Reexamining My Portrayal of Otto Frank

Myself as Otto Frank, and the great young actress, Emily Beck, as Anne Frank.

I was wrong.

I hate to admit it, but I was.

I recently had the honor of playing Otto Frank in Purlie Production's The Diary of Anne Frank.  Otto is Anne's father, and is responsible for helping his and his business partner's families hide from the Nazis during World War II.  I was familiar with the story, and I knew that Anne had a stubborn streak of optimism that shown through even their darkest times.  I reasoned that she got that from her father.  If you read the diary, you will see that although she often reflects bitter antagonism towards her mother, she is respectful and loving towards her father.

I did my best to emphasis that optimism and sense of hope in Otto.  I felt like he had made his decision to stay in Amsterdam because he thought things would be bad but not that bad.  That it was worth staying to wait them out, and besides, Otto was a successful businessman and employer.  There were people who were his great friends, like those who were helping hide them.  Why give all that up by starting over in another country?  This is something he had already done by moving from Germany to the Netherlands.  Maybe he didn't want to start over again.

As things got worse, and it became clearer that there was a greater danger than he realized, he tried to stay as encouraging as he could.  He refused to fall into despair, and always did things to help the group endure and focus on hope.

But I was wrong.

Otto Frank did not just simply try to ride it out.  He did try to escape, much further out than Amsterdam. According to documents released in 2007, as discovered by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Otto Frank sought out a visa for his family to go to the United States.  A visa request that the United States turned down.

So instead of escaping to the United States, they hid in an attic.  Eventually, all were killed except Otto. They were valiant.  They were brave.  They were hopeful.  But in the end, the Nazis found them.  

It seems harsh, but maybe we just don't understand those times.  I mean, couldn't the Nazis have snuck spies and saboteurs in the mix of Jewish refugees?  And after all, we are a Christian country, aren't we?  Why let in people of other faiths?  How much more Christian can you get than denying help and aid to the alien, the stranger, the persecuted, those in need of help to save their lives?  I mean, what kind of a country do you think we are?

And now I need to rethink my portrayal of Otto Frank.  He knew more than I thought he knew.  He knew enough to try to get out of the country.  I need to reflect this new knowledge and use it in the way I bring his character across.  I'm not quite sure how to do that just yet.  But I'm thinking on it.  It's a great acting challenge, but that's okay.  I like to be challenged in theater.

The Diary of Anne Frank is an important play with an important message, and it needs to be told over and over again.  Because we can't let it happen again.

Maybe I'm overly pessimistic.  The United States has grown and evolved, hasn't it?

If another crisis happened, where hundreds of thousands were being threatened with violence and persecution and needed to escape, the United States would step up to it's global responsibilities and take it's fair share of refugees.  We wouldn't let hatred and fear and intolerance rule us.

Would we?

UPDATE November 13, 2016.

I was wrong again.

The United States has not grown or evolved.  All  the things I feared have come about, or at least we have elected the man who has vowed to head us in that direction.

I will continue to pray for the United States, and for all those whose lives are now threatened.

May God help us all.