Lee - The Hidden Life of Otto Frank

Many people gave generously of their time and knowledge during the writing of this book. I must first of all thank Yt Stoker, whose patient and expert guidance through the archives of the Anne Frank Stichting, and in other areas of research, was invaluable and contributed much to the final form of the book. I would also like to thank Teresien da Silva, Jan Erik Dubbelman and Dienke Hondius of the Stichting. Dienkes loan of the English translation of Terugkeer (The Return her intelligent and scrupulous study of Jewish concentration camp survivors who returned to the Netherlands) is gratefully acknowledged, and this illuminated a particularly dark era in Otto Franks life for me.

I received help from a number of other archives and institutions, and wish to single out for particular thanks Sierk Plantinga at the Rijksarchief Den Haag, Johannes van der Vos, Hubert Berkhout and David Barnouw at NIOD, Verola de Weert at the Amsterdam Bevolkingregister, the staff of the Algemeen Archief Amsterdam, the Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in Den Haag, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, the United States Holocaust Museum, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, and Gillian Walnes of the Anne Frank Educational Trust for providing advice and contacts.

I received excellent ideas for further research from Susan Massotty, Simone Schroth and Elma Verhey. Francoise Gaarlandt-Kist provided expert guidance on how to improve an initially unwieldy manuscript and Jan Michael helped me not to despair about the work that entailed, but to see it as a surmountable challenge. I also thank Pauline Micheels for putting me in touch with Dola de Jong, and Marion Nietfeld for setting me on a trail which had never been followed before. I am indebted to Paul van Maaren for material which helped light the way.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to all those authors and publishers who allowed me to quote from their works, and to those people named below who permitted me to quote from their private letters (the citations within the text are all traceable to the references for each individual chapter found at the back of the book). Quotations from Annes diary, and the personal correspondence of the Frank and Elias families used by the kind permission of Buddy Elias are under copyright of the Anne Frank-Fonds, Basel.

I offer my heartfelt gratitude to those who shared personal and often deeply painful memories with me: Ilse Blitz, Angus Cameron, Annette Duke, Barbara Epstein, Vincent Frank-Steiner, Jack Furth, Hilde Goldberg (many thanks to her sister-in-law, Bea, for providing the initial contact), Edith Gordon, Stephan van Hoeve, Dola de Jong, Bee Klug, Gabriel Levin, Rose and Sal de Liema, Lillian Marks, Barbara Mooyart-Doubleday, Father John Neiman, Laureen Nussbaum, Katja Olszewska, Hanneli Pick-Goslar, Alfred Radley, Tony van Renterghem, Judith and Henk Salomon, Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen, Eva and Zvi Schloss, Rabbi David Soetendorp, Franzi Spronz, Anneke Steenmeijer, Cor Suijk and Thesy Nebel. I regret that it was not possible to speak to Miep Gies, who no longer grants interviews after enduring a bout of severe ill health. The questions I would have liked to ask Mrs Gies were answered on her behalf by Cor Suijk.

Gusta Krusemeyer and Henri Beerman translated scores of documents from German and Dutch into English for me, even though they had their own work to do. I thank them deeply for that, and for their kindness, generosity and amiability, which made working with them such a pleasure. Thanks too to Maarten Fagh for putting me in touch with them, and to Hendrikus Wilhelm Reiters for additional help with German translations.

The following group of people have supported my work in ways too numerous to mention, and are very close to my heart: Buddy and Gerti Elias, Jan Michael and Paul Clark, and Alison Davies. My love and respect goes out to all of them, and to my mother, brother and his wife, and my husbands sister, who have all been instrumental in the completion of this book.