Mirjam Pressler - Treasures from the Attic: The Extraordinary Story of Anne Franks Family

Translation copyright 2011 by Damion Searls

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by
Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in
Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.doubleday.com

Originally published in Germany as Grsse und Ksse an alle: Die
Geschichte der Familie von Anne Frank by S. Fischer Verlag GmbH,
Frankfurt am Main, in 2009. Copyright 2009
by Mirjam Pressler and Gertrude Elias.
Copyright 2009 S. Fischer Verlag GmbH.

DOUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Jacket design by John Fontana
Jacket photograph by Barry David Marcus
Anne Frank PhotographAnne Frank Fonds,
Basel/Anne Frank Stichting, Amsterdam

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Pressler, Mirjam.

[Grsse und Ksse an alle. English]
Treasures from the attic : the extraordinary story of Anne Franks
family/by Mirjam Pressler with Gerti Elias; translated from the
German by Damion Searls. IST U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Originally published in Germany as Grsse and Ksse an alle:
Die Geschichte der Familie von Anne Frank by S. Fischer Verlag
GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, in 2009 T.p. verso.
I. Frank, Anne, 1929-1945 Family. Frank family.
JewsGermanyBiography. JewsNetherlands
Biography. JewsSwitzerlandBiography.
I. Elias, Gerti, 1933 - II. Title.
DS134.42. F73 P7413 2011
940.53180922dc22

[B]
2011000126

eISBN: 978-0-385-53387-4

v3.1

Contents

Part One
Alice Frank ne Stern, Annes Grandmother (18651953)

Part Two
Helene Elias ne Frank, Annes Aunt (18931986)

Part Three
Buddy Elias, Annes Cousin (b. 1925)

In 2001, as described in the Afterword, a cache of several thousand letters, photographs, and other documents was found in the attic of the house in Basel belonging to Buddy Elias, Anne Franks cousin. It was soon realized that these documents were of major significance for the history of the Frank family, and cast a new and clearer light on Anne Frank herself. These papers, organized and edited by Buddy Eliass wife, Gerti Eliasincluding both previously published letters and documents and some that have never been publishedform the basis of the following family history. Mirjam Pressler, who wrote the chronicle that contains them, is the German translator of the Definitive Edition of Anne Franks diary and a winner of the German Book Prize in 2006 for her literary lifes work.

In the German edition, letters are quoted exactly as written, without modernizing the German orthography, correcting spelling mistakes, or filling in abbreviations; punctuation is added for clarity in a few places, and obvious typos in typewritten letters are corrected, but the edition aims to preserve the authentic feel of the personal documents. These features have been carried over as much as possible into the English translation.

Sils-Maria, in the Upper Engadine valley in Switzerlanda summer day, 1935. A slim, well-dressed man leaves Hotel Waldhaus, where he has met with an executive of the Pomosin company to report on the progress of their Amsterdam office. The man walks briskly up the road that runs right through the middle of the forest and in a few minutes reaches Villa Laret.

As he steps out from between the trees, it lies before him, in the middle of a parklike field filled with trees, more like a little castle than a villa. The windows are so clean and scrubbed that they flash in the sun.

The man walks up the wide, well-raked gravel road. He smiles when he catches sight of the swing hanging between two tall treesa wide platform with a railing, big enough to comfortably fit a table and chairs. Two children are jumping up and down on the platform at the moment, making it start to swing. They are laughing and screaming. Two dachshunds hop around under the swing, yapping excitedly, but no matter how hard they try, they cant manage to jump onto the swing; sometimes a dog falls onto its back in its failed attempt and flails around kicking its short legs until it turns right side up, then it starts trying again to jump up onto the swing. The children double over with laughter. The boy is about ten years old, the girl six.

Not so loud! the man shouts at the children.

They both stop for a moment. Daddy, do you know what Auntie O. said this morning? the girl screams. He steps closer and shakes his head. Yesterday she asked her maid where her washcloth was, in French of course, and then she wanted Aunt Leni to tell her the German word for it. Waschlappen, Aunt Leni said. And then this morning, she said to her maid: Where is my wasch-lapin? The children giggled. Get it, Daddy? She asked where her wash-rabbit was. Isnt that funny?

He nods. Yes, that really is funny. But dont make so much noise, so you dont disturb all the ladies and gentlemen.

They both nod. Then they take each others hands and start playing again, only the slightest bit quieter than before. The children are Buddy Elias and his cousin Anne Frank, and the man is Otto Frank, taking a holiday with his younger daughter at Villa Laret.

About a dozen ladies and gentlemen are sitting on the terrace, at tables covered with porcelain cups and dishes, the ladies with broad-brimmed hats and parasols. The gentlemen, who presumably do not dare to take off their jackets despite the hot weather, are wearing straw summer hats. In any case, the heat is more bearable here, in the middle of the forest, than up on the treeless mountain slopes.

Next to the wide double doors that lead to the salon, two maids with little white aprons and matching white lace caps are standing next to the serving cart that holds the tea and coffee pots and plates loaded with petits fours and cakes, ready to hurry over and serve any guest who signals for them.

Villa Laret, Sils-Maria

Otto Frank walks closer. When the lady of the house sees him and waves at him, he takes off his hat and makes a bow.

The lady of the house is Olga Spitzer ne Wolfsohn, a French cousin of Leni Elias and Otto Frank. Every summer she spends a few weeks at her villa in Sils-Maria, a large house with nineteen bedrooms, and she always invites guests to join her. Leni and her mother, Alice Frank, are usually among them, since the family connections are so close. This year Otto has come too from Amsterdam, with his daughter Anne but without his wife, Edith, who went with Margot, the older daughter, to see Ediths mother in Aachen.