He returned to Amsterdam after the war, with hope still that his girls had survived. Otto Frank was the survivor of two World Wars, first as a decorated German soldier, and then, as a denizen of the Nazi death camps, where his wife and two daughters perished. His devotion to the dead led his step-daughter Eva Schloss to question his commitment to the living, which included three grandchildren, whom she felt were deprived of his affection. The Pulitzer and Oscar winning adaptations of the diary were sometimes criticized as saccharine, and devoid of historical context, 'Jewishness' even.Īnd the diary, written in several drafts and meticulously edited by Frank himself, was eventually revealed to have been censored to avoid unflattering portraits of his marriage to Anne's mother Edith, and their daughter's erotic curiosity.įrank was compelled to sponsor complicated tests to prove the diary's authenticity to those who questioned its authorship.Īnd perhaps most damningly, Otto Frank was accused of colluding with Nazi business interests, making necessary substantial blackmail payments until his death in 1980. His correspondence with them seemingly reveals a modest man on a great mission.īut Otto Frank was not, of course, without his detractors, who questioned his ethical motivation, his ethnic integrity, and his pronounced reconciliatory passions. He took on the role of surrogate father to scores of young people from all over the world, who saw in him what his daughter saw: a strong and sensitive man who was worthy of respect and admiration. The diary's impact, initially as an adolescent journal, then as theater, and cinema, was strategically navigated by the elder Frank, who, throughout a long and engaged life, was dedicated to his precociously gifted child. It miraculously survived its author and has continued to inspire multiple generations in multiple translations, due in large measure to Otto Frank's tenacious commitment to its transcendent affect, and vision of its universal appeal. The diary, blank, had been a father's gift to his daughter. How does one negotiate loss, and at what cost? His subsequent journey was impossibly intimate: to be introduced to a daughter who, though ripped untimely from his embrace, sought immortality through her diary. "Frank took on the responsibility of his daughter Anne's legacy, which he noted to be an unnatural reversal of fate. McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.Orientations & Information for Incoming Students.
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