For another generation learning Anne Frank’s story, Otto inspires admiration

 

 

By Donald H. Harrison

CHULA VISTA, California — I’d have expected my grandson Shor to relate most closely to either the characters of Peter Van Daan (Mitchell Pfitzmeier), Anne Frank (Lucia Vecchio), or Margot Frank (Rachel Throesch) as he watched the play, The Diary of Anne Frank  at the Onstage Playhouse because Shor is 10, Anne was 13 as her family’s hiding from the Nazis began, and Peter and Margot were a few years older than Anne.

But, I was mistaken.  Proximity in age wasn’t an important factor.  The character that Shor later told me he most admired was Otto Frank (Sven Salumaa), who was the calming influence, the arbiter, and the dependable gentleman whenever the stress of crowded conditions and hiding boiled over and the occupants of the “secret annex” were at each other’s throats.  Although like most pre-teens Shor has his hyperactive moments, he also can be quite patient and compassionate.  I think he saw in Otto either a little of himself or a little of what he would like to become.

So after watching the play this Sunday afternoon, I must first offer my compliments to Salumaa, who portrayed Otto in such admirable fashion.  In contrast to most of the other characters, Otto only lost his temper once during the play and that, noted my grandson, “was to calm everyone else down” during an intense moment of panic.

I would be remiss if I did not single out Vecchio for her portrayal of Anne Frank, whom she resembles physically.  She was at times bratty, loveable, introspective, devilish, romantic, rebellious — a teenager, in other words, coming of age at a time of incredible hardship.  And Mitchell Pfitzmeier was her shy–today we might say nerdish– love interest.  He played Peter as nervous and uncertain, with flashes of rebelliousness.  Throesch, as Margot, seemed a repressed but younger version of Otto, always trying to be a peacemaker, putting everyone’s interests ahead of her own.

This version of ‘Anne Frank’ explored Anne’s quarrels with her mother Edith (Laura Preble), shocking the audience with Anne’s angry admission to her diary that she sometimes imagined her mother dead.  In a touching scene, after a scary occurrence drove her mother, in fear for her life, crying to her bed, the two reconciled.

When San Diego Jewish World’s reviewer Carol Davis wrote of the opening-night performance, she indicated that Preble that night seemed out of character and off the mark.  During Sunday’s performance, in contrast,  Preble was quite credible.  Mrs. Frank clearly suffered at the estrangement between herself and Anne, and Preble was convincing in portraying Mrs. Frank’s inability to fathom what had brought that situation about.

Youngsters–especially those with siblings–can be very perceptive about such things.  Shor said it was clear to him that Anne was angry because her mother clearly preferred Margot to her.   He cited the fact that when sleeping arrangements had to be shifted with the arrival at the annex of an eighth person, Mr. Dussell (Nick Young), Edith Frank promptly rejected Anne’s plea to be able to sleep with her parents and instead chose Margot to sleep with them.  This forced Anne to share a room with Mr. Dussell.

I think perhaps that neither Shor nor the character Anne appreciated the likelihood that, as a mother, Mrs. Frank would believe it less risky for young Anne to share a room with Mr. Dussell than for Margot, who was well past puberty, to do so.

In contrast to the intense relationships that Anne’s parents had with her, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan (Greg McAfee and Teri Brown) seemed to have comparatively remote relationships with their son, Peter.  They were too self-absorbed to sense how much Peter was suffering in the little attic, where he spent most of his time alone with his cat.  Were it not for Anne, Peter might have suffered an emotional death in the annex long before the Nazis took them all away.

For many people around the world, ‘Anne Frank’ has served as an introduction to the Holocaust, personalizing the stories of seven Jews among the six million who  perished,  one–Otto- who survived, and the righteous gentiles, Miep Gies (Anya Tuerk)  and Mr. Kraler (Rob Conway) who risked their lives helping them.

Even before attending the performance , Shor was familiar with the story of Anne Frank, although he had neither read the diary nor seen the play.   At San Diego Hebrew Day School and at Tifereth Israel Synagogue’s Torah school –both of which he has attended — the Holocaust is a well-known topic.  Anne’s story is a common reference point.   I am grateful to the Onstage Playhouse for helping yet another generation understand some of the complexities of that horror.

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com