The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank

Last updated
The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank
Poster of the movie The Attic- The Hiding of Anne Frank.jpg
GenreDrama
History
War
Written by Miep Gies
Alison Leslie Gold (book)
Directed by John Erman
Starring
Music by Richard Rodney Bennett
Country of originUnited States
United Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producersKenneth Kaufman
Michael Lepiner
William Hanley (co-executive producer)
David Cunliffe (co-executive producer)
Producers
  • Timothy J. Fee
  • Nick Gillott
  • Marjorie Kalins
Cinematography Peter Jackson
EditorJerrold L. Ludwig
Running time95 minutes
Production companiesTelecom Entertainment Inc.
Yorkshire Television
Original release
Network CBS
ReleaseApril 17, 1988 (1988-04-17)

The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank is a 1988 television film directed by John Erman. It is based on Miep Gies's 1988 book Anne Frank Remembered. The film was broadcast as part of an ad hoc network, Kraft Golden Showcase Network. [1] Playwright William Hanley received an Emmy for his script. [2]

Contents

Plot

In 1940, the Nazis invade the Netherlands. Miep Gies is a young woman, and an office assistant of Otto Frank, who is Jewish. As the Nazis begin to murder the Jews, Otto Frank becomes worried about his family. In July 1942, Otto Frank decides to hide his family after his daughter Margot is called to appear for transport to a Nazi labor camp. Miep, who is trusted by Otto, hides them in the attic above the office, that was called The Annexe. The film tells the true story of Gies' struggle to keep the family hidden and safe, as the Nazis turn Amsterdam upside-down.

A few days later, the van Daans join the Franks in hiding, and after some months Albert Dussel, a Jewish dentist, joins them in hiding. Miep, her husband Jan Gies, along with Miep's fellow office workers Mr Kraler, Mr Koophuis, and Elli actively helps the innocent Jews to hide. Miep is never able to keep these hiders out of her thoughts, and she does her best to protect them. But all her efforts are destroyed on August 4, 1944. The Gestapo is informed about the hiders, and they come to the building to arrest them. Mr Kraler and Mr Koophuis are arrested with the hiders, while Miep is spared because she is Austrian (which was pro-Nazi since the Anschluss took over in 1938, the year before the war started as it is German-speaking and the birthplace of Hitler) as well as a Gentile, and Karl Silberbauer, the Gestapo officer who arrested the hiders, was also an Austrian Gentile. So, out of mercy, Silberbauer spares Miep. After the arrest, Miep and Jan go to the annex, and Miep finds Anne Frank's diary in the floor of Anne's room, and she collects it before the Annex is emptied by the Nazis. A day later, Miep decides to bribe Silberbauer in return of her friends, but Silberbauer denies. The war is finished a few months later, and Otto Frank safely returns to Amsterdam. Miep and Jan shelter him. Otto tells Miep that Mrs Frank had been murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and Mr van Daan was gassed by the Nazis in Auschwitz. However, Anne, Margot and Mrs van Daan were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which was not a death camp, and Otto has high hopes for them. But a few days later, a letter comes to Otto informing him that Anne and Margot had both died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Otto tells Miep, who is distraught. Miep takes Anne's diary, which she has not read, from her drawer and gives it to Otto Frank. While Otto reads Anne's diary, Miep goes to Anne's room in the hiding place, and sits in a chair. She then leaves the building, and the films ends with her cycling home, as we hear her speak in a voice-over.

Cast

Awards

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special (1988)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Frank</span> Father of Anne Frank (1889–1980)

Otto Heinrich Frank was the father of Anne Frank. He edited and published the first edition of her diary in 1947 and advised on its later theatrical and cinematic adaptations. In the 1950s and 60s he established European charities in his daughter's name and founded the trust which preserved his family's wartime hiding place, the Anne Frank House, in Amsterdam.

<i>The Diary of Anne Frank</i> (1959 film) 1959 American film directed by George Stevens

The Diary of Anne Frank is a 1959 American biographical drama film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1955 play of the same name, which was in turn based on the posthumously published diary of Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl who lived in hiding in Amsterdam with her family during World War II. It was directed by George Stevens, with a screenplay by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, is the first film version of both the play and the original story, and features three members of the original Broadway cast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miep Gies</span> Dutch citizen who hid Anne Frank (1909–2010)

Hermine "Miep" Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and four other Dutch Jews from the Nazis in an annex above Otto Frank's business premises during World War II. She was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family in Leiden to whom she became very attached. Although she was only supposed to stay for six months, this stay was extended to one year because of frail health, after which Gies chose to remain with them, living the rest of her life in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Frank</span> Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim (1929–1945)

Annelies MarieFrank was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary in which she documented life in hiding under Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She is a celebrated diarist who described everyday life from her family hiding place in an Amsterdam attic. One of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, she gained fame posthumously with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl, in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944 — it is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Silberbauer</span> SS Nazi Officer, responsible for the arrest of Anne Frank and her family

Karl Josef Silberbauer was an Austrian police officer, Schutzstaffel (SS) member, and undercover investigator for the West German Bundesnachrichtendienst. He was stationed in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II, where he was promoted to the rank of Hauptscharführer. In 1963, Silberbauer, by then an inspector in the Vienna police, was exposed as the commander of the 1944 Gestapo raid on the Anne Frank House Secret Annex and the arrests of Anne Frank, her fellow fugitives, and two of their protectors, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margot Frank</span> Older sister of Anne Frank (1926–1945)

Margot Betti Frank was the elder daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Frank and the elder sister of Anne Frank. Margot's deportation order from the Gestapo hastened the Frank family into hiding. According to the diary of her younger sister, Anne, Margot kept a diary of her own, but no trace of it has ever been found. She died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from a typhus outbreak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritz Pfeffer</span> German physician

Friedrich "Fritz" Pfeffer was a German dentist and Jewish refugee who hid with Anne Frank and her family and the Van Pels family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. He perished in the Neuengamme concentration camp in Northern Germany. Pfeffer was given the pseudonym Albert Dussel in Frank's diary, and remains known as such in many editions and adaptations of the publication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Gies</span> Dutch Resistance member; Dutch Righteous Among the Nations; World War II humanitarian

Jan Augustus Gies was a member of the Dutch Resistance who, with his wife, Miep, helped hide Anne Frank, her sister Margot, their parents Otto and Edith, the van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer from Nazi persecution during the occupation of the Netherlands by aiding them as they resided in the Secret Annex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Kugler</span> Austrian person who hid Anne Frank

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, Het Achterhuis, known in English as The Diary of a Young Girl, he was referred to under the pseudonym Mr. Kraler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannes Kleiman</span> Concealer of Anne Frank

Johannes Kleiman was one of the Dutch residents who helped hide Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In the published version of Frank's diary, Het Achterhuis, known in English as The Diary of a Young Girl, he is given the pseudonym Mr. Koophuis. In some later publications of the diary, the pseudonym was removed, and Kleiman was referred to by his real name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bep Voskuijl</span> Dutch secretary who helped hide Anne Frank (1919–1983)

Elisabeth "Bep" Voskuijl was a resident of Amsterdam who helped conceal Anne Frank and her family from Nazi persecution during the occupation of the Netherlands. In the early versions of Het Achterhuis, known in English as The Diary of a Young Girl, she was given the pseudonym "Elli Vossen".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Frank</span> Mother of Anne Frank (1900–1945)

Edith Frank was the mother of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank, and her older sister Margot. After the family were discovered in hiding in Amsterdam during the German occupation, she was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

<i>Anne Frank: The Whole Story</i> Television miniseries

Anne Frank: The Whole Story is a 2001 two-part biographical war drama television miniseries based on the 1998 book Anne Frank: The Biography by Melissa Müller. The television miniseries aired on ABC on May 20 and 21, 2001. The television miniseries starred Ben Kingsley, Brenda Blethyn, Hannah Taylor-Gordon and Lili Taylor. Controversially, but in keeping with the claim made by Melissa Müller, the television miniseries asserts that the anonymous betrayer of the Frank family was the office cleaner, when in fact the betrayer's identity had never been established until 2022. A disagreement between the producers of the television miniseries and the Anne Frank Foundation about the validity of this and other details led to the withdrawal of their endorsement of the dramatization, which prevented the use of any quotations from the writings of Anne Frank appearing within the television miniseries. Both Kingsley and Taylor-Gordon received Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations for their performances as Otto Frank and Anne Frank, respectively.

The Diary of Anne Frank is a BBC adaptation, in association with France 2, of The Diary of a Young Girl originally written by Anne Frank from 1942 to 1944 and adapted for television by Deborah Moggach.

The Diary of Anne Frank is a 1967 TV film based on the posthumously published 1947 book The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. The teleplay was directed by Alex Segal and it was adapted by James Lee from the 1955 play of the same name by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich. The film starred Max von Sydow, Diana Davila, Peter Beiger, Theodore Bikel and Lilli Palmer.

The Diary of Anne Frank is 1987 BBC television miniseries. It was based on The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and it starred Katharine Schlesinger as Frank, with the cast also including Elizabeth Bell, Janet Amsbury, and Emrys James. It was directed by Gareth Davies and produced by Terrance Dicks.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is an original radio play by author Meyer Levin (1905–1981). It was adapted from Levin's original stage dramatization of the same name, adapted from The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank's 1942-1944 diary that was posthumously published in 1947. It aired on CBS on September 18, 1952, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, to critical acclaim, and again in November 1952.

<i>Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank</i> 2016 German film

Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank is a 2016 German drama film directed by German filmmaker Hans Steinbichler and written by Fred Breinersdorfer. It stars Lea van Acken as the titular character, Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Noethen, and Stella Kunkat. The film is based on Anne Frank's famous diary and tells the story of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who went into hiding with her family in Amsterdam and became a victim of the Holocaust.

ANNE is a 2014 play dramatising the story of Jewish diarist Anne Frank's period in hiding in the Secret Annex in Amsterdam during the Second World War. The play was the first major new adaptation of Frank's diary since the 1955 play, and was both authorised and initiated by the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, the organisation set up by Frank's father Otto Frank to preserve his daughter's legacy and work. As such, Anne was the first adaptation allowed to quote literal passages from the diary. After a near two-year run in the Netherlands, the play closed in 2016, and had production runs in Germany and Israel. The play also formed the basis for the first German film adaptation of the diary.

References

  1. Janet Key (November 1, 1989). "Despite Mega-budget, Att Sees Real Bargain In 'The Final Days'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  2. Dennis Heves (June 3, 2012), "William Hanley, Playwright and TV Writer, Dies at 80." The New York Times.