family photo of the Frank family

Back row left to right: Erich Elias (Helene’s husband), Robert, Herbert and Otto. Middle row: Helene Elias (née Frank), Lotti, Alice (née Stern), Hortense, Edith (née Holländer). Front row: Bernhard (Buddy) Elias, Margot, Stephan Elias. Confined to her cramped hiding place, Anne imagined the life her forebears had led in Frankfurt. She wrote in her diary: “Monday, 8 May 1944: Dearest Kitty,
Have I ever told you anything about our family? I don’t think I have, so let me begin. Father was born in Frankfurt am Main to very wealthy parents: Michael Frank owned a bank and became a millionaire, and Alice`s Stern parents were prominent and well-to- do.
Michael Frank didn’t start our rich; he was a self-made man. In his youth Father led the life of a rich man’s son. Parties every week, balls. Banquets, beautiful girls, waltzing, dinners, a huge house, etc. After Grandpa died, most of the money was lost, and after the Great War and inflation there was nothing left at all. Until the war there were still quite a few rich relatives. So Father was extremely well-bred, and he had to laugh yesterday because for the first time in his fifty-five years, he scraped out the frying pan at the table. Mother’s family wasn’t as wealthy, but still fairly well-off, and we’ve listened open-mouthed to stories of private balls, dinners and engagement parties with 250 guests.
We’re far from rich now, but I’ve pinned all my hopes on after the war. I can assure you, I’m not so set on a bourgeois life as Mother and Margot. I’d like to spend a year in Paris and London learning the languages and studying art history. Compare that with Margot, who wants to nurse newborn babies in Palestine. I still have visions of gorgeous dressed and fascinating people. As I’ve told you many times before, I want to see the world and do all kinds of exciting things, and a little money won’t hurt."