. Kraler. He was reluctant to share his role in the story. Sadly, after Kugler retired, he and his wife faced financial difficulties, and Kugler died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease in 1981. The last part of the book focuses on how Kugler came to be known as Mr. Kraler and how Eda Shapiro and others worked to gain recognition for him and to help him financially.

I commend Gefen for publishing the book and highly recommend it for all school libraries and for anyone who is interested in Anne Frank and Shoah history. The image I will take away from this book is that of a quiet, courageous, and humble man who picked up a small leaf from the tree he planted in the Avenue of Righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem and wore it on his lapel until the day he died. I cherish what he chose to share in this account but wish he had shared so much more. show less

Almost everyone knows the story of Anne Frank. Far fewer people know the story of one of the men who hid her and her family from the Gestapo for 2 years. The mere fact of having his story of bravery be told makes this book worthwhile.

Victor Kugler's story shines brightest when told in his own voice. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen very often. Large portions of the book are taken from the notes of Eda Shapiro, who interviewed Kugler late in his life. This is fine, as far as it goes, but Shapiro's words are also used to give us historical background information on topics such as WWII and the history of Jews in Holland. Surely a more authoritative source could have been found for these subjects.

At least this historical background is show more interesting. Not so the rest of the book's padding, including descriptions of various dramatic and musical productions of Anne Frank's story that Kugler attended and his reaction to them, and descriptions awards and honors that Kugler was given, including his inclusion among the Righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem, all well-deserved. I could have lived with a lot less of this extraneous material, especially since Kugler's story stands so well on its own.

FTC disclaimer: I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for this review. show less

Most of us are very familiar with the story of Anne Frank, but many are left to wonder what happened to the man that hid Anne and her family. In the book authored by Rick Kardonne, we are walked through the history of Holland, especially it's state during the blemish of Nazism as well as Kuglers' early life and business life with Otto Frank. We then face the years of hiding through the eyes of Kugler, glimpse into Kugler's fond rememberance of the life that Anne exuded without even trying as well as harrowing days of effortlessly trying to protect the family. We then see the tragedy as the Annex is discovered. Most of the stories we read usually ends here, but Kardonne takes the reader on another adventure of arrests, imprisonment in show more concentration camps and escapes. The will to live for all the right reasons. The reader is even allowed to see the work that Eda Shapiro underwent to gain Kugler the recognition of Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem. A must read for fans of Ms. Frank as well as for those fine men and women like Victor Kugler: the fearless, silent hero's. show less

When I first received the book, I was a little underwhelmed by it's history text look, but upon reading it, I found a very interesting story about a man I had no previous knowledge of.

I read "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" in my early teens. It made a powerful impression on me. Anne, the people in the attic, and Mr. Kraler, the man who hid them, left me awe struck. Consequently, when I was given the opportunity to review this title I was excited and immediately sat down to read it.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It is well organized and puts into perspective the historical events of these times, but most importantly it gives insight into the courageous man who hid his friends "because morally he had no choice. It did not occur to him to do otherwise." Victor Kugler, the man Anne referred to as Mr. Kraler, hid his friends for two years. After the hiding place was discovered, he was sent to various labor camps to show more pay for his "crime." This book chronicles these events and documents the rest of his life.

Overall, the authors did a good job of recounting the events of Mr. Kugler's life. My only criticism is that I expected the book to contain more of his personal words, letters, etc. Nonetheless, I recommend this book to anyone interested in the holocaust, WWII, or if you simply want to believe in humanity again. show less

I was 11 when I first read the story of Anne Frank. It was horrifying to think that a girl little older than me had to go through such hardship, and when I found out that she didn't survive, it struck an even deeper chord. It is because of Victor Kugler that the story of Anne Frank exists. I can't believe it has taken me 10 more years to discover his story, but I am glad that I was able to eventually read it.

The parts of this book that detail Kugler's life and gives us his own words are truly magnificent. I was disappointed to find that this wasn't the sole subject of the book. I did appreciate the historical context, because it helped me understand the atmosphere of Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general at the time of The Secret show more Annex. However, the information about various retellings of Anne Frank's stories is extensive and almost irrelevant (except when detailing Kugler's reactions to the adaptations).

The writing itself wasn't particularly interesting (it falls rather dry and flat), but the story is certainly one worth knowing about. show less

This book includes a very helpful, brief history of Holland and the other European countries before WWII, along with the rise of Nazism. Then the author relates the story of Victor Kugler, the hiding place for the Franks and a few others, the discovery of the Jews, the awful circumstances after Kugler's arrest, followed by his more ordinary life after that point.

Mr. Kugler was honored as a "Righteous Gentile," a non-Jewish person who risks his life in order to save the life of a Jew. This humble man never saw what he did for the Jews as being particularly heroic or outstanding. He was only doing what was morally right and helping his friends. Mr. Kugler is an example of many outstanding individuals who also courageously stepped up to show more the plate when duty called during this period of time.

I loved the way Mr. Kugler intelligently outwitted the Nazis and their collaborators not only before being caught, but also while living in the work camps. The unbelievable inhumanity Mr. Kugler described was only matched by the great sacrifices and the good deeds of those who fought against the evil as best they could.

In Appendix 3, I was struck with conviction while reading Irvin Naftolin's quotation of Elie Wiesel (and then his own comment):

"The opposite of love, education, law, is Indifference."

Victor Kugler, who helped to hide Anne Frank, was not indifferent. show less