For the Sake of the Children

In 2007 a file of letters between University of Heidelberg roommates and lifelong friends, Otto Frank and Nathan Straus Jr., was found in the archives of YIVO: The Institute for Jewish Research. The letters revealed for the first time that Otto Frank, diarist Anne's father, tried desperately to get his family out of war torn Holland in 1941, fifteen months before they went into hiding in the now famous attic at Prinsengracht 263, Amsterdam. The letters also show the lengths Nathan Straus Jr., then Housing Administrator under FDR, and many others, went to to help. But the tightening restrictions of the U.S. State Department, along with the deteriorating conditions in Europe, prevented even those with powerful connections and money, from securing the necessary documents that would allow the Frank family to immigrate. We have long known of the relationship between these two men. The story of the letters, however, is being published in a book for the first time. It enriches our understanding of the relationship between Otto Frank and Nathan Straus Jr., about the history of the Frank family and gives us greater insight into this tragic era.