Diarist slain in the Holocaust called ‘male’ Anne Frank

During the Holocaust 6 million Jews were murdered. They left behind journals and diaries that told their stories. The most famous diary is Anne Frank’s, the 16 year-old-Jewish girl who wrote her diary while in hiding. Anne Frank was not the only Jew who was in hiding during the Holocaust. Otto Wolf was a young Jewish man who had to face the Nazi persecution.

Otto Wolf was born June 5, 1927, in Moravia, Czechoslovakia. Otto was the youngest of three children. He had an older brother named Kurt and an older sister, Felicitas. Otto was like many other teenagers. He was studious, interested in girls and enjoyed writing. The Wolf family was a prominent Jewish family. Otto and his family were living in Moravia when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia.

The Nazis quickly established anti-Jewish decrees on the Jewish people living in Czechoslovakia. Like the other Jews in the rest of Europe, Otto’s free world became a restricted one. Discrimination and segregation were among the many decrees placed on the Jews. There were decrees such as forbidding Jews to drive, to attend the cinemas and had to have special ID cards which identify them as Jewish. When the Jewish people received a “call up for labor,” these were actually call-ups for deportations to the camps or the ghettos. They were also forced to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes. The Jewish people were also being deported to their deaths. When the Wolf family received their deportation notice, the Wolfs went immediately into hiding.

“We depart Trsice at 2 P.M. en route to Olomouc. We are being moved out. Josef Lon takes us, because Mrs. Zdarilova could not get anyone else. Farwell’s are tough, and we are all quite upset”- Otto Wolf’s diary, June 22, 1942.

Otto’s life went from comfortable to terrified immediately. Otto’s brother, Kurt, enlisted in the Czech army to fight the Nazis. His family went into hiding in the forest, to people’s attics and in ditches they personally dug.

Otto and his family hid with help from a man named Slávek. After hiding with Slávek, the Wolf family was taken in by the Zbořils and the Oheras.

            “April 20, 1944, Thursday, 96th week. 7 [days at the Zbořils’]

We sleep until half past five. I then look at the newspapers and find papers from last Sunday as well. The situation is excellent. […] At noon, Mařenka cooks potato soup for us and again puts in so much fat that fat rings float on the surface. She also gives us a little skillet of delicious cabbage, supposedly “just to have a taste.” The poor thing really cannot do enough for us to make our lives more bearable. She keeps telling us that she feels terribly sorry for us. The young Mařenka keeps echoing the sentiment. […] At half past eight, the young Mařenka comes up and tells us that she was feeling lonely without us. […] Today is that asshole Hitler’s birthday,” Otto wrote on April 20, 1944.

Otto Wolf’s life came to a screeching halt on April 18, 1945, when the Nazis discovered and shot him. He was 17 years old. Everyone in Otto’s family, except for Otto and his brother Kurt, survived the Holocaust. Kurt, who had enlisted in to the army, was shot in action. Their mother, torn after losing her two sons, suffered a stroke and never fully recovered from the loss of her sons. His sister picked up his diary and wrote in it in his absence.

When the war ended, Felicitas immigrated to the United States. Keeping the diary that reminded her of her brothers and how their lives were cut short. She gave it to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1995.

Otto Wolf is often referred to as the ‘male’ Anne Frank. During the two years, Otto and his family were in hiding, they managed to evade death. Felicitas rescued Otto’s three volumes of diaries, as well as contributing her own entries.

“April 19, 1945, Thursday.

At 6.A.M, they [the Vlasov troops] ask us all for personal identification. They confront our Otosek [diminutive for Otto] first. HE is at a loss for words, and finally says that he is visiting the Ohereas and that he is from Telc. The Vlasovite commander does not believe him, though, and simply says: “You’re coming with me.” Otto rises to his feet resoloutely and goes, although his face is as white as paper. The rest of us feel like knives are being driven into our hearts.”

She held onto them until she could no longer bear the pain of having them.

Alexandra Zapruder, author of “Salvaged Pages,” managed to get copyrights to Otto’s diary and published it in her book.

“Felicitas didn’t really like talking about the past,” said Zapruder. “She loved Otto very much and his death remained very painful for her. She donated the diary to the museum because she wanted to be sure it would be safe and taken care of.”

You can learn more about Otto here or you can visit the Houston Holocaust Museum for more information.