Otto’s letters brought to life
LAST Sunday, 165 attendees at The Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) were treated to excerpts from correspondence between Otto Frank and young Australians who had read his daughter Anne Frank’s widely published diary.
LAST Sunday, 165 attendees at The Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) were treated to excerpts from correspondence between Otto Frank and young Australians who had read his daughter Anne Frank’s widely published diary.
The AJN reported last month that the SJM had located letters exchanged between Australian teenagers and Frank from the 1950s to 1970s about Anne’s diary, after a search throughout 2015 that was spearheaded by SJM volunteer Anne Slade.
Anne Skurray (nee Finalyson) read Anne Frank’s diary in 1955 and was moved to write to Frank.
They became “loving and intimate” friends, with Skurray visiting Frank and his second wife Fritzi in Switzerland on multiple occasions.
Frank would call Skurray “the other Anne”, and confided in her that he blamed himself for the fate of his late wife and daughters.
At Sunday’s event, two actors presented a theatrical reading of the correspondence between Otto and Skurray.
The second Australian whose letters have been uncovered by the SJM is Diana MacLean (nee Munro).
MacLean wrote to Otto Frank on February 4, 1963 at the age of 17.
“This intimate Diary did to me what no other book has ever done – it awakened in my heart a spark of love for mankind,” she wrote.
“Before that time I was very narrow-minded in my outlook towards others but now my great ambition in life is to improve the conditions of the under-privileged, especially the children.”
MacLean received a reply from Frank in November 1963, with Frank revealing that MacLean’s letter had had an impact on him, especially knowing that Anne’s diary had changed MacLean’s outlook on life.
“Believe me it is always only the individual who is able and willing to help in creating a better world, never the masses,” Frank added.
MacLean spoke at the weekend’s event about her experience and read out excerpts from her letters with Frank.
“It was thrilling to speak to a room full of people about the deep humanity of Otto Frank and to share how much the diary of Anne Frank has, and will continue to mean to me,” MacLean told The AJN.
“While our correspondence was brief, the nurturing and humane character of Otto shone through every sentence.”
The letters are now on display as part of a world-first exhibition at the SJM in Darlinghurst.
ELENORE LEVI
The exhibition, Anne Frank: A History for Today, will run at the Sydney Jewish Museum until September 30. For more information, call (02) 9360 7999.
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