Albert Dreher

Albert Anton Dreher and his wife Minnie (Minni) Löwenstein were both born in Frankfurt am Main. Dreher was banker and initially worked at Bankhaus "August W. Michel".^[1] From about 1909 he was a partner and procurator of the bank Dreher und Uhry.^[2] In the early 1920s he was involved with Jakob Frank, a cousin of Otto Frank, in the Banque Commerciale in Luxembourg.^[3]

Dreher had been a member of the rowing club Germania since September 1880. He became a member of the board of directors in 1894, secretary, treasurer in 1901, clubhouse manager in 1906, member of the board of elders in 1928 and honorary member in 1929.^[4]

Albert Dreher married Minni Löwenstein on 16 April 1913 in Frankfurt.^[5] She was 27 years younger than he was. She also became a member of Germania.^[4] Dreher did not become a father until he was 51 years old: on 2 September 1914, their son Anton Gustav was born.

Troubles began for the Dreher family following the Nazi power takeover in 1933. Because of the economic crisis, they had been forced to leave the rowing club even before 1933. The bank Dreher und Uhry was liquidated by the Nazis in 1935 and deleted from the trade register on 29 September 1938 as a matter of course.^[1]

According to the Gestapo, the family fled to the Netherlands on 12 March 1936. Here they lived at 39 Michelangelostraat in Amsterdam.^[1] On 6 September 1938, they were deprived of their deutschen Staatsangehörigkeit.^[6] Until he went into hiding, Otto Frank had weekly contact with Dreher and his wife. All the office workers also knew Dreher.^[7] Anne writes quite unkindly about him and his wife on several occasions. 25 September 1942 she writes: "Daddy has an old acquitance, Mr. Dreher, a man in his 70s, very hard of hearing, sick and poor and and in addition he has a troublesome appendage a woman 27 years younger than he is, also poor, her arms and legs loaded with real and imitation bracelets and rings, left over from the good old days. This Mr. Dreher used to give Daddy quite a bit of trouble and I alays admired Daddy for the angelic patience with which he spoke to this pathetic old man on the telephone."^[8] But according to Otto, the Dreher couple had enough to sell in order to get some financial leeway.^[7] Both Dreher and his wife are imitated and ridiculed in the Secret Annex, like when Otto walked around in his smallclothes like old Mr. Dreher or put Mrs. Dreher's fur around his head.^[9]

In December 1942, the Drehers were arrested and taken to Westerbork transit camp.^[10] Minni Dreher died in Westerbork hospital on 10 January 1943, and was buried 40 kilometers away at the Jewish cemetery in Assen on 12 January 1943.^[11] Albert Dreher was deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz concentration camp on 23 January 1943, where his transport arrived on 26 January 1943. He was probably murdered immediately upon arrival at Auschwitz.^[12]

Anton Gustav Dreher married Hanna Hendrika Rijghard, a Gentile Dutch woman, on 3 February 1942 in Doorn.^[13] He was reportedly imprisoned in the Berlin-Moabit prison and the Wittenau sanatoria in Berlin from February to September 1943, and was deported from Berlin to Auschwitz on the “43rd transport".^[1] Supposedly, he died during the deportation.^[14]

Source personal data.^[5] Addresses: Bockenheimer Landstrasse 17, Frankfurt am Main;^[15] Arndtstrasse 33;^[16] Willemsparkweg, Amsterdam (at various house numbers, ’37-’41); Michelangelostraat 39 huis (’41-’42).^[5]