Otto's Children - The Story

Before the war that would take his wife and family, and before publishing the diary that would make his family world famous, Otto Frank was an average businessman. He found himself stuck in a marriage he himself described as "a business arrangement," had two daughters with whom he was not able to spend as much time as he wanted, and worked too many hours as the president of the Opekta Company in Amsterdam, trying to provide for his family.

World War II changed everything for Otto. When his eldest daughter Margot was ordered in a letter to report to the Nazis in 1942, Otto Frank abandoned his business, and took his family into hiding where they remained for more than two years. Tragically, they were eventually betrayed, and sent off to the concentration camps. Separated from his wife and children, Otto knew nothing of what happened to them until months after the war. For the first time in his life he was completely alone, cut off from everything he had known or held dear.

While in Auschwitz, Otto befriended a fellow prisoner many years his junior. Otto suggested that they spend their time discussing food, theater, literature—any subject other than the situation into which they had been thrust. Otto made one request of his friend: "Call me Papa Frank," he asked, "because that's who I am." With everything else taken from him, Otto realized that his role as a father was more important to him than anything else in his life.

Tragically, though Otto himself survived the Holocaust, his wife and children did not. His daughters, who had openly wished for a closer relationship with their father, would never benefit from his rediscovered love and need for fatherhood. When he returned to Amsterdam, almost nothing remained of his children, his family, or his former life. All he found were memories…and a diary.

When Otto Frank decided to publish his daughter's diary in 1947, he could not have known just how influential it would become. Millions of people all over the world read, and were moved, by Anne's thoughts and experiences. Though dead, her words kept her memory and experiences alive.

AND THEN…THE LETTERS STARTED TO ARRIVE

Over the years, thousands of people found themselves so moved by Anne's words that they wrote to Otto, seeking to get closer to the story. Otto wrote back to each and every one. While that exchange was sufficient for most correspondents, for a select few, it proved to be only the beginning of a long and intimate relationship with a man who offered guidance, support, advice, and love.

These remarkable exchanges form the backdrop for Otto's Children, a documentary about a man who had fatherhood taken from him, and the handful of people across the globe who helped him get it back.

The documentary will explore the life of Otto Frank, told from the point of view of those who grew to know him intimately. We will hear from his step daughter and nephew, as well as a small group of devotees who started out as strangers to him and each other, and ended up members of a select fraternity of world citizens adopted by Otto Frank, and who became his second family.

As we hear from each of these people, and learn their stories and insights, a moving and complete picture of Otto Frank unfolds that has never been seen or told before on screen. Viewers will see how joy can come from the saddest of circumstances, and how it is truly never too late for a second chance.

As one of the best-selling and most widely read books in the entire world, The Diary of Anne Frank has touched millions of people, and kept the lessons of the Holocaust alive for generations. Otto's Children will become an important chapter in that ongoing story, and will allow the Frank family's message to continue to educate and inspire people for generations to come.