Roses from the earth : the biography of Anne Frank

343 Pages·2000·2.48 MB·English

by  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
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017,
India
Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
www.penguin.com
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