Otto Frank with cello

One of Alice und Michael’s sons, Otto Frank, developed a fondness for the work of Frankfurt poet Friedrich Stolze, known for his sharp-tongued poems about the Prussian government. During his secondary education at the Lessing-Gymnasium Otto learned Latin, Greek and French; he also received private cello and riding lessons. Jewish tradition did not play a central role in his family. Although Otto attended religious studies classes, he did not celebrate his bar mitzvah (the Hebrew term denoting the beginning of religious maturity for a thirteen-year-old boy following his first reading of the Torah).