Villa Lâret
The Frank family were guests at the Villa Lâret holiday home several times.
Foto van Villa Lâret op een ansichtkaart van Alice Frank-Stern aan Gertrud Naumann, 26 juni 1935
Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie Anne Frank Stichting Amsterdam Copyright: Rechthebbende(n) onbekend
Villa Lâret was built in 1912 by Arthur Spitzer and Olga Spitzer-Wolfsohn as a holiday home in Sils Maria, Switzerland.[1] They hosted family and friends here. Olga was a second cousin of Otto Frank.
In the 1930s, members of the Frank family were guests several times.[2] After World War II, Otto also spent several summers there.[3]
Olga Spitzer-Wolfsohn donated the villa to the University of Geneva in 1970. The building was used by the university as a conference centre and as accommodation for students and staff until it was sold on 24 November 2006.[4]
In the garden of the villa stands since 1997 a five-metre-high metal wind sculpture by artist Paul Gugelmann entitled: ‘Sils-Maria. An island of peace. In memory of Anne Frank'.[5]
Footnotes
- ^ ‘Maison de charme dans un cadre grandiose pour passer quelques jours de vacances ou participer à un séminaire? L'Université de Genève a ce qu'il vous faut’, Website Université de Genève, 7 mei 2003; Engadin Tourismus AG, Engadin Kulturguide, 2024, nr. 3, p. 57.
- ^ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank: de biografie, 5e, geheel herz. druk, Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2013, p. 97-98.
- ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_124.5: brief van Lambert Schneider aan Otto Frank, 20 juli 1950; OFA_18: Zakagenda Otto Frank 1961, 5 augustus 1961.
- ^ ‘Spitzer, Olga et la Chesa Laret’, Archives UNIGE, Website Université de Genève.
- ^ ‘Sils-Maria. Eine Insel des Friedens. Im Gedenken an Anne Frank’: Henriette Bonarius, ‘Monument voor Anne Frank in Zwiterland’, Trouw, 1 mei 1999.