Hermann van Pels

Hermann van Pels (31 March 1898–6 September 1944) was a German-Jewish refugee who hid with Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands, and who was killed in Auschwitz after they were betrayed to the Gestapo. When Anne Frank's diary was published in 1947 the names of all those mentioned apart from those of the Frank family were changed. Van Pels was given the pseudonym Herman van Daan.

Related Topics:
31 March - 1898 - 6 September - 1944 - Refugee - Anne Frank - Nazi - The Netherlands - Auschwitz - Gestapo - Diary - 1947 - Pseudonym

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Hermann van Pels was born on 31 March 1898, the third of six children born to Lina Vorsänger and Aron van Pels in Gehrde, Germany. He married Auguste Röttgen (born 29 September 1900 in Buer) on December 5 1925 and their son Peter was born on 8 November 1926) in Osnabruck, near the Dutch/German border.

Related Topics:
31 March - 1898 - Germany - Auguste Röttgen - 29 September - 1900 - Buer - December 5 - 1925 - Peter - 8 November - 1926 - Osnabruck

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Hermann and his sister Ida van Pels joined the family meat seasoning business just before the family were forced to sell it at a huge loss in 1933 under the newly-introduced Nazi Jewish possession laws. Their sister, Henny Marx-van Pels (30 March 1895–17 September 1943) took her dressmaking business to Amsterdam in 1935 and Hermann, Gusti and Peter followed in June 1937. Following his arrest on Kristallnacht in 1938, van Pels's father, Aron returned to Holland, where he was born, and lived with Henny until his death in December 1941.

Related Topics:
30 March - 1895 - 17 September - 1943 - Amsterdam - Kristallnacht

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Three of the van Pels siblings, Max, Ida and Meta van Pels all fled Europe for America and Chile before the outbreak of war. But the three others remained in Amsterdam until it was occupied by the German army and escape became impossible. Henny died in Auschwitz in 1943, and her sister Klara Neumann-van Pels (31 August 1900–30 April 1943) was gassed in Sobibor.

Related Topics:
Europe - America - Chile - 31 August - 1900 - 30 April - 1943 - Sobibor

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The van Pels and Frank families were neighbours, living back to back with the Franks at 37 Merwedeplein and the van Pels family at 34 Zuider Amstellan. Hermann joined Otto Frank's company Pectacon in 1938 as a specialist in herbs and sausage production, and soon the families were socialising together.

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Otto Frank and Hermann van Pels made plans to go into hiding as the anti-Jewish measures escalated in occupied Holland, and in July 1942 took their families to begin a two year confinement in the sealed-off upper rooms at the rear of Frank's business premises at 263 Prinsengracht. They were concealed and aided by their colleagues Miep Gies, Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman and Bep Voskuijl until an anonymous informant sent the Gestapo to the address in August 1944.

Related Topics:
Prinsengracht - Miep Gies - Victor Kugler - Johannes Kleiman - Bep Voskuijl - 1944

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Those in hiding were arrested and in September 1944 deported to Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland, where Hermann van Pels was assigned hard labour. Following an injury to his hand, he was transferred to a group in another section of the camp which was subsequently selected for the gas chambers and exterminated in mid October.

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Although the portrait of van Pels in Anne Frank's postumously-published diary is rarely flattering, he was remembered affectionately by those who helped hide them and he has been portrayed in the many stage and screen adaptions of the book.

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