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Wedding-day of Otto Frank and Fritzi Markovits

Otto Frank and Fritzi Markovits got married on 10 November 1953 in Amsterdam.

Event

Nov. 10, 1953

52.37098 N 4.89523 E

Oudezijds Voorburgwal 197

Amsterdam

Noord-Holland

Nederland

Fotobureau Colson. Fotocollectie Anne Frank Stichting Amsterdam

Foto van Otto Frank en Fritzi Frank-Markovits voor het stadhuis op hun huwelijksdag, met Jan Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Johanna Kleiman-Reuman en Miep Gies, Amsterdam, 10 november 1953

Fotobureau Colson. Fotocollectie Anne Frank Stichting Amsterdam Copyright: Rechthebbende(n) onvindbaar

On 10 November 1953, Otto Frank and Elfriede Edith ('Fritizi') Markovits got married in Amsterdam. It was the second marriage for both of them. The witnesses were Jo Kleiman and Miep Gies.[1] Like Otto, Fritzi had lost her partner in a concentration camp. On the day of the wedding, they had a prenuptial agreement drawn up with notary Jacob van Hasselt. Both also made a will with him.[2]

Although Fritzi lived with her family opposite the Frank family on Merwedeplein from the beginning of 1940, she and Otto only got to know each other during the return journey from Auschwitz. According to Fritzi's daughter, Eva Geiringer-Schloss, she introduced her mother and Otto to one another during the train journey from Auschwitz to Odessa, somewhere near Czernowitz.[3] According to Fritzi herself, she met Otto during a layover near Lvov when Eva recognised Otto Frank as the father of Anne, with whom she had played on Merwedeplein.[4] Later, Fritzi recounted in her essay Mein Leben mit Otto Frank that Otto had already caught her eye at a 'commemoration of the revolution' organised by Soviet troops in newly liberated Auschwitz.[5] According to Otto's 1945 notebook, this could then have been 23/II (1945) Tag der roten armee.[6] Back in Amsterdam, Otto went to see Fritzi because her name was on a survivors' list. He hoped she knew something about Margot and Anne. He did not remember the meeting next to the train.[3]

Correspondence between Otto and Fritzi in the autumn of 1952, when Otto spent extended time in the United States in connection with the stage adaptation of the diary, shows that their marriage was imminent.[7]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Gemeente Amsterdam, afdeling Burgerlijke Stand: huwelijksakte 149, 10 november 1953.
  2. ^ De voorwaarden en de testamenten van resp. Fritzi en Otto staan in Van Hasselts repertorium over 1953, onder de nummers 393, 394 en 395. Telefonische mededeling van K.-J. van der Zijden, waarnemend notaris, aan Gertjan Broek (Anne Frank Stichting), 17 juni 2021.
  3. a, b Eva Schloss, Herinneringen van een Joods meisje. 1938-1945, Heruitg., Breda: de Geus, 2005, p. 179.
  4. ^ AFS, AFC, Otto Frank Archief (OFA), reg.code OFA_211: Interview met Otto Frank, afgenomen door Arthur Unger (1978) (transcriptie p. 110; in de transcriptie staat foutief 'Limburg' voor 'Lemberg' (Lvov)).
  5. ^ Familiearchief Anne Frank-Fonds (AFF), Bazel, Fritzi Frank, AFF_FrF_pdoc_002: 'Mein Leben mit Otto Frank', p. 1.
  6. ^ AFS, AFC, reg. code OFA_040.
  7. ^ AFF, Otto Frank, AFF_OtF_corr_005. Otto Frank schrijft Fritzi op 17 oktober 1952 uit New York: "Dass ich nach meine Rückkehr zu dir ziehe, stand fest." AFS, AFC, reg. code OFA_074.