Elfriede Geiringer - Biography

Elfriede Geiringer (February 13, 1905 - October 2, 1998) was a Jewish survivor of the Second World War. She was the second wife of Otto Frank, the father of Anne and Margot Frank.

Biography

Early life

Elfriede Markovits was born in Vienna, Austria, on February 13, 1905. She married Erich Geiringer and the couple had two children: a son, Heinz, born in 1926, and a daughter, Eva, born on May 11, 1929. The family fled first to Belgium and then to the Netherlands in 1938, where they settled down as neighbours to the Frank family. Eva and Anne knew each through mutual friends.

Second World War

When the Germans invaded Holland and Heinz received a call-up to a work-camp, the family went into hiding. They successfully hid for two years and might have survived the war if they had not been betrayed in May 1944. They were then captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. They were liberated in January 1945 by the Russians, but Erich and Heinz Geiringer had perished in the forced march to Mauthausen that came just before the war ended. Elfriede and her daughter Eva returned to Amsterdam on June 13, 1945. Otto Frank visited them at their apartment not long after.

Later life

Elfriede Geiringer and Otto Frank married in November 1953 and settled in Basel, Switzerland. They spent a large part of their time educating people about the importance of Anne Frank's diary and the horrors that the Jews experienced during the Holocaust. Their commitment led to the creation of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Death and afterward

After living long enough to see the birth of five of her great grandchildren, Elfriede Frank died peacefully in her sleep on October 2, 1998 at her home in London.