The first time Otto Frank paid Eva and me a visit in Amsterdam after our return from Auschwitz I could see that he was broken-hearted over the loss of his wife, Edith. On the trip from Auschwitz to Odessa he had heard that she had died from exhaustion and starvation in January, just before the arrival of the Russians. But he still hoped, as we did for Erich and Heinz, that his two daughters would return.
When he next came, several weeks later, we had already heard that our dear ones had perished in the Austrian concentration camp of Mauthausen, and he had received the news that Margot and Anne had died from typhoid fever in Bergen-Belsen. We were all acutely depressed. I didn’t know how I could carry on. Erich had always organized everything for the family and now, without him, I felt lost.
On one of Otto’s visits he told us that Anne had written a diary while in hiding. Everybody had known about it even though Anne never allowed anyone to read it. She had also written children’s stories and would occasionally read one of these to her family and their friends. Miep Gies had found her papers in the Franks’ hiding-place and had taken them to her office and kept them there. She hadn’t read them and intended to give them back to Anne if she returned.
After it was known that she was dead, Miep gave the manuscript to Otto. It took him a long time to read as he found it such an overwhelming emotional experience. When he finished it he told us that he had discovered that he had not really known his daughter. Although, of course, he was on good terms with her, he had never known anything about her innermost thoughts, her high ideals, her belief in God and her progressive ideas which had surprised him greatly.
He read parts of the manuscript to Eva and me, and Eva told him that she had always had the feeling that Anne was much more mature than she, and that was perhaps the reason why she did not get very close to her.
‘If I could meet her today,’ she said, ‘we would understand each other much better as I have changed such a lot after all my experiences.’
Otto Frank helped to build up the Liberal Jewish community in Amsterdam by becoming one of its board members. He attended the then rather primitive rooms of the synagogue when it was started up and very often he took me along to the Friday evening services. As we had all lost so many Jewish friends we liked to meet up with Jewish people and talk with them about their lives during and after the occupation.
He also worked hard at his business, which had to be built up again. He was determined to give those good friends of his who had risked their lives in helping to hide the family the reward of a secure existence again — and in this he succeeded.
When Anne’s Diary was published in Holland it became a tremendous success and soon offers from other countries came pouring in. Otto kept me informed about all these events and I remember that once, when I went to England to visit my parents and my sister, he came along with me to talk to a London publisher. We went by train and boat, and on the trip he gave me more of the material to read.
As time went on I became his confidante and, in turn, I took my problems to him. I told him about Heinz and how he had been such a gifted boy. At the Lyceum and then at the Jewish School he had proved to be a brilliant student. If he were shown a musical instrument he could simply pick it up and play it. In hiding he had painted pictures and written poetry — and also taught himself Italian so that he could read Italian books.
Having gone through the same experiences, Otto and I found that we had a lot in common and he also took an interest in Eva. When he was chosen, as Holland’s representative, to attend the conference of the World Union of Progressive Judaism in London, he took Eva along to represent Dutch Jewish Youth.
I often invited him to go to lectures and concerts with me. During Eva’s last year at the Lyceum, we decided that she should choose photography as her profession and she got an apprenticeship at a photographic studio where she would go several afternoons a week. But on the whole Eva was no longer happy living in Holland, it had too many sad memories for her. She decided that she wanted to go to England to perfect her skill in photography.
Now that I was on my own, and as Otto and I grew more and more fond of each other, we decided to marry and move to Switzerland where his family lived. Our wedding was in November 1953 and the marriage, which lasted until Otto’s death, was very happy for both of us.
I helped him with his work, answering all the letters he received after Anne’s Diary had been published in many countries. Together we went to visit Anne Frank Schools and publishers and we received many young people who had read the Diary and wanted to meet Anne’s father. Over the years Eva and Zvi had three lovely daughters whom Otto adopted as his grandchildren. They too loved him dearly.
So, by the tragedy in both our lives, together we found new happiness.