Love, Otto: The Legacy of Anne Frank

Based on the letters between the author and Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, the story of a twenty-year correspondence reveals the man who became a surrogate father to numerous children all over the world.

In 1957, Wilson, a 12-year-old growing up in North Hollywood, auditioned unsuccessfully for the lead in The Diary of Anne Frank, the film based on the inspiring diary written by a Dutch Jewish teenager while in hiding with her family from the Germans during WWII. As a Jewish teenager herself, Wilson identified with Anne and in 1959 began a 22-year correspondence with Anne's father, Otto, the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. The letters printed here reflect Wilson's idealism, which was nurtured by the political struggles taking place in the 1960s. She frequently asked for Frank's opinion about her problems, including her conflict over her relationship with a gentile boyfriend, whom she eventually married. Frank's thoughtful responses are marked by support and understanding. In 1977, Wilson visited Frank for the first time, in Switzerland. He died in 1980 at the age of 91.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is the 22-year correspondence between Cara Weiss Wilson, a young woman in California, and Otto Frank, the father of Anne, in Switzerland. In 1957, when Cara was 13, she wrote to Otto to express her emotions about Anne's diary and received a prompt and caring answer. From that time on, the letters go back and forth, reprinted here with occasional comments on what's happening in the rest of the world. Through these candid epistles, we watch Cara grow from a bothered teen to a worried young woman of the Sixties. Soon she is concerned with college. She falls in love, marries, and becomes a mother and a fledgling writer. Otto responds at intervals with thoughtful messages, giving fatherly advice. The highlight of the book is Cara's trip to Switzerland to meet her beloved mentor. She realizes then that the aging Otto is the surrogate father to young people the world over. The book is well written, very moving, and informed with a love for life and humankind. For most collections.
Gerda Haas, formerly Bates Coll. Lib., Lewiston, Maine
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.