Auguste van Pels - Röttgen
Auguste van Pels was one of the eight people hiding in the Secret Annex.
Person
Auguste Röttgen was born on 29th of September 1900 in Buer, Germany.[1] She was the daughter of Leo Röttgen and Rosa Röttgen-Rosenau.[2] Auguste had four sisters: Else, Gertrude, Margaretha and Lotte. After the war her sister Margaretha declared that Auguste had studied economics in Cologne and successfully completed this course. According to Cologne university archives, she was deregistered after one semester.[3]
On 5 December 1925, Auguste Röttgen married Hermann van Pels in her hometown of Elberfeld. She automatically received Dutch nationality. On 8 November 1926, her son Peter was born. He remained an only child. In 1937, Auguste and her family came to the Netherlands. After several moves, they ended up in a spacious four-room house on Zuider Amstellaan, furnished with furniture brought from Germany. On 30 October 1942, after they had been in hiding for a few months, the house was cleared out.
In July 1942, Auguste van Pels also went into hiding in the Secret Annex on Prinsengracht. What we know about her from this period comes from Anne's diary, with some corrections and additions from Otto Frank and Miep Gies.
After the arrest on 4 August 1944, Auguste van Pels ended up in Auschwitz via Westerbork. She was later shipped on to Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt. Somewhere along the way to Theresienstadt she died. She was 44 years old when she died.[4]
Footnotes
- ^ Standesamt Elberfeld (Wuppertal), Huwelijksafkondigingregister nr. 1767, Aktenummer 1374; Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), reg. code A_vPels_I_002): Afschrift (d.d. 14 februari 1996) van trouwakte Hermann van Pels en Auguste Röttgen d.d. 5 december 1925.
- ^ Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaarten Leo Röttgen en Rosa Röttgen-Rosenau.
- ^ Details over Auguste Röttgens loopbaan in Landesarchiv NRW – Standort Hannover, Nds 110 W Akz 105/93 Nr. 959. Rechtsanwältin Elisabeth Späth aan de Regierungspräsident Hannover, 7 april 1960. Zie ook: Anne Frank Stichting, Anne Frank Colllectie, Otto Frank Archief, reg. code OFA_079: Rechtsanwaltin Elisabeth Späth aan Otto Frank, 27 februari 1961; Universitätsarchiv Köln, Zugang 600/64-Röttgen, Auguste. Zie ook schriftelijke toelichting Andreas Freiträger, 5 februari 2020.
- ^ Literature: Menno Metselaar, 'An egotistical father, a vain mother and a shy boy. The van Pels family: also in hiding in the Secret Annexe', in: Anne Frank Magazine 1998, p. 8-13;Aukje Vergeest, Anne Frank in the Secret Annexe: who was who?, Amsterdam: Anne Frank House, 2015.