Retro Raunch Revisit

JUL 6, 1942: In Nazi-occupied Holland during WWII, 13yr old Anne Frank and her family (4 people) in Amsterdam are forced into hiding where they take residence in a secret sealed-off section (annex) of a rear building warehouse that was concealed behind a bookcase leading up to an attic, and shared with the Van Pels family of 3 and then lastly joined by acquaintance Fritz Pfeffer. The annex was a building-addition and a relocation from father Otto Frank's Pectacon spice business he had started in 1938 as a managing director (his other main spice company was Opetka). The Franks were German-Jews who fled persecution from Germany in 1933 & 1934 but were horrified to find themselves trapped again after the invasion of Holland in May 1940. With the hiding space only occupying 450sq ft, all 8 had remained hidden for 2yrs until Aug 1944 when they were found by police, arrested by the Gestapo & deported to their deaths in concentration camps. [Anne & her sister Margot were sent to Auschwitz in Sept 1944 and then transferred to Bergen-Belsen in Nov. Margot died in Feb 1945 followed by Anne's death days later]. Of the hidden group, only Otto survived the camps. Anne had written a diary that she called 'Kitty' describing the family's everday life and it was found undisturbed. Otto returned to Amsterdam in Jun 1945 hoping to find his daughters and was given Anne's personal effects that had been kept by family friend & secretary Miep Gies. Moved by his daughter's wish to have been an author, the book was first published in Dutch in 1947 and then was translated into English in 1952 which was released as The Diary of Anne Frank which became an instant bestseller and translated into more than 30 languages. Many editions were censored as sections about Anne's strained relationship with her mother Edith and passages exploring her sexuality were removed. In 1955, the building was set to be torn down put public protesting prevented the demolition and a successful campaign turned it into a protected monument. In May 1957, the Anne Frank Foundation was founded resulting in restoration into a museum as growing interest was attracting visitors from around the world, and in the years after further renovations were part of an overall project of preservation & education. The most enduring mystery of the Frank tragedy has been who was the betrayer that led to the attic raid. Whether in agreement with German policy, greedy opportunism, or desperation to avoid possible death, the long list of culprits include a warehouse worker trying to extort more pay, a mysterious woman who phoned SD intelligence, a mysterious Dutchman who phoned police, a female Nazi collaborator whose relationship with an SS officer ended in Austria and upon returning to Holland became an informant particularly upset that her family was helping Jews, a Dutch Nazi who allegedly overheard Otto make a negative remark about the German war effort, a female Dutch Jew who was arrested and gave up the Franks to save herself from deportation as well as posing as a resistance member where her treachery led to the arrests of some 145 people (including one of her own brothers & his family) -- 84 of whom died in the Holocaust and resulted in her execution in Jan 1948, a frightened arrested burglar who cut a deal, and a member of the Amsterdam Jewish Council believed to have had a list of Jews hiding throughout the city who turned traitor to save his family and died under suspicion in Oct 1950. Many investigators & scholars have repeatedly debated the credibility of evidence from these theories. For the rest of his life, Otto became the custodian of Anne's famous legacy and with the help of Simon Wiesenthal through the years, both challenged & sued several Holocaust deniers who called the book a forgery. Otto died in Aug 1980 and in Jun 1999, Time magazine named Anne as one of the 20th Century's 100 most important people. Her story was brought to critical acclaim in a 1959 movie and numerous other adaptions. In Oct 2009, footage of Anne was found of her leaning out of a window to watch a neighbor's wedding in Jul 1941. She appears for 7 seconds in what is the only known existing film of her.