Fritz Pfeffer
Encyclopedia
Friedrich "Fritz" Pfeffer (30 April 1889 – 20 December 1944) was a German
dentist
and Jewish refugee
who hid with Anne Frank
during the Nazi
Occupation of the Netherlands, and who perished in the Neuengamme concentration camp in Northern Germany
. In Anne Frank's posthumously published diary
, all names, apart from those of the Frank family, were changed to preserve the privacy of individuals mentioned. Pfeffer was given the pseudonym
Albert Dussel.
and jaw surgeon, obtained a license to practice in 1911 and opened a surgery the following year in Berlin
.
He served in the German Army during the First World War and afterwards, in 1921 married Vera Bythiner (31 March 1904 – 30 September 1942), who was born in Posen
in Imperial Germany (now Poznań, Poland). The marriage produced a son, Werner Peter Pfeffer (3 April 1927 – 14 February 1995), then the couple divorced in 1932. Fritz was granted custody of the boy and raised him alone until November 1938, when the rising tide of Nazi activity in Germany persuaded him to send him into the care of his brother Ernst in England
. Werner emigrated to California
in 1945 after his uncle's death and changed his name to Peter Pepper, later establishing a successful office supplies company under that name.
The tide of antisemitism in Germany, which increased from the election of Adolf Hitler
in 1933, forced most of Fritz's relatives to flee the country. His mother had died in 1925; his father remarried and remained in Germany, only to be arrested; he died in Theresienstadt in October 1942. His elder brother Julius Pfeffer had died in 1928, Emil Pfeffer emigrated to South Africa in 1937, Ernst Pfeffer moved to England and died in 1944, and Hans left for New Jersey
. Their sister Minna remained with their father in Germany and died in Nazi custody. Vera escaped to Holland but was arrested in 1942 and died in Auschwitz
.
In 1936 he met a young woman Charlotta Kaletta (1910 – 1985), born in Ilmenau, Thuringia
in Central Germany, who shared his history of a broken marriage. She was estranged from her first husband, Ludwig Lowenstein, and their son Gustaf. Neither survived the war. (Photos of Ludwig Lowenstein and his son, Gustav, can be found on the Yad Vashem website.) The couple moved in together but were prohibited from marrying under the 1935 Nazi Nuremberg Laws
which forbade marriages between Jews and non-Jews.
Kristallnacht
cemented their decision to leave Berlin and they fled to Amsterdam
in December 1938. They were there for two years before the German invasion, and subsequent anti-Jewish laws which did not permit the co-habitation of Jews and non-Jews, forced them to officially separate and register under different addresses. After establishing a dental practice in Amsterdam
's Rivierenbuurt he became acquainted with the Van Pels and Frank families. Miep Gies
met Pfeffer at one of the Franks' house parties and became a patient in his dental practice.
Margot Frank
moved into a room with her parents, to allow Pfeffer to share a small room with Anne
, beginning what would become a torturous relationship for both. It has been suggested by at least one biographer that Anne
's extreme discomfort at sharing her room with a middle aged man while she was going through puberty may have been at the root of her problems with Pfeffer but the pressures of being in hiding and the generational differences of the forty year age gap between them undoubtedly exacerbated the differences in their natures. Pfeffer felt his age gave him seniority over Anne and wrote off her writing activities as unimportant compared to his own studies. His observance of orthodox Judaism
clashed with her liberal views; her energy and capriciousness grated on his nerves, while his pedantry and rigidity frustrated her. Anne's irritations and growing dislike of Pfeffer led to complaints and derisory descriptions of him in her diary, against which his son Werner and wife Charlotta defended him once the book was published.
Pfeffer left a farewell note to Charlotta and they stayed in touch through Miep, who met her on a weekly basis to exchange their letters and take provisions from her. His letters never disclosed the location of his hiding place and Miep never revealed it, but on 4 August 1944 Pfeffer and the seven other occupants of the hiding place were anonymously betrayed and arrested for deportation to Nazi concentration camps.
With the rest of the group and two of their protectors, Johannes Kleiman
and Victor Kugler
, Pfeffer was taken to the Nazi headquarters in Amsterdam-South, then to a prison for three days before being transported to Westerbork on 8 August. Pfeffer was taken to the Punishment Barracks with the others, where he undertook hard labour, until he was selected for deportation to Auschwitz on 3 September. He was separated from the others on arrival on 6 September and sent to the men's barracks, where he was reunited with Otto Frank
. On 29 October he was transferred with 59 other medics to Sachsenhausen
and from there to Neuengamme on an unknown date, where he died of according to the camp's records, enterocolitis
, in the sick barracks on 20 December 1944 at the age of 55.
for her book Anne Frank - The Biography, Charlotta married Pfeffer posthumously in 1950, with retrospective effect to 31 May 1937. She had become estranged from his son Werner but both were united in their defense of Pfeffer after the publication of Anne Frank's diary
in 1947, feeling that Anne's portrait of him—and of the pseudonym
she had chosen for him, Mr. Dussel, which in German is "Mr. Nitwit"—was injurious to his memory. Otto Frank
tried to placate them by reminding them of Anne's youth and of the unflattering portraits of some of the other people in hiding. The subsequent exaggerations of this portrait in the 1955 play and 1959 movie (in which he was played by comic actor Ed Wynn
) led Charlotta to contact the screenwriters Albert Hackett
and his wife Frances Goodrich to complain that they were libelling her deceased husband, who was depicted as ignorant about Jewish traditions. The Hacketts replied that their script did not mirror reality and that to inform a non-Jewish audience of the significance of Judaic ceremonies one character had to be ignorant of them. Charlotta pointed out that her husband was far from unbelieving and a master of Hebrew, but the character of "Mr. Dussel" remained unchanged.
Embittered by the unrepresentative portrait, she severed her links with Otto Frank and Miep Gies as Anne's fame grew in the decades after the war, and refused requests to be interviewed about her memories of him.
Werner remained in touch with Otto and had the opportunity to meet Miep shortly before he died of cancer in 1995, to thank her for her attempt to save his father's life. The meeting between Miep and Werner was recorded for the documentary film Anne Frank Remembered.
A collection of letters written by Pfeffer to Charlotta and a box of photographs of him were rescued with some of Charlotta's possessions from an Amsterdam flea market after her death in 1985.
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
dentist
Dentist
A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...
and Jewish refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
who hid with Anne Frank
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
during the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Occupation of the Netherlands, and who perished in the Neuengamme concentration camp in Northern Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. In Anne Frank's posthumously published diary
The Diary of a Young Girl
The Diary of a Young Girl is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944 and Anne Frank ultimately died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen...
, all names, apart from those of the Frank family, were changed to preserve the privacy of individuals mentioned. Pfeffer was given the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Albert Dussel.
Early life
Fritz was born in Gießen, Germany, one of the five children of Ignatz Pfeffer and Jeannette Hirsch-Pfeffer, who lived above their clothing and textiles shop at 6 Marktplatz in Giessen. After completing his education, Fritz trained as a dentistDentist
A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...
and jaw surgeon, obtained a license to practice in 1911 and opened a surgery the following year in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
He served in the German Army during the First World War and afterwards, in 1921 married Vera Bythiner (31 March 1904 – 30 September 1942), who was born in Posen
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
in Imperial Germany (now Poznań, Poland). The marriage produced a son, Werner Peter Pfeffer (3 April 1927 – 14 February 1995), then the couple divorced in 1932. Fritz was granted custody of the boy and raised him alone until November 1938, when the rising tide of Nazi activity in Germany persuaded him to send him into the care of his brother Ernst in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Werner emigrated to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1945 after his uncle's death and changed his name to Peter Pepper, later establishing a successful office supplies company under that name.
The tide of antisemitism in Germany, which increased from the election of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in 1933, forced most of Fritz's relatives to flee the country. His mother had died in 1925; his father remarried and remained in Germany, only to be arrested; he died in Theresienstadt in October 1942. His elder brother Julius Pfeffer had died in 1928, Emil Pfeffer emigrated to South Africa in 1937, Ernst Pfeffer moved to England and died in 1944, and Hans left for New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. Their sister Minna remained with their father in Germany and died in Nazi custody. Vera escaped to Holland but was arrested in 1942 and died in Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
.
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
in Central Germany, who shared his history of a broken marriage. She was estranged from her first husband, Ludwig Lowenstein, and their son Gustaf. Neither survived the war. (Photos of Ludwig Lowenstein and his son, Gustav, can be found on the Yad Vashem website.) The couple moved in together but were prohibited from marrying under the 1935 Nazi Nuremberg Laws
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
which forbade marriages between Jews and non-Jews.
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
cemented their decision to leave Berlin and they fled to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
in December 1938. They were there for two years before the German invasion, and subsequent anti-Jewish laws which did not permit the co-habitation of Jews and non-Jews, forced them to officially separate and register under different addresses. After establishing a dental practice in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
's Rivierenbuurt he became acquainted with the Van Pels and Frank families. Miep Gies
Miep Gies
Miep Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and several family friends in an attic annex above Anne's father's place of business from the Nazis during World War II...
met Pfeffer at one of the Franks' house parties and became a patient in his dental practice.
In hiding and afterwards
In the autumn of 1942, he decided to go into hiding and inquired with Miep Gies about suitable addresses. She consulted Otto Frank, who, with his and the van Pels family, was being hidden by her in secret rooms in the Franks' office building. Frank agreed to accommodate Pfeffer and he was taken into their hiding place on 16 November, where his medical degree came in handy as they could not contact a doctor while in hiding.Margot Frank
Margot Frank
Margot Betti Frank was the older sister of Anne Frank, whose deportation order from the Gestapo hastened the Frank family into hiding, and who subsequently perished in Bergen-Belsen...
moved into a room with her parents, to allow Pfeffer to share a small room with Anne
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
, beginning what would become a torturous relationship for both. It has been suggested by at least one biographer that Anne
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
's extreme discomfort at sharing her room with a middle aged man while she was going through puberty may have been at the root of her problems with Pfeffer but the pressures of being in hiding and the generational differences of the forty year age gap between them undoubtedly exacerbated the differences in their natures. Pfeffer felt his age gave him seniority over Anne and wrote off her writing activities as unimportant compared to his own studies. His observance of orthodox Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
clashed with her liberal views; her energy and capriciousness grated on his nerves, while his pedantry and rigidity frustrated her. Anne's irritations and growing dislike of Pfeffer led to complaints and derisory descriptions of him in her diary, against which his son Werner and wife Charlotta defended him once the book was published.
Pfeffer left a farewell note to Charlotta and they stayed in touch through Miep, who met her on a weekly basis to exchange their letters and take provisions from her. His letters never disclosed the location of his hiding place and Miep never revealed it, but on 4 August 1944 Pfeffer and the seven other occupants of the hiding place were anonymously betrayed and arrested for deportation to Nazi concentration camps.
With the rest of the group and two of their protectors, Johannes Kleiman
Johannes Kleiman
Johannes Kleiman was one of the Dutch citizens who helped hide Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In the published version of Anne's diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, he is given the pseudonym Mr. Koophuis...
and Victor Kugler
Victor Kugler
Victor Kugler was one of the people who helped hide Anne Frank and her family and friends during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In Anne Frank's posthumously published diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, he was referred to under the name Mr...
, Pfeffer was taken to the Nazi headquarters in Amsterdam-South, then to a prison for three days before being transported to Westerbork on 8 August. Pfeffer was taken to the Punishment Barracks with the others, where he undertook hard labour, until he was selected for deportation to Auschwitz on 3 September. He was separated from the others on arrival on 6 September and sent to the men's barracks, where he was reunited with Otto Frank
Otto Frank
Otto Heinrich "Pim" Frank was a German-born businessman and the father of Anne Frank and Margot Frank...
. On 29 October he was transferred with 59 other medics to Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
and from there to Neuengamme on an unknown date, where he died of according to the camp's records, enterocolitis
Enterocolitis
Enterocolitis is an inflammation of the colon and small intestine. However, most conditions are categorized as one or the other of the following:* Enteritis is the inflammation of the small intestine...
, in the sick barracks on 20 December 1944 at the age of 55.
Posthumous reputation
According to the research done by Melissa MüllerMelissa Müller
Melissa Müller is an Austrian journalist and author.After working as an au pair for some time in London, Müller decided first for a study of the management economics and German Studies, afterwards she worked for different restaurant editorships and magazines.In the mid-1990s she decided to write...
for her book Anne Frank - The Biography, Charlotta married Pfeffer posthumously in 1950, with retrospective effect to 31 May 1937. She had become estranged from his son Werner but both were united in their defense of Pfeffer after the publication of Anne Frank's diary
The Diary of a Young Girl
The Diary of a Young Girl is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944 and Anne Frank ultimately died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen...
in 1947, feeling that Anne's portrait of him—and of the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
she had chosen for him, Mr. Dussel, which in German is "Mr. Nitwit"—was injurious to his memory. Otto Frank
Otto Frank
Otto Heinrich "Pim" Frank was a German-born businessman and the father of Anne Frank and Margot Frank...
tried to placate them by reminding them of Anne's youth and of the unflattering portraits of some of the other people in hiding. The subsequent exaggerations of this portrait in the 1955 play and 1959 movie (in which he was played by comic actor Ed Wynn
Ed Wynn
Ed Wynn was a popular American comedian and actor noted for his Perfect Fool comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a dramatic actor....
) led Charlotta to contact the screenwriters Albert Hackett
Albert Hackett
Albert Maurice Hackett was an American dramatist and screenwriter most noted for his collaborations with his partner and wife Frances Goodrich.-Early years:...
and his wife Frances Goodrich to complain that they were libelling her deceased husband, who was depicted as ignorant about Jewish traditions. The Hacketts replied that their script did not mirror reality and that to inform a non-Jewish audience of the significance of Judaic ceremonies one character had to be ignorant of them. Charlotta pointed out that her husband was far from unbelieving and a master of Hebrew, but the character of "Mr. Dussel" remained unchanged.
Embittered by the unrepresentative portrait, she severed her links with Otto Frank and Miep Gies as Anne's fame grew in the decades after the war, and refused requests to be interviewed about her memories of him.
Werner remained in touch with Otto and had the opportunity to meet Miep shortly before he died of cancer in 1995, to thank her for her attempt to save his father's life. The meeting between Miep and Werner was recorded for the documentary film Anne Frank Remembered.
A collection of letters written by Pfeffer to Charlotta and a box of photographs of him were rescued with some of Charlotta's possessions from an Amsterdam flea market after her death in 1985.
Sources and further reading
- The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, Anne FrankAnne FrankAnnelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
, translated by Susan Massotty, edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, Anchor Books, 1995. - The Roommate of Anne Frank, Nanda van der Zee, Aspekt, 2003.
- The Footsteps of Anne Frank, Ernst SchnabelErnst SchnabelErnst Schnabel was a German writer and pioneer of the radio documentary . From 1951 to 1955 he was director of the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk ....
, Pan, 1959. - Anne Frank Remembered, Miep GiesMiep GiesMiep Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and several family friends in an attic annex above Anne's father's place of business from the Nazis during World War II...
and Alison Leslie GoldAlison Leslie GoldAlison Leslie Gold is an American author. She has written numerous books but is probably best known for her research about the Holocaust and Anne Frank...
, Simon and Schuster, 1988. - Anne Frank: Reflections on her Life and Legacy, edited by Hyman A. Enzer and Sandra Solotaroff-Enzer, University of Illinois, 2000.
- Roses from the Earth, Carol Ann Lee, Penguin, 1999.
- Anne Frank - The Biography, Melissa MüllerMelissa MüllerMelissa Müller is an Austrian journalist and author.After working as an au pair for some time in London, Müller decided first for a study of the management economics and German Studies, afterwards she worked for different restaurant editorships and magazines.In the mid-1990s she decided to write...
, Metropolitan Books, 1998.