The Daily Gamecock

USC Anne Frank Center receives donation of 100+ Otto Frank letters

<p>A display case with Otto Frank's letters on June 8, 2022. Cara Wilson-Granat donated the letters to USC's Anne Frank Center to be a part of a special collection.</p>
A display case with Otto Frank's letters on June 8, 2022. Cara Wilson-Granat donated the letters to USC's Anne Frank Center to be a part of a special collection.

A donation of over 100 letters of correspondence with Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, was announced at USC's Anne Frank Center on June 8, 2022. 

USC Dean of Libraries Thomas McNally said the donation is meaningful as these sorts of donations are very rare.

"The gift of this amazing collection of letters will be the foundation of what will become the Anne Frank Center Archive that will be located in the Ernest F. Hollings Library," McNally said. "Those who visit the Center are going to be inspired and their inspiration is going to make them want to be a part of this."

McNally said he hopes this is just the beginning and the collection will continue to grow in the future.

"The collection will really start to grow," Mcnally said. "I guarantee a year from now, this archive will be at 10 times these letters."

Cara Wilson-Granat donated the letters to the Center. She said she corresponded with Otto Frank for many years and even traveled to Switzerland to meet him in person.

"I feel this great sense of peace knowing they're in the right home, the right place where there is education, and caring, and compassion and love," Wilson-Granat said.

Wilson-Granat said she first began corresponding with Otto Frank when she was a child after she read the diary of Anne Frank.

"He became my mentor, my grandfather, my everything," Wilson-Granat said. "We children of the world mattered to him."

Gertjan Broek, the senior researcher at Anne Frank Stichting, said Otto Frank corresponded with many people throughout his life through letters.

"(He was) corresponding with people from all corners of the world, mainly young people," Broek said. "He would always reply to them if possible, and I'm sure that there must have been thousands and thousands and thousands letters still out there in the world." 

Anne Frank Center Executive Director Doyle Stevick said Otto Frank's letters enrich the understanding of Anne Frank's diary. 

"The letters that we're receiving in this amazing collection are a resource for students and scholars and will shape our vision," Stevick said. "We hope that this gift will inspire others to reach out to us so that we can learn about the contents (and) complete a more complete picture of his correspondence."



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