Roses from the Earth: The Biography of Anne Frank

301 Pages·2000·2.63 MB·English

by  Carol Ann Lee

PENGUIN BOOKS
ROSES FROM THE EARTH
Carol Ann Lee was born in Yorkshire in 1969 and is a world authority on Anne Frank. She now lives in
Amsterdam.
Roses from the Earth:
The Biography of Anne Frank
Carol Ann Lee
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published by Viking 1999
Published in Penguin Books 2000
9
Copyright © Carol Ann Lee, 1999
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of
trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent
in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
ISBN: 978-0-14-192604-9
‘A person is worth more than a book’ Miep Gies
Contents
Preface
Author’s Note
Foreword by Buddy Elias
Prologue
Part One
We Were Still Part of Ordinary, Everyday Life 1929–40
Part Two
When the Sufferings of Us Jews Really Began 1940–42
Part Three
A Deadly Sultry Silence Hangs Everywhere 1942–4
Part Four
Who Has Inflicted This Upon Us? 1944–5
Part Five
I Don’t Want to Have Lived for Nothing 1945–
Epilogue
Afterword
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Preface
My interest in Anne Frank began at a very early age. I discovered a re-telling of
her story when I was about six or seven years old, and read the diary when I was
eight. The question I have been asked most frequently by people over the years,
and particularly during the course of writing this book, is: what drew you so
strongly to Anne Frank? I don’t think I knew myself until someone asked me
another question: having written the book, has anything you discovered led you
to change your opinion of Anne Frank and the person you perceived her to be? I
answered instinctively, ‘No, not at all. I liked her very much at the beginning; I
like her still.’ It really is that simple.
There is no doubt, however, that since I first read the diary, my interest has
grown into a fixation which has its culmination in this book. Without the aid of
many people, writing it would have been a far more difficult task. The list is too
long to be indulged here, but it includes all those who were kind enough to share
their time and memories with me. Among them are Eddy Fraifeld, Jetteke Frijda,
Dr Trude K. Hollander, Bernard Kops, Herbert Levy, Jacqueline van Maarsen,
Edmond Silverberg, Eva Schloss, Alice Schulmann, Lotte Thyes, and Betty C.
Wallerstein. To Hanneli Pick-Goslar, with whom I corresponded, but was unable
to meet due to circumstance, I’d also like to offer my thanks. I apologize to those
whose testimonies I have not been able to include.
I received inestimable help from a number of archivists, librarians and
individuals, particularly: Horst Hoffman of the Frank-Loeb’sches House in
Landau, Dr Appel of the Landau town archives, Joan Adler, Wolf von Wolzogen
of the Frankfurt Historical Museum, the staff of the exhibition Anne Aus
Frankfurt, Gillian Walnes and Barry van Driel of the Anne Frank Educational
Trust, Jan Erik Dubbelman of the Anne Frank Stichting, Fama Mor of the Simon
Wiesenthal Centre, the Shoah Foundation and Michael Engel, the staff of the
Wiener Library in London, David Barnouw and Manon Wilbrink of the
Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation, the staff of Yad Vashem in
Israel, Aaron T. Kornblum of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
and the staff of the Belsen and Westerbork museums and remembrance centres.
For source material and advice on research I would like to single out Jon
Blair, Gerrold van der Stroom, Dick Plotz and John Francken. I must also thank
Christoph Knoch for his assistance with the photographs.
I am grateful to Rosalba Venturi, Liz Kim and Anthony Tisbury of K.
International for translations from Dutch into English, and to David Nuth for
translations from German into English.
There are a handful of people whose patience I have tried more than most.
In England, my agent, Jane Judd, and my editor at Penguin, Andrew Kidd, have
provided guidance, enthusiasm and staunch support. In the Netherlands,
Françoise Gaarlandt-Kist and Jan Geurt Gaarlandt of Balans have done likewise.
I would like to thank Jan Michael for all of the above, and for her hospitality in
Amsterdam. For reminding me that I live in the present as well as the past, I
must thank my family and friends, all of whom have been there for me when I
needed them.
Finally, there are four people without whom, for various reasons, this book
truly could not have been written. They are: my mother, Buddy and Gerti Elias,
and, of course, Anne Frank. To these four, I dedicate Roses from the Earth.
Author’s Note
I have drawn on a wide range of literary sources in my attempt to understand the
past and the central figures of this book. Grateful acknowledgement is made to
those authors and publishers who have granted permission to quote copyright
material. While every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, I
apologize for any oversights. Anyone believing they are entitled to exercise
rights over these omissions are requested to contact the author.
All photographs, and quotations from Anne’s diary, are under copyright of
the Anne Frank-Fonds, Basel, Switzerland. The letters of the Frank family, and
Otto Frank’s memoir, are used by the kind permission of Buddy Elias.
Foreword by Buddy Elias
On 10 September 1997 the office of the Anne Frank-Fonds forwarded Carol Ann
Lee’s first letter to me. I am Anne Frank’s last living direct relative, the cousin
she called Bernd in her diary, and I am president of the Foundation. I read the
first line: ‘Dear Sirs, I am writing to ask whether you would consider giving
your approval to a book I am writing about the life of Anne Frank.’ My first
thought was: another writer trying to make money out of Anne Frank. But I kept
on reading and, line by line, my first impression changed. I saw that this was
different, this was promising, interesting: a dedicated young lady whose life
since early childhood was affected by Anne Frank, her diary, her short life, her
destiny. I was moved.
I was even more moved by her first letter to me personally, telling me that
her planned biography of Anne was of such importance to her that, should she
not succeed, she would consider her career as having failed. Melodramatic? No,
credible to me – especially after having received and read her first two chapters:
remarkable evidence of meticulous research, of visible talent.
And then I met Carol when she came for an interview to answer a few
questions. It turned into a conversation that lasted almost three hours as we
exchanged questions and answers and discussed Anne, her family, her life, my
life, my family. In short, Carol knew so much already that it was clear to me she
was more than capable of telling the world about the phenomenon of Anne
Frank. Not only was her knowledge astonishing, but her love and dedication to
this cause warmed my heart.
This book will be an enrichment to all those interested in Anne Frank, her
short life, her family and the circumstances that led to her terrible destiny. But
more so, this book is a must for all those with only a vague idea about the
Holocaust, and especially for those who still believe that it never happened.
Buddy Elias