Letter After the Holocaust

Letter Content

Dear Mother, I have lost everything. Anne and Margot are gone. Edith is gone. I alone survived. When I returned to Amsterdam, I hoped against hope that somehow they had survived. But the Red Cross has confirmed what I feared most - my precious daughters perished at Bergen-Belsen, just weeks before liberation. Edith died at Auschwitz. I cannot describe the emptiness I feel. Miep gave me Anne's diary today. I could barely bring myself to open it. Reading her words - so full of hope, of dreams for the future, of belief in the goodness of people despite everything - has broken my heart anew. She wanted to be a writer, Mother. And she was. Even in hiding, even in fear, she wrote beautifully about life and hope. I do not know how to go on. But I feel I must honor their memory somehow. Perhaps Anne's diary should be published, so the world can know what happened, can see through her eyes the humanity that was destroyed. She believed people were truly good at heart. I want to believe that too. The world must never forget what happened. Six million of our people murdered. Entire communities erased. I am haunted by the thought that we survived hiding for two years, only to be betrayed and destroyed in the final months of the war. I will try to go on, for their sake. Your grieving son, Otto

Historical Context

Written by Otto Frank after learning that his wife and two daughters, including Anne Frank, had died in concentration camps. He was the only member of the family to survive the Holocaust. He later published Anne's diary.

Significance

A devastating personal account of Holocaust loss from the only surviving member of one of history's most famous families. Otto Frank's decision to publish Anne's diary gave the world one of its most powerful Holocaust testimonies, ensuring that his daughter's voice would never be forgotten.