The Hidden Life of Otto Frank

A rather salacious sounding title, but in fact it's not really the stuff of the National Enquirer.

Otto Frank is primarily known as the father of Anne Frank and this biography tries to give him more dimension. In her diary Anne talks about her parents' as not being a love match and the book provides supporting information.

The book also names Tonny Ahlers as the betrayer. Members of the Ahlers family are quoted as agreeing that he was. Ahlers is mentioned as having blackmailed Otto Frank even after the war to hide the fact that his company had actually been doing business with the German army, a revelation that would have been quite embarassing in the post war years as his daughter became famous.

The heavy emphasis on Ahlers was a drag show more on the entire book. Yes, it's an interesting bit of information but not worthy of all the space given it. show less

Anne Frank and her family are hallowed symbols of all the lives lost in the Holocaust, but the identity of the person who revealed the "secret annex" in which they hid for two years from the Nazis has always remained a mystery. Lee (Roses from the Earth: The Biography of Anne Frank) has, through vigorous, dedicated detective work, uncovered his probable identity. More important, she has uncovered a startling aspect of Otto Frank's life. According to Lee, the Franks were betrayed by Tonny (Anton) Ahlers, a young, troubled, even thuggish, Dutch youth and Nazi informer. But there is more: in 1941, Ahlers saved the Frank family from deportation, but he also began blackmailing Otto after discovering that Frank's food and spice business was show more selling to the German army. Ahlers's blackmail continued until Otto's death in 1980, during the years when Anne's diary became famous and Otto could not risk being seen as a war profiteer. Lee's plain but compelling reporting style suits this material, which is presented as part historical analysis and part mystery. The power of the book, however, resides in her rich, human portrait of Otto Frank, who can now be seen as more than simply "Anne's father." Lee's instinct for displaying the humanity of her subjects is best attested to by her portrayal of Tonny Ahlers, which is so engaging and frighteningly complex that readers will want to know more about him.

Hardcover
edition.

From Booklist

Anne Frank's father, Otto, was the only member of the famous Amsterdam family to survive the concentration camps, and his postwar years were devoted to preserving Anne's memory by publishing her diary--perhaps the most widely read Holocaust work ever--and establishing a charitable foundation in her name. Life after Anne was as surrounded by controversy as it was filled with sorrow. Otto was criticized for his editing of his daughter's diary, chastised for dramatic adaptations downplaying the family's Jewishness, and even accused of wartime opportunism because of his company's contract with the Wehrmacht. The question of who betrayed the Franks to the authorities continues to be a hot topic in the Netherlands. This selection attempts to clear Otto's name while filling in the details of his life. Incorporating new interviews and previously unpublished fragments of Otto's own diary, Lee fingers a previously unsuspected informer, and her convincing detective work may, 60 years later, finally be the last word. Perhaps more important, her biography illustrates the complicated entanglement of resistance and complicity that still haunts Amsterdam. show less