Otto Frank: The Man Who Preserved Anne Frank's Diary

A decorated German soldier who earned an Iron Cross in World War I would later be stripped of his business, homeland, and family by the very nation he served. This episode looks past Otto Frank's role as Anne Frank's father to tell his own remarkable and harrowing story.We trace his cosmopolitan youth in Frankfurt, his work placement at Macy's, his artillery service at the Somme and Cambrai, the collapse of the family bank, and the flight to Amsterdam. We follow the shadow companies that kept his businesses running under occupation, the two years in the secret annex, the arrest, Auschwitz, and his lifelong fight to protect and authenticate his daughter's diary against denial.The personal irony of fighting for Germany while French cousins died on the other sideHow he transferred ownership of Opekta and Pectacon to non-Jewish employeesThe failed visa attempts to Cuba, Britain, and the United StatesWhy his co-author status extended the diary's copyright for decadesHow the BKA forensic investigation debunked the ballpoint pen forgery claim