Hermann van Pels

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Hermann van Pels (born March 31, 1898 in Gehrde near Osnabrück , † beginning of October 1944 in the German concentration camp Auschwitz ) was a Dutch victim of the Holocaust . He was one of the eight people in hiding in the Secret Annex who became known through Anne Frank's diary .

Life

Prinsengracht 263, in the back of which Hermann van Pels was hiding
Stumbling block for Hermann van Pels in Osnabrück

Hermann van Pels was born in Gehrde near Osnabrück as one of six children of the Dutchman Aron van Pels and the German Lina van Pels, née Vorsänger. Van Pels attended the Jewish elementary school and was enrolled in the Ev. Boys started secondary school in Osnabrück . After completing his school education, he became a representative in his father's company, Aron van Pels, in Osnabrück, who ran a wholesale business for butchery supplies. Among other things, the company traded in spices and casings for sausage production. On December 5, 1925, van Pels married the German Jew Auguste Röttgen . The couple went to Osnabrück and moved into an apartment at Martinistraße 67a. Their son, Peter van Pels , was born on November 8, 1926 and remained the couple's only child.

Aron van Pels had to give up his business after 1933 as part of the boycott of Jewish shops . On June 26, 1937, Hermann van Pels and his family fled to the Netherlands from the National Socialists . Van Pels' sister, the tailor Henny van Pels, had already emigrated to Amsterdam in 1935. The family moved into an apartment in the Zuider Amstellaan. From 1938 Hermann van Pels worked for his old business friend Otto Frank in his company Opekta Amsterdam . He was hired as a consultant and expert for spices in the subsidiary Pectacon, which belongs to Opekta and was newly founded by Victor Kugler . While Opekta had specialized in jam production, Pectacon was a company for spice mixtures, among other things for sausage production. “Van [Pels] was unbeatable in his field; he only needed to sniff it once and could then name each spice by name, ”wrote Miep Gies in her memories. From December 1940, the offices of Opekta Amsterdam and Pectacon were located at 263 Prinsengracht.

Hermann and Auguste van Pels were friends with the Franks outside of work and were frequent guests at the family's Saturday afternoon coffee. From the summer of 1941, both families created a hiding place in the back of the Otto Franks company in the event that a family member was threatened with deportation. Already at the afternoon teas they met their future helper Miep Gies, an employee of the jam company Opekta, who in retrospect van Pels as "tall, bulky, well dressed, slightly stooped gait, male open face, sparse hair, always a cigarette in the corner of his mouth" described, and continued: “Hermann van [Pels] always found time for a joke. In short, he was a pleasant, sociable guy ”. At a later point in her memoirs, Gies specified Hermann van Pels' description and called him a "joke-teller, more of a pessimist, chain smoker and somewhat restless".

On July 5, 1942, Edith Frank-Holländer accepted an obligation addressed to her daughter Margot to work in Germany. She immediately informed van Pels, as both families had made arrangements for going into hiding for a long time. She discussed the concrete next steps with van Pels. It was he who then informed Miep Gies. While the Frank family went into hiding on July 6, 1942, the van Pels family followed on July 13, 1942. A little later, dentist Fritz Pfeffer joined as the eighth refugee. Auguste and Hermann van Pels lived in a room on the second floor. During the day, her bedroom served as a dining room and lounge for all those in hiding. The van Pels family's apartment in the Zuider Amstellaan was only vacated by the National Socialists in October 1942.

On August 4, 1944, those in hiding were betrayed and arrested. Like the other seven people in hiding, Hermann van Pels was deported via the Westerbork transit camp to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp , where he survived the selection on September 5, 1944, contrary to the subsequent determination of the Dutch Red Cross as one of 258 men . With Otto Frank and Fritz Pfeffer, he was assigned to Block 2 of the Auschwitz I main camp . He and both men were assigned to the field service, presumably injured his hand at the beginning of October and asked to be assigned to the room service for the next day, on which the camp SS carried out a selection. Hermann van Pels was murdered in the gas chamber in early October 1944 . After his return, Otto Frank reported to Miep Gies that he had "seen van Pels with his own eyes on the way to the gas chambers".

Stumbling blocks in front of the van Pels family home in Osnabrück have been a reminder of the family since November 15, 2007 .

Anne Frank's diary

The diary , which Anne Frank wrote mainly during her time in hiding, was first published in 1947 by her father Otto Frank. When the diary was being rewritten, probably in May 1944, Anne Frank had given all eight people in hiding pseudonyms . Hermann van Pels became "Hans van Daan".

On July 11, 1942, Frank reported on their anticipation for the arrival of the van Pels family: “I am very much looking forward to the arrival of the van Daans, which is scheduled for Tuesday. It will be much more comfortable and also less quiet ”. As early as August 21, 1942, however, she noted in her diary “Mr. van Daan and I are constantly at odds” and on September 2, 1942, she reported on disputes between Auguste and Hermann van Pels (“Mr. and Mrs. Daan had a violent argument. Something like that I've never seen a father and mother think of yelling at each other like that ”). Reports about the quarreling couple van Pels are frequent in the following period.

Frank also noted special events about van Pels during his time in the Secret Annex, such as his processing of large quantities of illegally purchased meat into sausage on December 10, 1942: “He was hired at the company because of his knowledge of spices, but now he shows his sausage side which was by no means uncomfortable for us. […] Mr van Daan had wrapped his wife's apron on and was busy with the meat in his entire thickness (he looked much thicker than he is). With his bloody hands, red head and stained apron, he looked like a real butcher. ”Van Pels was the only chain smoker in the Secret Annex; Frank noted his bad mood several times because there were no more cigarettes. In addition to flowers and some food, van Pels also received two packets of tobacco for his birthday in 1944.

According to Frank's notes, Van Pels had "in all of our opinion a lot of perspective in politics", but was rather pessimistic. In the spring of 1943 he did not expect that the going into hiding would be over before the end of the year, and in May 1944 he feared that “the Germans will win the war in the end, they are so strong.” Frank assessed him as opinionated: “He has [ in his opinion] the only correct opinion, he knows most of everything. Well, he has a clever head, but this gentleman’s complacency has reached a high level. ”In an overview of the interests of those in hiding, Frank noted in 1944 about van Pels:“ does not learn anything; looks up a lot in the Knaur; likes to read detective novels, medical books, exciting and unimportant love stories. "

Hermann van Pels in the film

The Diary of Anne Frank has been filmed several times. The following actors took on the role of Hermann van Pels in the films:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ On the basis of a subsequent investigation by the Red Cross, it was assumed for a long time that van Pels was gassed on the day of his arrival at the Auschwitz concentration camp. In relation to the publication In Memoriam - Nederlandse oorlogsslachtoffers, The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names names March 15, 1945 as the date of death (cf. database entry .) According to statements by Otto Frank, van Pels was murdered a few weeks after the deportation.
  2. ↑ State Archives Osnabrück - students of the Ev. Boys Middle School 1908 - Dep 3 b IV Akz. 2013 | 077 No. 6 - School enrollment number: 138
  3. ↑ See Hermann van Pels on annefrank.org
  4. ↑ Melissa Müller: The girl Anne Frank. The biography . Claassen, Munich 1998, p. 136.
  5. ^ A b c Miep Gies: My time with Anne Frank . 9th edition. Heyne, Munich 1996, p. 43.
  6. ↑ Melissa Müller: The girl Anne Frank. The biography . Claassen, Munich 1998, p. 136.
  7. ^ Miep Gies: My time with Anne Frank . 9th edition. Heyne, Munich 1996, p. 114.
  8. ↑ The Dutch Red Cross stated that van Pels had been gassed on September 6, 1944. Otto Frank contradicted the representation after the end of the war. See Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler (ed.): Anne Frank Tagebuch . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, pp. 315-316.
  9. ↑ Melissa Müller: The girl Anne Frank. The biography . Claassen, Munich 1998, p. 345.
  10. ↑ Melissa Müller: The girl Anne Frank. The biography . Claassen, Munich 1998, p. 346.
  11. ^ Miep Gies: My time with Anne Frank . 9th edition. Heyne, Munich 1996, p. 232.
  12. ↑ Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler (ed.): Anne Frank diary . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, p. 39.
  13. ↑ Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler (ed.): Anne Frank diary . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, p. 44.
  14. ↑ Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler (ed.): Anne Frank diary . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, p. 46.
  15. ↑ Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler (ed.): Anne Frank diary . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, pp. 86-87.
  16. ^ For example, entries on March 12, 1943, March 14, 1944, April 14, 1944.
  17. ↑ Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler (ed.): Anne Frank diary . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, p. 235.
  18. ^ Entry on May 2, 1943. In: Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler (ed.): Anne Frank Tagebuch . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, p. 110.
  19. ^ Entry on May 16, 1944. In: Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler (ed.): Anne Frank Tagebuch . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, p. 280.
  20. ↑ Entry on August 9, 1943. In: Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler (ed.): Anne Frank diary . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, p. 131.
  21. ^ Entry on May 16, 1944. In: Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler (ed.): Anne Frank Tagebuch . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, p. 281.
personal data
SURNAME Pels, Hermann van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Daan, Hans van (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch victim of the Holocaust
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Gehrde
DATE OF DEATH October 1944
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp