Note To Teachers

Carol Ann Lee's impeccably researched portrait The Hidden Life of Otto Frank brings into sharp focus every facet of
the extraordinary life, both charmed and cursed, of Otto Frank, the father of the most famous young girl of the
twentieth century, Anne Frank. The publication of his daughter's diary, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, turned
this quietly heroic man into a legend, but little until now has been known regarding the intimacies of Frank's life.

In this scholarly and definitive biography, Carol Ann Lee, author of the critically acclaimed Roses from the Earth: The
Biography of Anne Frank, provides the answer to one of the most heartbreaking and bewildering questions of modern
times: Who betrayed Otto Frank and his family to the Nazis? Investigating this startling act of treachery and deceit,
Lee brings to light never-before-documented information about Otto Frank and Tonny Ahlers, the individual who
would ultimately claim responsibility for the betrayal—and their terrifying and complicated relationship that continued
until the day Frank died.

Otto Frank, born one month before Adolf Hitler, was raised in a wealthy German Jewish household that was a model
of European Jewry. In World War I, Frank proudly fought for Germany—which he believed to be his homeland—as
an officer in the trenches of the Somme. In The Hidden Life of Otto Frank Lee documents these privileged early years,
in addition to the happy years that Frank spent with his wife and daughters in Amsterdam before the onset of World
War II. Next came their period in hiding, their eventual betrayal, and their internment in the death camps of Poland
and Germany. For the first time ever, Otto Frank's experiences of life during and after Auschwitz—and during his
return to Amsterdam, where, wholly destitute, he lost everything "except life"—are told in full detail. The subsequent
discovery of his daughter Anne's diary and its publication is what literally helped Frank regain the dignity and strength
to live his life.

Deeply moving and powerfully honest, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank illuminates the complex personality of a brave,
little-understood man whose story encompasses some of the most harrowing and memorable events of the last century.

Questions For Class Discussion

1. The marriage of Otto Frank to Edith Holländer comes under deep scrutiny in The Hidden Life of Otto Frank.
Anne Frank's highly perceptive observation of her parent's marriage that she wrote in her diary on February 8,
1944 and was not published until 1998 proclaimed, "I have the impression that Daddy married Mummy because
he felt she would be a suitable wife. I have to admit I admire Mummy for the way she assumed the role of his
wife and has never, as far as I know, complained or been jealous. . . . Daddy certainly admired Mummy's
attitude and thought she had an excellent character. . . . What kind of marriage has it turned out to be? No
quarrels or differences of opinion-but hardly an ideal marriage. Daddy respects Mummy and loves her, but not
with the kind of love I envision for a marriage. . . . Daddy's not in love. He kisses her the way he kisses us. . . .
One day Daddy is bound to realize that while, on the outside, she has never demanded his total love, on the
inside, she has slowly but surely been crumbling away. She loves him more than anyone, and it's hard to see this
kind of love not being returned" (pp. 23-24). How do you view the marriage of Otto Frank and Edith Holländer?
Is it any less of a marriage because Edith was not the great love of Otto's life? Do you share the view that the
marriage for Otto was "a business arrangement" (p. 23) to rid himself of growing debt with his wife's dowry and
to have the children that he so desperately longed for, or do you find this view cynical, and that the marriage was
a complex affair that went beyond the confines of the romantic notion of marrying simply for love? What then
do you make of Otto's statement that he wrote in 1918, seven years before his marriage to Edith in 1925, that
marrying for reasons other than love resulted in "half a life" (p. 27)?

2. According to Julianne Duke, a former neighbor of the Frank family in Amsterdam whose own family had
emigrated to the United States, her parents had asked the Franks to join them in the United States: "Mrs. Frank
 wrote that she wanted to emigrate, but Mr. Frank saw no need to leave Holland. He trusted in man's basic
goodness, rather than focusing on the darker, irrational side of human nature" (p. 53). How do you think Otto
Frank's temperament affected his family's fate? Was his unquestioning optimism a tragic flaw in his character, or
do you feel that conversely his optimism was the very reason that he miraculously survived the astonishing
brutalities of the Holocaust?

3. Otto Frank eventually realized that Jews living in the Netherlands were facing grim consequences after Denmark
and Norway swiftly fell to the force of the German army on April 9, 1940. Indeed, on May 10, 1940, Germany
invaded the Netherlands. Frank confided in his cousin Milly Stanfield, who lived in London, his fears in a letter
to her that "I don't know what to do about the children. I can't talk to Edith about it. There's no use worrying her
before she has to be worried. Forgive me, but I just had to write it" (pp. 62-63). Milly wisely replied to Otto that
he should send Margot and Anne to London to stay with her, but Otto refused, writing to his cousin that "Edith
and I discussed your letter. We both feel we simply can't do it. We couldn't bear to part with the girls. They
mean too much to us. But if it's any comfort to you, you are the people we would have trusted" (p. 63). How do
you feel about Otto and Edith Frank's curious decision not to send their children to live safely in London? Do
you find their rationale for making this choice not to relinquish the girls selfish, since society deems above all
else the role of parents to ultimately protect their children from harm at whatever cost and sacrifice, or do you
feel that their love for Margot and Anne was too intense and overwhelming, thus making living life without the
girls simply unbearable, and therefore blinding Otto and Edith's better judgment? From your rudimentary
knowledge of the Frank marriage detailed in The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, do you feel that subconsciously the
Frank's might not have wanted to send Margot and Anne to London because their children were the one true
common bond that held the Frank marriage together?

4. Otto Frank cryptically wrote to his lawyer Myer Mermin on October 18, 1955 that "no good comes from giving
way to blackmail" (p. 81). With that bold statement in mind, why do you think than that Otto Frank let himself
be blackmailed by the despicable virulent anti-Semite Tonny Ahlers until Frank's death at the age of 91 in
August 1980? Do you believe it was because that Frank felt that Ahlers saved his life by intercepting the letter
that Joseph Jansen wrote to the Dutch Nazi Party regarding Frank's derogatory comments about the Nazis that
would most certainly have gotten the Frank family deported? Or, do you believe that the reason was because
Tonny Ahlers knew that Otto Frank's business made wartime deliveries to the German Wehrmacht, thus making
Frank a wartime profiteer, a highly embarrassing revelation that would have disgraced and brought criticism to
the world-famous Frank? Did Frank do the right thing by suffering in torturous silence throughout the years and
paying Ahlers, or should he have reported him to the authorities to end this treachery? In retrospect, besides
money, what do you think was Tonny Ahler's primary psychological motivation to blackmail Otto Frank?

5. Judith de Winter, who as a girl was in the Westerbork concentration camp with the Frank family, recalls that
"The new transport from Amsterdam came rolling in, and we watched the people getting down from the train.
There among them was Otto, and beside him, Anne. My mother wanted me to go over to her and make friends
because we were about the same age. And I did speak to Anne, and to Margot, but I did not want to become real
friends. That was a form of self-preservation which I had learned-you never knew what was coming next" (pp.
134-135). Discuss the psychological impact of consciously living life in such a fashion, where one purposely
does not connect to individuals due to fear of an uncertain future. Can one survive emotionally by not fostering
intimacy? Do you feel that it would have been better to forge relationships while being in a concentration camp,
with the hope that friendships would foster strength of spirit and the encouragement to survive? Or, as Judith de
Winter did, would it be psychologically healthier not get too close to anyone because they may one day be gone
forever?

6. A Dutch Jew in the Westerbork concentration camp named Sal de Liema became a close friend of Otto Frank.
De Liema had contempt for all things German, insisting that Frank speak only Dutch with him: "I am Dutch.
Otto Frank was German, and Dutch people are different to German people. A German Jew is a different person
 to a Dutch Jew. We had other ideas. . . . I told him, 'Don't talk German to me,' because I hated the German
language. Of course, it was his language. He was a German. He was a Jew, but he was a German first" (p. 137).
Discuss the apparent irony inherent in Sal de Liema's statement. Do you find it puzzling that Sal de Liema labels
Otto Frank as being "a German first" and then a Jew, but yet as defined by the Nazis imprisoning him, Frank
was not identified by his German nationality-he, like all German Jews in occupied territories, was stripped of his
German citizenship in November 1941-but as a Jew, and thus subject to heinous persecution? Do you find Sal
de Liema's comment that "a German Jew is a different person to a Dutch Jew" to be anti-Semitic, even though
the man speaking it is a Jew?

7. One of the most thought-provoking statements in The Hidden Life of Otto Frank was spoken by a performer in
the men's orchestra at Auschwitz: "Could people who love music to this extent, people who cry when they hear
it, be capable, at the same time, of committing so many atrocities on the rest of humanity? (p. 147). How can
this love of the fine arts exist in people who personify the very definition of evil? Is it frightening to discover
that the Nazis did have a weak spot for culture? What exactly encompasses a person's temperament?

8. In every true sense of the word, Otto Frank heroically personified the word "survivor." Frank once wrote
"Human beings can withstand so much when they really must" (p. 201), and yet, he had his own undeniable
mental setbacks, writing to his friend Joseph Spronz that "On the outside I know I seem okay but my life is in
fact over. Without children, there is no point in life" (p. 211). Indeed, in October 1954, his health fragile, Frank
was admitted to the hospital with a nervous breakdown. How does one go about coping with extreme hardships
in life? Was Otto Frank's nervous breakdown almost inevitable, considering the horrific tragedies that he
suffered due to the Holocaust? Did his being the tireless champion of his beloved daughter Anne's diary give
him a new lease on living life?

9. A classic line from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is "in spite of everything I still believe that people
are really good at heart" (p. 260). After reading The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, do you believe this statement to
be true, or simply the naïve sentiment of a young girl who romanticized the human condition? If you feel this
statement to be accurate, how then can you explain the cruel personality of Tonny Ahlers, who sadistically
abused his immediate family, in addition to the Frank family? Do you feel that author Carol Ann Lee has
presented a persuasive winning argument that Tonny Ahlers was indeed the person who heartlessly betrayed
Otto Frank and his family?

10. The adaptation of Anne Frank's diary into play and movie versions provides undoubtedly one of the most
fascinating and controversial scenarios in The Hidden Life of Otto Frank. Otto Frank wrote to the American
Jewish writer Meyer Levin, who was Frank's original choice to adapt Anne's diary to the stage, and who became
disgruntled when Frank wanted him to work with another playwright, that "Anne's book is not a war book. War
is the background. It is not a Jewish book either, though Jewish sphere, sentiment, and surrounding is the
background. I never wanted a Jew writing an introduction for it. . . . So do not make a Jewish play out of it!" (p.
238). The diary was eventually adapted by a non-Jewish couple, Frances and Albert Hackett, after Otto Frank's
advisors felt that the play would be accepted on its merits only if the adaptation was written by non-Jews. The
end result was that both the stage and movie versions whitewashed the horrors of the Holocaust and the fact that
the Franks were Jewish-and were persecuted solely for this reason-simply to make the story and its characters
more universal and therefore less threatening and alien to the audience. Do you feel that Otto Frank was right in
not wanting to adapt his daughter Anne's diary into a "Jewish play," thereby making the play more universal in
its appeal, or do you feel that he was in denial about the true reason for his family's persecution, and that not
highlighting the Frank family's Judaism and the Holocaust diluted the impact of the message of the play and
movie? Do you feel that Otto Frank's viewpoint, as well as those of his various advisors, was offensive and
morally dangerous, and ironically, subliminally anti-Semitic? How do you interpret this favorable yet disturbing
review of the play from the New York World Telegram of October 6, 1955: "The genius of this play is that there
is nothing grim or sensational about it . . . it relates the flowering of a youngster who was pure in heart . . . in the
 end they must go to the concentration camps. And Anne goes, smiling" (p. 256). Do you feel that Anne Frank
would want her brief life to be viewed by the world this way, or would she be offended?

Topics For Research And Writing Projects

1. "A play cannot mirror reality" (p. 265) was what Frances and Albert Hackett callously told Lotte Pfeffer after
Pfeffer wrote to the Hacketts vehemently protesting their highly inaccurate portrayal of her late husband, Fritz,
in The Diary of Anne Frank. Write an essay either agreeing or disagreeing with this statement. Does a play that
is based on true-life experience owe to its audience that the story to be as historically accurate as possible, or
does the creative nature of theater allow the playwright to take liberties with the material and bend reality for the
sake of the plotline?

2. Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel has said "Sometimes we must interfere. When
human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become
irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place
must-at that moment-become the center of the universe." Write an essay relating Wiesel's words to what is
happening in the world today regarding oppressed people in foreign countries. Are we always obligated to
"interfere," or are there ever times when it can somehow be justified that one should not get involved in foreign
affairs to help people who are oppressed?

3. Research the genesis of Nazism in Germany and its rampant spread throughout Europe, taking into account the
pivotal 1925 publication of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, which detailed Hitler's plan for the genocide of the
Jewish people. After compiling your research, write an essay about what could have been done early on to stop
Hitler and his followers from growing in their power and influence. Why did so few stop Hitler from
persecuting Jews? Who ultimately should be held accountable for the monumental tragedy of the Holocaust?
Finally, it has recently been noted in the media that anti-Semitism has been growing at an alarming rate
throughout Europe. With this troubling development in mind, do you think that the Holocaust could ever happen
again in your lifetime?

4. As noted in The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, the film The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) was neither a critical or
commercial success. Reviews like the following from the British Daily Mail were typical: "The Diary of Anne
Frank is an outstanding instance of a subject being diminished by filming. . . . The girl who wrote the diary must
have had something more than the perky charm of a New World Junior Miss. . . . These were European Jews in
a European situation. But as presented here, especially by Shelley Winters and Ed Wynn they become stock
figures from any tragi-comedy of Jewish life in Brooklyn" (p. 269). Compare and contrast in a written essay the
book Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl with the video release of The Diary of Anne Frank. Do you find
the film as emotionally moving as the book? Do you agree with critics that the message of the diary is
completely lost in the film adaptation? For further examination on how the Holocaust has been adapted for the
screen, compare in your essay The Diary of Anne Frank with modern day Holocaust films such as documentary
filmmaker Marcel Ophuls' brilliant epic The Sorrow and the Pity (1970), Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List
(1993) and Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002). How has interpreting the Holocaust on screen developed
throughout the decades? Does The Diary of Anne Frank stand the test of time next to these cinematic works, or
is it a quaint 1950s period piece that stifles Jewish identity and the heinous details of the Holocaust?

5. Jan and Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, and Victor Gustav Kugler bravely risked their own lives in order to hide
the Frank family at the secret annex located at 263 Pinsengracht. Many non-Jews did the same throughout World
War II, and they were eventually dubbed "Righteous Gentiles." Research the history of the "Righteous Gentiles."
 Who were these people? Did they consider themselves heroes? Why did they morally feel compelled to shelter
Jews during the Holocaust?

6. Otto Frank controversially deleted certain passages from his daughter Anne's diary, mainly excerpts that dealt
with Anne's hostile feelings towards her mother, her parent's relatively loveless marriage, and her own
burgeoning sexual curiosity. When asked years later about editing the diary, Otto replied, "Of course Anne didn't
want certain things to be published. I have evidence of it. . . . Anne's diary is for me a testament. I must work in
her sense. So I decided how to do it through thinking how Anne would have done it. Probably she would have
completed it as I did for a publisher" (p. 214). Write an essay either agreeing or disagreeing with whether Otto
Frank had the right to aggressively edit Anne's diary. Do you feel that he solely edited passages that would have
caused him embarrassment if published? Was he within his right to edit since he was the only surviving relative
of Anne's? Knowing what you know of Anne's moral character, do you feel that Anne would have wanted her
words to be edited, or would she have thought the editing was an unnecessary censorship of her deepest
thoughts?

Suggestions for Further Reading

Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition.

Wladyslaw Szpilman, The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945.

Jerzy Kosinski, The Painted Bird.

Primo Levi, The Periodic Table.

Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List.

William Styron, Sophie's Choice.

Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum.

Elie Wiesel, Night.

Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale.

Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness.

Hana Volavkova, I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezâin Concentration
Camp, 1942-1944.