Anne Frank Was a Refugee

[Dominus Atheos]

http://www.snopes.com/anne-frank-refugee/

CLAIM: The family of Anne Frank sought (and was denied) refugee status in the United States.

TRUE

In November 2015, debate raged on social media networks regarding the escalating plight of Syrian refugees; during that time, a circulating rumor claimed Anne Frank was denied entry to the United States before her death in the Holocaust.

While most Americans were familiar with Anne Frank (and many read her diary in school), the claim labeling her a prospective refugee seemed novel. Its appearance during an ongoing debate about Syrian refugees similarly prompted some skepticism among those who hadn't before heard the it, as Frank's ordeal and death comprised a story with which many were familiar.

On 14 February 2007 The New York Times published an article titled "Letters reveal desperate plight of Anne Frank's family," reporting that documents newly uncovered by an accident of circumstance revealed the Frank family's failed attempts at entry to the U.S.:

After lying undisturbed in a New Jersey warehouse for nearly 30 years, documents revealing the desperate efforts of Anne Frank's family to escape to the United States and Cuba from Nazi-occupied Holland in 1941 have been discovered thanks to a clerical error.

"I am forced to look out for emigration and as far as I can see U.S.A. is the only country we could go to," Anne's father, Otto, wrote to his college friend, Nathan Straus Jr., the head of the federal Housing Authority, a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt's and the son of a Macy's co-owner, asking him to put up a $5,000 bond. "It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for. Our own fate is of less importance," Otto Frank wrote.

Page by page, the papers illustrate the tortuous process for gaining entry to the United States in those days. Even with powerful connections and money, European Jews could not overcome the State Department's restrictions against refugees, said two Holocaust scholars who examined the documents.

As the war in Europe intensified, so too did Otto Frank's efforts to transport his family to safety. He ultimately settled on an attempt to enter through Cuba, a plan which never reached fruition:

By June 1941, no one with close relatives still in Germany was allowed into the United States because of suspicions that the Nazis could use them to blackmail refugees into clandestine cooperation. That development ended the possibility of getting the Frank girls out through a children's rescue agency.

Because of the uncertainty, Otto Frank decided to try for a single visa for himself. It was granted and forwarded to him on Dec. 1. No one knows if it arrived. Ten days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States and Havana canceled the visa.

Reuters covered the discovery on 14 February 2007, including commentary from Holocaust scholars who lamented the family's failed attempt at passage:

If her father had sought help sooner, "Anne Frank could be a 77-year-old woman living in Boston today, a writer. That is what the YIVO's documents suggest," said Richard Breitman, a professor at American University.

However, Otto Frank decided to try to escape just as the Nazis were making it more difficult to leave and the United States was making it more difficult to enter, Breitman said.

Cuba issued Otto Frank a visa on December 1, 1941, according to the documents, but it was canceled 10 days later when Germany declared war on the United States.

A 2007 TIME article provided further details of Otto Frank's increasingly desperate efforts:

For nine months, they tried to secure visas — first to the U.S. and then to Cuba — until that window shut. Just three letters of the file were written by Otto Frank, all addressed to university friend Nathan Straus Jr., son of a co-owner of Macy's department store and head of the U.S. Housing Authority. Straus and Frank's brother-in-law, Julius Hollander, regularly corresponded with two private Jewish agencies, the National Refugee Service in New York and the Boston Committee for Refugees. Straus also contacted the State Department on Frank's behalf. Hollander and his brother arranged affidavits from their employers, Jacob Hiatt of E.F. Dodge Paper Box Co. and Harry Levine of the New England Novelty Co., both of Leominster, Mass.

An April 2015 article titled "Op-Ed: Getting Anne Frank All Wrong" published to Arutz Sheva addressed the plight of Anne Frank and other Jewish refugee children who perished:

Otto Frank, Anne's father, dutifully filled out the small mountain of required application forms and obtained supporting affidavits from the family's relatives in Massachusetts.

But that was not enough for those who zealously guarded America's gates against refugees. In fact, in 1941, the Roosevelt administration even added a new restriction: no refugee with close relatives in Europe could come to the U.S., on the grounds that the Nazis might hold their relatives hostage in order to force the refugee to undertake espionage for Hitler.

That's right: Anne Frank, Nazi spy.

Anne’s mother, Edith, wrote to a friend in 1939: "I believe that all Germany's Jews are looking around the world, but can find nowhere to go."

On 4 September 2015, Anne Frank's step-sister Eva Schloss drew direct parallels between the Syrian refugee crisis and the Jewish refugee crisis of World War II:

“You must not be selfish and you must share whatever you have and help in a desperate situation. They need help from you.

“These people have had the courage to do a very difficult thing- to take your family and your whole life to another country requires bravery and strength. This is history repeating itself.

“These Syrians are valuable, educated people. These are doctors and nurses who are only too willing to help our society and they will become leaders in the community if you let them.”

The claim that Anne Frank "was a refugee" confused some readers, as they hadn't heard it prior to the Syrian refugee crisis. But the extent to which Otto Frank tried (and failed) to save his family from death during World War II was only first reported in 2007, and thus didn't appear in many history lessons before that. Ultimately Frank perished (likely of Typhus) at Bergen-Belsen in 1945, shortly after the deaths of her mother and sister Margot.

Worth sharing.

[Simon_Jester]

The fear of relatives being held hostage is at least somewhat sane in the context of adults, although inhumanly brutal when used as a reason to bar adult refugees from the country.

It remains inhumanly brutal, but also becomes profoundly stupid, when the refugees in question are children.

[Joun_Lord]

The fear of relatives being held hostage is at least somewhat sane in the context of adults, although inhumanly brutal when used as a reason to bar adult refugees from the country.

It remains inhumanly brutal, but also becomes profoundly stupid, when the refugees in question are children.

To be fair, its hard to let in children without their parents. Plus you still have the same problems of letting in someone anyway but arguably worse. Some kid coming over alone would be isolated and easy picking for Nazi cunts looking to get a expendable attacker. The child will be worried about their parents, too young to make any rational decisions or know to try to get help, and will be seen as less of a threat by security. Put a machine gun or a bomb in their backpack and you get alot of dead people.

But I agree it is brutal and stupid to bar refugees because of fear. Sure there will be some bad apples, bad apples with bomb vests and AKs, but that shouldn't stop someone from giving aid to those in need. One must be vigilant against threats while still remaining kind. Very few people will be hurt by terrorists hidden in refugees and very few refugees aren't anything but what they seem.

Though like with gun attacks this gives small comfort to those who get caught up in those attacks. And that adds to the fear. Sure it happens rarely but it still happens, it happens randomly, it can happen to anyone regardless of location, race, age, religion, gender, or what Twilight team they are on. For some people asking them to risk their lives to help others, to protect rights is asking too much. And its understandable even if it is a bit.....I dunno greedy maybe. I fully understand why some people want to ban guns. Peoples rights, peoples hobbies, even other peoples (weird and remote people that they would be very unlikely to encounter IRL) lives are less important then their own. Same with refugees. Their own lives are more important then the comfort and lives of these far away people.

People are not Vulcans, these put themselves and their own first. Few want to sacrifice their own comfort and especially their lives to help others. The thought is how does helping someone else help them if they are dead, how does giving someone rights help them if they are killed?

That is human nature. And its a real bitch.

Thankfully for alot of refugees kindness is a part of human nature too and can at times override the fear. It just sucks that kindness wasn't a factor for Anne.

[Thanas]

To be fair, its hard to let in children without their parents.

Really? Can't agree to that seeing how many minors we seem to be getting.

[Abacus]

I'm sorry, but there should be absolutely zero restrictions to those that are allowed to come and be vetted through the current process to gain asylum in the United States. I spent years studying and learning about the Holocaust, Soviet Gulags, the Killing Fields of Cambodia, and the genocides of Rwanda and Darfur. I refuse to allow another such event to happen when we actually have all the power necessary to not only alleviate those seeking asylum, but to also end the conflict which has inflicted upon them the necessity of fleeing for their lives.


EDIT: Oh, and thanks for posting this on here DA. It's an excellent article and something that really needs to be seen.

[Joun_Lord]

To be fair, its hard to let in children without their parents.

Really? Can't agree to that seeing how many minors we seem to be getting.

I probably should clarify my statement. Its hard to do so because of the legal troubles of children unaccompanied by parents. There is probably a whole different process to go through and the child without an advocate probably won't be able to sort through it all. Most of the time in legal immigration the parents are doing most of the paper and leg work.

The situation in Germany now is different then the Frank deal (and you can ahead and say "no duh, tell me something I don't know"). Unaccompanied children are mostly being smuggled out of the warzones by smugglers rather then through legal channels. Otto seemed to be trying to do things legally, by the book and with paperwork. It arguably would have been easier to just get himself or his family smuggled in.

And its probably easier for immigrants of any age to get into Germany currently then it was Jews in the 40s to get in Muricaland with the Nazi paranoia.

[Simon_Jester]

To be fair, its hard to let in children without their parents. Plus you still have the same problems of letting in someone anyway but arguably worse. Some kid coming over alone would be isolated and easy picking for Nazi cunts looking to get a expendable attacker. The child will be worried about their parents, too young to make any rational decisions or know to try to get help, and will be seen as less of a threat by security. Put a machine gun or a bomb in their backpack and you get alot of dead people.

I don't agree in the context of the 1940s. Terrorism was a thing back then, but it didn't work quite the way it does now.

[biostem]

I have no issue with allowing in refugees - as long as they are screened for diseases, they and their kids are placed into schools (where appropriate), and some sort of vetting process is undertaken, so as to screen out any potential "bad apples". The innocent majority should not be punished for a few trouble cases, but it would be foolish to let people in without taking some precautions. I'd also make it imminently clear that these people are here on our goodwill, and that any radical/unlawful behavior will not be tolerated. It'd also be a good idea to encourage these people to integrate with US society, instead of remaining insular, (although given the circumstance, that may be difficult).

[Joun_Lord]

I don't agree in the context of the 1940s. Terrorism was a thing back then, but it didn't work quite the way it does now.

There was no need for terrorism by them nutty Notseaturtles for multiple reasons including the fact they were able to achieve their aims through standard military power and before the entrance of America in WWII groups like the German American bundt (probably misspelling that) were trying to create a positive image of Nazi Germany. There was terrorism not too dissimilar to modern terrorism by other groups (though to my knowledge suicide bombings are a more recent thing) including the IRA, the Jewish Irgun, and the Muslim Brotherhood of Steel. Some consider the assassination of Franz Ferdinand an act of terrorism and there are some who believe some of the acts by Allied resistance during WWII could be considered terrorism.

But probably the main fear about two faced German citizens and people puppets working for Charlie Chaplin wasn't terrorism, that was just an example, but probably either information gathering or sabotage.

[ray245]

The situation is probably more akin to the fear of Japanese Americans in world war 2 more than anything else.

[Lord Revan]

I wonder if there was also some degree of anti-semitism or nazi sympathy present on the US officials at the time (unadmited of course but still).