Anne Frank

Both men and women could attend the Westend Synagogue. The inner space and balcony comprised a total of 1,600 seats. Amongst the attendants of this synagogue were descendants of the Jews who had lived in Judengasse—a ghetto. Aside from the orthodox synagogue at Friedberger Anlage, this was the largest synagogue in Frankfurt.

Hitler’s popularity grew as a result of the crisis; he continued hammering away at how the Jews were the main cause of the crisis, and in his book, Mein Kampf, the dictator revealed his plan to exterminate all Jews. Unemployed working class people, side-tracked 2 military men and industrialists thought they could capitalise on the war industry.

The environment grew increasingly hostile of Jews. Otto decided to move to 24 Ganghoferstrasse when he discovered that his landlord felt sympathetic towards the Nazis. This must have been very painful for Otto: he had fought for his country in WWI and afterwards was discarded by the Germans as a Jew. Otto must have felt betrayed.

From 1930 onwards, Hitler’s propaganda blaming the German government for not having eradicated the Jews before WWI became increasingly prominent.

People sometimes say that children were not aware of the danger at hand. ²⁹ Margot and Anne were still very young; nevertheless, they must have sensed Otto and Edith’s tensions. Parents did their utmost to keep their children aloof from the Nazi danger.

Another reason why Otto moved to 24 Ganghoferstrasse was the decline of his banking business, which forced him to look for a cheaper apartment. His sister Helene Frank (1893-1986, hereafter referred to as Helene) ³⁰ had moved to Switzerland in 1930 because it provided new job opportunities for her husband Erich Elias (1890- 1984, hereafter referred to as Erich). His brother Herbert left the family bank and moved to Paris in 1932. During the move, Anne temporarily stayed with her neighbours and their daughter, Gertrud Naumann (1917-2002), ³¹ at 303 Marbachweg.

From late March 1931 to late March 1933, the Franks rented a five-room apartment on the ground floor of 24 Ganghoferstrasse. Unlike the one at Marbachweg, the urban villa at 24 Ganghoferstrasse did not have a balcony. It did, however, have a backyard and an inner court where Margot and Anne could play. The house was smaller than 307 Marbachweg. The family had taken their old furniture and furnished their home with pretty steel-blue couches and oval side- tables. ³² The white building had a protruding façade with window shutters, and was situated in a suburb of Frankfurt am Main that was known as the poets’ district: many physicians, lawyers and architects resided here. It was one of the many urban villas in the street.

Ganghoferstrasse was within walking distance from Marbachweg in a north-western direction, on the other side of Eschersheimer Landstraße. Although they lived a mile away from Marbachweg, Anne and Margot kept in touch with some of their old friends from the area. They also quickly made friends in their new neighbourhood.

Margot attended the Ludwig Richter Schule (10 Hinter den Ulmen, Frankfurt am Main). ³³ At this progressive school, Anne received Jewish religious education. ³⁴ There used to be a green meadow across the street where the children would play on the sandy hills; now, however, these have been built over. Margot loved to pull Anne on a little sledge. In the (back)yard, the children would play with water in an old metal bucket. The Franks were a tolerant family, and Anne and Margot would play with children from various backgrounds: Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. Margot attended a friend’s Communion celebration. When the Franks celebrate Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish winter festival, neighbouring children would join in. Whenever Anne’s cousins, Stephan Elias (1921-1980, hereafter referred to as Stephan) and Bernhard ‘Buddy’ Elias (born in 1925, hereafter referred to as Buddy), visited, the children would be spoiled and the house would be full of toys.

Some defended the Jews that had fought in the German army during WWI. In 1932, the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten (National League of Jewish Front Soldiers) handed the German president Paul Ludwig Hans von Beneckendorf und von Hindenburg (1847-1934, hereafter referred to as Hindenburg) the book Die jüdischen Gefallenen des Deutschen Heeres, der deutschen Marine und der deutschen Schutstruppen 1914-1918. Ein Gedenkbuch. (Jewish soldiers killed in action serving the German army, the German navy and the German defence troops 1914-1918. A memorial book.). ³⁵ This, however, did not decrease anti-Semitism: ‘I [Otto] remember that even in 1932, SA troops would march by singing: ‘When Jewish blood splashes off the knife’. ³⁶ Otto and Edith were burdened by financial problems and the antagonistic atmosphere; however, yet they wanted their children to 3 live a care-free life as much as possible. Their mother would regularly take Anne and Margot shopping in the Frankfurt am Main city centre. Edith would buy clothes for her children, who always looked impeccable. Edith once bought a beautiful, white fur coat for Anne and a pair of patent-leather shoes for Margot. After shopping, they often went to a café on Hauptwache in the centre of Frankfurt am Main. Edith would treat Anne and Margot to Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake). Edith and Otto must have noticed the anti-Semitic slogans chalked on the shop windows, indicating the doom at hand.

On 31 July 1932, fourteen million German citizens voted for Hitler, which made his national-socialist party, the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), the largest party in the new Reichstag parliament. ³⁷ On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg appointed Hitler as the Reichskanzler (national chancellor), heralding the end of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933).

Otto about Hitler: ‘We [Otto and Edith] were sitting around the table listening to the radio. Then came the news that Hitler had become Chancellor. This was followed by a report of the SA torch lit procession in Berlin and we could hear the screaming and cheering. Hitler ended his speech with the words, “Just give me four years.” Our host then said enthusiastically: “Let’s see what that man can do!” I was speechless, my wife stunned.’ ³⁸ On 13 March 1933, the Nazis celebrated their victory in the city hall (Römer) at Römerberg. Swastika flags waved on the porch. Following the takeover by the Nazis, the Jewish mayor, Ludwig Landmann (1868-1945), fled to Berlin and the Nazis instated their own front man. In Anne’s times, Römerberg was the city’s central square, with medieval buildings and a city hall. Hitler eliminated his opponents and outlawed the Jews.

Soon after the takeover, the SA (Sturmabteilung, the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party) barricaded the entrances of Jewish businesses. Otto’s (Jewish) family bank was greatly affected by the national- socialist rule and, before long, Otto was unable to afford the rent of 24 Ganghoferstrasse. ³⁹ He and his family temporarily moved in with his mother, Alice, on Mertonstrasse. ⁴⁰ The urban villa was in the Westend 3 area, close to the synagogue. This was the house in which Otto grew up, and he lived there with his family from late March 1933 to July 1933.

Friedrich Krebs (1894-1961), Frankfurt’s new mayor, ⁴¹ coordinated the dismantling of Jewish shops and the removal of all Jewish doctors, lawyers, and any other Jewish entrepreneurs, from their posts. The leading Jewish-owned department store Tietz, ⁴² founded by Hermann Tietz (1837-1907), had branches in all major European cities but, by Nazi order, the Dresdner Bank appointed Georg Karg (1888-1972) as the new director of the enterprise, replacing the Jewish-owned Tietz by Hertie-Warenhausunternehmen. Jews were banned from these ‘Aryanised’ businesses.

On 1 April 1933, Nazi students and the SA occupied the University of Frankfurt. With the help of these students, Jewish professors and students were expelled from university.

The University of Frankfurt (Goethe-Universität, Senckenberganlage 31) ⁴³ had been founded in 1914. Its campus was located near to Alice’s home on Mertonstrasse. ‘Shortly after Hitler seized power, the national-socialists expelled from the universities all Jewish and any opposing scientists and students. The University of Frankfurt was particularly adversely affected by these enforcements: teaching permissions of 100 Jewish scientists were withdrawn in the spring of 1933; one-third of all professors were forced to step down; another 16 teachers voluntarily left their posts out of political conviction; many students were expelled from the university and forced to give up their studies. Frankfurt’s internationally renowned, liberal university was turned into a ‘well-aligned’ educational institution.’ ⁴⁴ The Nazis were very influential in the construction industry; project managers and contractors were eager to accept Nazi projects. In 1930, IG Farben (Interessen Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft) moved into a monumental building at 1 Grüneburgplatz, built in the style of the New Objectivity.

IG Farben was a large chemical concern that produced Zyklon B, which would be used by the Nazis to kill millions of Jews in Eastern European extermination camps ten years later.

The Nazis implemented restrictions that isolated Jews from society. The school board refuse to enrol Anne in pre-school because she was Jewish. Margot attended the Varrentrapp school, where she had to sit apart from her non-Jewish classmates; she was seven at the time. Many Jews left Frankfurt am Main after the Nazis had assumed power. The sculptor Benno Elkan (1877-1960), for example, emigrated from Frankfurt am Main to London. ⁴⁵ After the war, Otto refers to this period in a letter: ‘When many of my fellow Germans changed into multitudes of nationalist, cruel, anti-Semitic criminals, I had to draw the obvious conclusion and, although I was very much aggrieved by it, I realised that Germany was not the only place in the world and left my country for good.’ ⁴⁶ The family banking business continued to decline, and Otto wanted to prevent his property from falling into the hands of the Nazis. He also wanted to protect his wife and children from Hitler’s violence.

Otto aimed for Amsterdam because he had some important contacts there. In 1933, Otto’s brother-in-law Erich offered him the opportunity to set up a business in the Netherlands, which is why he did not want to leave for Switzerland, London or the United States.

Apparently, Otto did not want to send his children to Palestine either. The Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden ⁴⁷ was a society that supported Jews who wanted to emigrate and Jewish children who wanted to move to Palestine. Alice left 4 Mertonstrasse and moved to Basel. She had a difficult time bidding farewell to 4 Mertonstrasse, having lived there for thirty years.

In Frankfurt am Main, Anne’s place of birth, I stayed in Hotel National near the Hauptbahnhof central station, and strolled along many of these places that are reminiscent of Anne.

When Anne was born, approximately 540,000 people lived in Frankfurt am Main, including 30,000 Jews. Frankfurt am Main had the second largest population of Jews in Germany, after Berlin. Three 3 out of four Jews were murdered during WWII, including Anne. There were other communities that also suffered greatly under the Nazi regime, such as the gypsies. Survivors had not just lost their family, but also their homes and possessions. Otto, the only survivor amongst the people hiding in the Annex, lost his wife and children.

The assassination of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath (1909- 1938) on 7 November 1938 in Paris, allegedly committed by the 17 year old Polish Jew Herschel Grynszpan (1921-1942), was a ‘good’ excuse for the Nazis to destroy Jewish property in Frankfurt am Main during the Reichskristallnacht (8-9 November 1938). The Westend Synagogue was damaged by a fire, and all other Frankfurt synagogues were completely destroyed by the Nazis.

Anne was nine at the time, leading a care-free life at Merwedeplein, oblivious of the horrors going on in her home town. The Nazis did not just damage Jewish properties in Frankfurt am Main, but throughout Germany. They ransacked over 1,600 German synagogues. Even the Museum Jüdischer Altertümer was destroyed and looted by gangs. The Gestapo deported the liberal rabbi of the Westend Synagogue, Georg Salzberger (1882-1975), ⁴⁸ to the Dachau concentration camp. Apparently, he was released: he emigrated to the UK in 1939. The Nazis also confiscated Jewish property. The so- called Judenvertrag that took effect on 3 April 1939 compelled Jews to sell their property for next to nothing, and they were held liable for the damage the Nazis had done. The Nazis enjoyed humiliating the Jewish community. Otto’s possessions were relatively safe because he had moved to Amsterdam and was running a business at 400 Singel.

Throughout WWII, the Westend Synagogue served as a furniture storage for the citizens of Frankfurt. Anne was already hiding in the Annex when British bombs destroyed Frankfurt am Main’s medieval city centre on 22 March 1944. The Westend Synagogue was severely damaged during this air raid, and the Hauptwache ⁴⁹ and the Klinik des Vaterländischen Frauenvereins in der Eschenheimer Anlage ⁵⁰ did not remain unharmed either. The Untermainbrücke ‘arose from its ashes’ following the war.

Nothing is left of the old medieval town that Anne would stroll through as a very young child. Many Jewish monuments have also disappeared for good. Some of the old buildings, such as the baroque café on Hauptwache, were reconstructed after WWII. Because of its strategic location at the river Main, Frankfurt managed to recuperate quickly. It is now a modern city and an important financial centre. The horizon is dominated by tall skyscrapers with lots of glass and steel; because of these buildings, Frankfurt am Main is sometimes referred to as Europe’s Manhattan. Old and new buildings are scattered randomly across the map in an architectural chaos. The clear medieval street plan no longer exists.

After the war, the Jüdische Betreuungsstelle der Stadt Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt Municipal Care for the Jews) ⁵¹ took care of the survivors. In 1945, four hundred of them returned to Frankfurt. On 9 November 1946, the Jews remembered their dead on the Jewish cemetery at 10 Rat-Beil-Strasse. ⁵² Only a handful of monuments to the rich, pre-war Jewish life have survived up to the present. For example, the Jewish cemetery at 238 Eckenheimer Landstrasse, ⁵³ founded in 1928, commemorates the 12,000 Jewish citizens of Frankfurt who, like Ann, died during the war, as does the cemetery on Rat-Beil-Straße.

The municipality did not attempt to restore the Westend Synagogue directly after WWII: there was a lack of finances as a result of the war and a lack of faith in the re-emergence of a flourishing Jewish community after the Holocaust. The first post-war religious function in the synagogue was held on 12 September 1945. The sermon was given by Rabbi Leopold Neuhaus (1879-1954), a Theresienstadt survivor. However, many Jews no longer felt at home in Frankfurt am Main, and ended up leaving for the United States and Israel. By 1949, over 5,000 Eastern European Jews had arrived in Frankfurt because they were no longer able to thrive in their own country.

On 6 September 1950, the Westend Synagogue was re- consecrated and, during the 1989-1994 restorations, many original 3 building elements were revealed. The current appearance of the synagogue is very similar to what the Franks would have seen.

Frankfurt University also was heavily damaged during WWII. ⁵⁴ It was rebuilt after the war and re-emerged as a major, international academic centre. The university has not allowed the Holocaust to pass into oblivion. In 2011, the historian Wolfgang Benz (born in 1941) delivered a lecture at the university’s Westend campus—the former premises of IG Farben at 1 Grüneburgplatz—which centred on national-socialist propaganda.

In spite of the heavy bombings on Frankfurt am Main by the allied forces, the IG Farben building survived the war. Since 2000, the Fritz Bauer Institute has been established in this former mass-murder plant. ‘The Fritz Bauer Institute is an interdisciplinary, independent research, documentation and educational organisation that studies the history of national-socialist mass crimes in general and the Holocaust in particular, as well as its impact up to the present. The institute is located in the IG Farben building on the Westend Campus of the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.’ ⁵⁵ A memorial plate at the entrance of the former plant states: ‘This building was designed by the architect Hans Poelzig [(1869-1936)] and erected between 1928 to 1931 as the headquarters of IG Farben Industries. Between 1933 and 1945, as one of the largest chemical concerns in the world, the company increasingly put its scientific knowledge and production technologies into the service of war preparations and the National Socialist regime of terror. From 1942 to 1945, IG Farben, together with the SS, maintained the concentration camp at Buna-Monowitz adjacent to the IG Farben factory at Auschwitz. Of the ten thousand prisoners made to work for the company there, most were murdered. In the Nazi extermination camps many hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Jews, were killed by Zyklon B gas, which was sold by an IG Farben company. From 1945 the building was the seat of the American military government and the High Commissioner for Germany. On 19 September 1945, the State of Hesse was proclaimed here. From 1952 to 1995 the building was the headquarters of the 5 ^th Corps of US Army. Aware of the history of the 3 building, the State of Hesse acquired it in 1996 for the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. In the future it will be used for teaching and research. Nobody can withdraw from the history of one's people. One should know that the past must not be based on forgetting else it returns and becomes the present.’ Visitors can take an architectural tour of this bleak building. ⁵⁶ Anne’s home at 307 Marbachweg also survived WWII. The Franks lived there until late March 1931. When I arrived there, I noticed that, since the old photographs were taken, the urban villa has hardly changed: it is easy to recognise the windows with their green shutters and the gabled roof. The birch tree in front of the 307 Marbachweg residence has grown tremendously since Anne’s times, and now occupies a prominent place in the garden. Anne would look out on a much smaller tree.

One of the current residents allowed me to take photographs outside the building. For security reasons, however, he preferred not to have any pictures taken in the courtyard or inside the house. Of course, I thanked him and respected his wishes. The 307 Marbachweg residence does not have a plate commemorating Anne. She used to have a beautiful view from the balcony, which is now obstructed by cars, fences and the foliage of a tree.

In Frankfurt am Main, the Holocaust is still being studied, and some of the younger citizens are interested in Anne and her legacy. The Jugendbegegnungsstätte Anne Frank e.V youth group ⁵⁷ is located in the Dornbusch district, half a mile from Marbachweg and a mile from Ganghoferstrasse. ⁵⁸ Fortunately, the urban villa at 24 Ganghoferstrasse also survived the war: the suburb was never bombed. The Dornbusch district is situated in the north of Frankfurt am Main. Anne lived there from late March 1931 to late March 1933. Most of the buildings in this street still breathe a thirties atmosphere. The upper floor of 24 Ganghoferstrasse allows a nice view of the street and its urban villas. I like such houses; their individual architecture, the history of their residents and the fact that they are not all the same like terraced 3 houses. I simply ignore the cars, asphalt road, street lighting and road marks that remind me of the present.

I was received on a friendly note by the current residents of 24 Ganghoferstrasse. I rang the doorbell and was lucky to find them home because the letter I had sent them through TNT (currently PostNL) came back to me: the villa has multiple inhabitants and I had not directed my letter to a particular person. The current residents informed me that 24 Ganghoferstrasse is visited regularly by students and journalists who are interested in Anne’s story.

I asked the inhabitants whether they recognised the place in the old photo that shows Anne and her sister playing with one of their friends. They did, and enthusiastically pointed me to their backyard. When I took a current photograph of the backyard from the same perspective, I could feel the emptiness Anne left behind.

I appreciate the interest the inhabitants of 24 Ganghoferstrasse take in the history of their home and its previous residents; it makes me feel supported in my project. There is more overgrowth at the back of the house now, and most of the paving stones have made way for a lawn. The sandpit Anne used to play in has disappeared from the backyard. The outline of neighbours’ house is still partly the same, although the open veranda is now a closed veranda.

Three and a half miles south of 24 Ganghoferstrasse was 4 Jordanstrasse where the Franks stayed with Otto’s mother Alice from late March 1933 to July 1933. It is not easy to find 4 Jordanstrasse because the street names changed after WWII. From 1917 through to 1933, Jordanstrasse was known as Mertonstrasse, a name which was then changed to Dantestrasse. Strangely enough, the current Jordanstrasse starts with a number 6. The friendly owner of a café in the current Jordanstrasse handed me an old black-and-white photograph showing the beautiful stately mansions of the 1930 Jordanstrasse. Alice’s home was also in this street: it had a large dome and was surrounded by lush overgrowth. Unfortunately, her former house in Jordanstrasse was demolished following WWII. The neighbourhood’s old atmosphere is completely gone.

After WWII, some of Frankfurts’ inhabitants blamed the Jews for the terrors of the war. Gradually, however, when people were able to look back on the war more objectively, they became a little more understanding towards the Jews.

In 1957, 2,000 teenagers travelled from Hamburg to Bergen- Belsen to commemorate Anne’s death. The memorial plate on the façade of 24 Ganghoferstrasse was placed on their initiative. Its inscription reads: ‘This used to be Anne Frank’s house (born on 12/06/1929 in Frankfurt A. Main). She became a victim of the national-socialist persecution and died in the Bergen-Belsen KZ-Lager in 1945. Her life and death—our obligation. The youth of Frankfurt.’ ⁵⁹ There was a memorial service in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt in the same year. ⁶⁰ The plate at 24 Ganghoferstrasse is the only sign I have seen on the former residences of Anne in Frankfurt am Main that commemorates her as a war victim. Although Frankfurt am Main does show some interest in her, there is a noticeable lack of a prominent statue of Anne in the centre of her place of birth.

There are, however, some general references to the war in the city centre. The commemorative plaque on Römerberg reads: ‘In this place, on 10 May 1933, national-socialist students burnt the books of literary authors, scientists, essayists and philosophers.’ The edge of the plaque reads: ‘This was merely a prelude, for where people burn books, people will eventually burn people.’ ⁶¹ This is a quote from Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). The books burnt by the Nazis had been written by Jewish authors and social critics, such as Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) and Bertold Brecht (1898- 1956).

There are a few references to Anne outside of the city centre, such as the Anne Frank School ⁶² and the Anne Frank Strasse. The Jewish Monument at Battonnstrasse commemorates the Jewish inhabitants of Frankfurt am Main who were murdered, including Anne. ⁶³ It is located next to the former synagogue that was destroyed during Kristallnacht in 1938. The Historic Museum in Frankfurt am Main 4 organised exhibitions about Anne. The exhibition Anne Frank in the World, 1929-1945 took place in the Paulskirche ⁶⁴ in 1985. ⁶⁵ In 1992, the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt am Main (14/15 Untermainkai) ⁶⁶ opened the Museum Judengasse, which exhibits the history of Judaism in Frankfurt am Main and commemorates the Jewish inhabitants of Frankfurt who were killed by the Nazis. In 2008, I visited a special photographic exhibition Special Express to Death: Deportation on the German National Railway about the role the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) played in transporting Jews and gypsies to the concentration camps. Anne is listed in the Gedenkbuch Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945 (Memorial Book: Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National-Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933-1945) by the German Federal Archives ⁶⁷ that accompanied the exhibition.

Anne’s photograph was probably not on display in this exhibition since she was not deported directly from Germany to the extermination camps in the east. When she was deported from the Westerbork camp to Auschwitz, however, she will have been transferred onto the German National Railway once she had crossed the German border.

The exhibition also displayed many children of Anne’s age group who had lived in Germany or had fled to France and who were killed by the Nazis. Steffi Bernheim, for example, was born on 11 January 1930 in Berlin. The Bernheims fled Germany and went to live in Paris, France, on 60 Rue de Provence. Steffi was arrested during a large-scale razzia and sent to Auschwitz on transport 23 on 24 August 1942, where she joined her mother, who had been imprisoned earlier.

Her father, Walter, and brother, Norbert, followed on transport 57 on 18 July 1943. ⁶⁸ This family’s fate is no less tragic than that of the Franks.

I experience my environment best when I walk. I ended up walking many miles to visit Anne’s locations. In spite of my hiking shoes, I had blisters on my feet. The current residents of 24 Ganghoferstrasse were considerate enough to offer me a ride back to 4 my hotel near Frankfurt central station, where I could enjoy a good night’s sleep.