Anne Frank's Father's Letters Disclosed

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Jan 25, 2:03 PM EST
Anne Frank's Father's Letters Disclosed

By ULA ILNYTZKY
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Newly disclosed letters written by the father of Anne Frank illuminate his desperate attempts to get the family out of Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, a New York-based institution that focuses on the history and culture of Eastern European Jews, said Thursday it had discovered the file among 100,000 other Holocaust-related documents about a year and a half ago. The institute did not immediately disclose the find because it had to explore copyright and other legal issues, she said.

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On Feb. 14, she said, the institute will release Frank's letters and documents and records from various agencies that helped people immigrate from Europe.

The disclosure came as a surprise to Bernd "Buddy" Elias, Anne Frank's cousin and the president of the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, Switzerland. The organization, established by Otto Frank, holds the rights to Anne Frank's writings, according to its Web site. "We would love to have them in our archive. I mean, we are the heirs of Otto Frank," Elias told The Associated Press.

Callegari said the documents include letters that Otto Frank wrote to relatives, friends and officials between April 30, 1941, and Dec. 11, 1941, when Germany declared war on the United States.

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My heart always went out to those who suffered so grieviously - it still does and always will.

Now I wonder if we citizens of the United States of America will suffer in larger numbers than now - if left to suffer under the madmen and women who are taking away our country - One signing statement after another ... One unrepresented imprisonment after another ... One lihop disaster after another (including Katrina) ... One defunding of rightful and lawful benefit after another ... One foot of rising water after another.

Also, now: I am extremely bitter the way Israel has turned around and is doing to others what was done to them.