Otto Frank, Annes father, wasn’t just sitting around while Hitler rose to power.

He battled to get his family free, beginning immediately after Kristallnacht in 1938, but the attempt to escape Nazi Germany was like trying to break out of a jail where the walls seemed to be closing in tighter.

You see, nobody wanted Jewish refugees.

The United States had strict immigration quotas.

Otto filed papers for American visas in 1938, but those applications got buried in red tape and State Department bureaucracy.

Then Pearl Harbor came, and Germany declared war on America. That avenue of retreat was now irretrievably shut.

He tried Cuba next.

Managed to secure a single visa, but by that point, Cuba had altered its entry requirements.

The visa became worthless paper.

Switzerland?

They had already closed their borders to Jewish refugees.

Britain?

They accepted only a few, mostly parentless children.

Palestine?

The British also severely restricted Jewish immigration there, too.

And getting essential cash – lots of it. For bribes, visas, travel documents, proof of financial stability in your destination country.

The Nazis had already confiscated the assets of many Jewish families. Otto’s business was hanging by a thread.

By 1942, when the family sought refuge in Amsterdam, all exits were tightly sealed. The Nazis had established control over much of Europe.

Neutral nations had closed their doors tightly. The seas were swarming with U-boats.

Even had it been possible to obtain the papers—which it wasn’t—the chances of escape were all but impossible.

Otto did everything right. Started early, worked every angle, pulled every string. But the world just watched as the Nazi net tightened.

He was the only survivor from his family, in the aftermath of war.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7256140085677473793/