Overview

Otto Frank’s Cotton Bag from Auschwitz

Jan. 25, 2024 — On 27 January 1945, 79 years ago, the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father, was one of the approximately 8,000 prisoners who had been left behind, most of whom were critically ill. Once Otto Frank regained his strength, he left for the Netherlands, a three-month ordeal. A cotton bag was among his few possessions.

Otto Frank was the only one of the eight people in hiding in the Secret Annex to survive the concentration and extermination camps. On his journey back from Auschwitz to the Netherlands, he carried a small cotton bag. Otto Frank would hold on to the bag for the rest of his life.

Tangible Memories

The Anne Frank House has digitised 1,184 collection items and made them accessible in the Anne Frank Collection Online. Here, you will find objects, photographs, letters, and other documents connected to the eight people hiding in the Secret Annex and their six helpers. Thirty-four of these collection pieces are highlighted on the website. Alongside Otto Frank’s cotton bag, you will find, for instance, the tin of marbles that Anne Frank entrusted to her neighbour Toosje before going into hiding, the homework that Anne’s sister Margot completed for her Latin correspondence course during the period in hiding, and the postcards and letters that Anne’s mother Edith sent to their former neighbour Gertrud in Frankfurt am Main before going into hiding.

Collection Online

The Anne Frank Collection Online aims to open its collection to those interested and provide an opportunity to view objects, letters, photos, and documents of the eight people from the Secret Annex and their six helpers. It features a search function by category, topic, and person and a download function.

Search the Anne Frank Collection Online

The descriptions in the online collection are currently only available in Dutch.