Hermann Van Pels Biography
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Hermann van pels biography Continue In her diary, Anna gave the Van Pels family the pseudonym Van Daan. Hermann was born on March 31, 1898, in Osnabrueck, Germany, one of six siblings. Before the Secret App, Herman worked in his father's meat business, but it was sold at a large loss in 1933 after the imposition of laws by the Nazi party that forced people to boycott all Jewish businesses. Hermann and his family fled to Amsterdam in 1937, and Herman joined Otto Frank's company in 1938 as a herbal and sausage specialist. During the Secret appAfter it was not possible to obtain permission to emigrate to the United States to join Herman's sisters, the family joined the Franks in a secret app. Anna found the relationship between Herman and his wife both fascinating and infuriating, often writing as she would never understand adults. After a secret application, after a raid on the app, all the occupiers were taken to the Westerbork camp and then transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hermann was assigned to the kae arm, but after the injury he was transferred to another group, and then sent to the gas chamber. His 17-year-old son, Peter, watched as his father was led away with the group to see as soon as their clothes returned by truck. Ron was born in 1948 and has worked in theatre, film and television since the 1970s. Originally from South Shields, County Durham, Ron is a graduate of Rose Bruford College. He has starred in many dramas including Little Dorrit, Silent Witness, Burn Up and The Awakening of the Dead. Anne Frank (June 12, 1929-February 1945) was a German-Jewish girl who, along with her family and four other people, hid in rooms on the second and third floors at the back of her father's Amsterdam company during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. With the support of several trusted company employees, a group of eight survived in achterhuis (literally a back house, usually translated as a secret app) for more than two years before they were betrayed, or possibly discovered in a raid targeting food card fraud, and arrested. Anna kept a diary from June 12, 1942 to August 1, 1944, three days before the arrest of the residents of the application. Anna mentioned several times in her writings that her sister Margot Frank also kept a diary, but no trace of Margot's diary was ever found. After spending time in Westerbork and Auschwitz, Anna and her older sister Margot were eventually transported to Bergen-Belsen, which was gripped by a massive typhoid epidemic that began in the camp in January 1945. Two sisters died, apparently from a small side, sometime in February 1945. Both were buried in one of the mass graves in Belsen, although it is still unknown which of the many mass graves in Belsen contain their remains. Their tombstone, which can be in Belsen today is only a monument to the two sisters, and do not signify their actual burial Their father, Otto Frank, survived the war and on his return to Amsterdam received a diary that his daughter kept during their imprisonment, which was rescued from the looted Akhterhui Miep Gie (see below), who, out of respect for Anna's privacy, did not read it. The diary was first published in 1947, and due to worldwide sales since then, it has become one of the most read books in history. It is recognized both for the historical value of both the document of the Holocaust and for the high quality of the letter, demonstrated such young authors. In 2010, Anna was honored as one of the most iconic women of the year. She is also one of the most prominent victims of the Holocaust. Anne was survived by her then-boyfriend and then her sister's steps, Eva Schloss. The other occupiers of the secret app Otto Frank (May 12, 1889 - August 19, 1980; Anna and Margot's father, Edith's husband), were in poor health, primarily due to malnutrition, when he stayed at Auschwitz with the rest in a sick barracks when the Nazis evacuated all the other prisoners to the death march. He survived until the Russians liberated Auschwitz shortly thereafter. In 1953, he married Elfrida Fritzi Markowitz-Geiringer, who survived Auschwitz, who lost her first husband and son when they were also sent on a death march from Auschwitz, and whose daughter Eva, also a survivor, was a neighbor friend of Frank's sisters. Otto has dedicated his life to spreading the message to his daughter and her diary, as well as defending against neo-Nazi claims that it was a fake or a forgery. He died of lung cancer in Binsfelden, Switzerland, on 19 August 1980 at the age of 91. His widow, Fritzi, continued her work until her death in October 1998. Edith Frank (January 16, 1900-January 6, 1945; Anne and Margot's mother, Otto's wife, stayed in Auschwitz-Birkenau when her daughters and Auguste van Pels were transferred to Bergen- Belsen as her health began to deteriorate. did not realize that they had gone, though she saw them board the train that took them out of the camp. They also said she started saving what little food she could get by hiding it under her bunk to give anna and Margot when she saw them. They said That Edith Frank told them that Anna and Margot needed food more than she did, so she refused to eat it. She died on 6 January 1945 of starvation and exhaustion, ten days before her 45th birthday and 21 days before the camp was liberated. Margot Frank (February 16, 1926 - February 1945) died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen. According to of several eyewitnesses, this happened a few days before Anna's death, most likely in early to mid-February 1945, although, like Anna's death, the exact date is not known. The Van Pels family joined the Franks in their hideout in hidden rooms at the back of the Otto Frank office building, July 13, 1942. Anna gave the van Pels family a pseudonym in her diary (as she did for most of the other characters in her diary); she named them Van Daan in her diary. Although their assistants today are known almost exclusively by their names, fellow Franks occupiers in achterhuis keep their aliases in many editions and adaptations of Anne's diary. Herman van Pels (March 31, 1898 - October 1944; known as Hans in the first manuscript of the diary) died at Auschwitz, being the first of eight dead. He was the only member of the group to be gassed. However, according to eyewitnesses, this did not happen on the day he arrived there. Sal de Liema, an Auschwitz prisoner who knew Otto Frank and Herman van Pels, said that after two or three days in the camp, Van Pels mentally surrendered, which was usually the beginning of the end for any concentration camp inmate. He later injured his thumb on the work detail and asked to be sent to a ailing barracks. Shortly thereafter, while stripping the sick barracks for selection, he was sent to the gas chambers. This happened about three weeks after his arrival at Auschwitz, most likely in early October 1944, and his choice was witnessed by both his son Peter and Otto Frank. (quote necessary) Augustus van Pels (September 29, 1900 - April 1945; known as Petronella in the diary), was born Auguste Ruttgen (Herman's wife), whose date and place of death are unknown. Witnesses testified that she was with the Frank sisters during part of their time in Bergen-Belsen, but that she was not present when they died in February/March. According to German records (her registration card), on 26 November 1944, Ms. Van Pels was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany with a group of eight women. Hannah Goslar's testimony was that she spoke to Ms. Van Pels over a barbed wire fence in late January or early February. Augustus was transferred on February 6, 1945 to Ragun (Buchenwald in Germany) and then to the Czechoslovakia ghetto camp theresienstadt on April 9, 1945. The same card lists it as live on April 11, 1945. Thus, she must have died on the way to Theresienstadt or shortly after her arrival there, the date of her death occurs, most likely, either in the first half or mid- April 1945, but until May 8, 1945, when the camp was liberated. Rachel van Amerongen-Frankford, a witness to Auguste's death, claims that the Nazis killed her by throwing her onto the railway tracks during her last transport to Theresienstadt in April Peter van Pels wearing the (only visible) Star of David; Photo May- July 1942) Peter van Pels (8 November 1926 - May 10, 1945; Herman and Auguste's son, known as Peter in the diary and Alfred in the first manuscript, died in Mauthausen. instead of going on a forced march, but Peter believed he would have a better chance of survival if he joined the death march from Auschwitz. Records of the Mauthausen concentration camp show that Peter van Pels was registered upon arrival there on January 25, 1945. Four days later, he was placed in an open working group, quartz. On April 11, 1945, Peter was sent to the ailing barracks. His exact date of death is unknown, but the International Red Cross said it was May 5, 1945, five days after Mauthausen was released by people from the 11th Armored Division of the U.S.