Anne Frank's fountain pen.

[Bill D]

Thank you , Zoe. I will be interested in what you hear from the museum.

 

Bill

[Zoe]

Unfortunately, I missed the return call from the A&A curator and won't be able to talk with her until next week when she returns from her off weekend.

 

But, the good news is she is more than happy to discuss it and research it with me....

 

Zoe

[duna]

Unfortunately, I missed the return call from the A&A curator and won't be able to talk with her until next week when she returns from her off weekend.

 

But, the good news is she is more than happy to discuss it and research it with me....

 

Zoe

 

great news, I'm following this trend to understand if something surfaces. Sometimes, curators, librarians and the like have access to remote literature and unpublished letters written by famous authors. Anne Frank can well have written something in some letter about the pen, and the letter can still exist, in the hands of the recipient or in a museum.

[Zoe]

duna, what I am actually hoping is that by some process of elimination based on the Museum's collection, a more substantiative theory will emerge.

 

After 30-odd years as a researcher (science, not fountain pens) I have found that occasionally theories become facts.

 

I'll keep the group updated.

 

Zoe

 

Unfortunately, I missed the return call from the A&A curator and won't be able to talk with her until next week when she returns from her off weekend.

 

But, the good news is she is more than happy to discuss it and research it with me....

 

Zoe

 

great news, I'm following this trend to understand if something surfaces. Sometimes, curators, librarians and the like have access to remote literature and unpublished letters written by famous authors. Anne Frank can well have written something in some letter about the pen, and the letter can still exist, in the hands of the recipient or in a museum.

 

[Henrik]

@ Zoe. Thank you so much for the efford. I'm very interested in any new development.

 

kind regards Henrik

[Zoe]

I had a most interesting discussion with the A&A (arts and artefacts) Curator at the Holocaust Museum.

 

To the best of her knowledge, I am the first person to make any inquiry about a fountain pen.

The collection of fountain pens is less than a handful, and the most recent acquisition they have is a Waterford used by an American journalist who sketched 12 drawings at the Nuremberg trials at the end of 1945. The curator graciously sent me a jpeg of this pen which I submit below. However, it does not answer the question of what was the fountain pen Anne Frank received from her grand-mother.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/Parsifals/waterford_nuremberg.jpg

 

Of the diaries the museum has archived of other children, no fountain pen survived.

 

The next and last stop perhaps in making a thorough inquiry would be Yad Vashem <http://www.yadvashem.org/>. I do have a friend in Tel Aviv, but if one of our members resides in Israel perhaps they can make some calls and see if they can unearth some information.

 

It does take asking many and varied questions, I must say, to find even the tinest leads--that is what research is all about so if a member is able to call Yad Vashem remember that dialogue can often reveal the unexpected with keen probing.

 

Respectfully submitted for all,

 

Zoe

 

 

[ruud2904]

I thought I had it posted in this thread earlier, but I have had some correspondence with the museum and its sattelites earlier this year. Being a native Dutch speaker, I had some interesting discussions. There is no idea whatsoever at the museum what the brand of Anne's FP might have been. The pen itself was lost in the fire and there were heeps of black pens with gold clips and nibs out there at that period. I have made a listing for myself with even only the German brands and even than you are left with too many possibilities and too little clues. I fear it will remain a mystery forever.

 

One angle of view is that her grandmother had some money. There were servants in her house, so not likely she could only afford third tier brands. On the other hand, it is not very wise to give a child a very expensive pen as her first FP. But that's all just guessing. I would love to see more clues....

 

[Zoe]

I do believe I read that you had made inquiries at the Anne Frank Museum, ruud2904--hartlijk bedankt.

 

It is just clues and not facts that are at our disposal, but I do think her grand-mother may have sent her what she considered "a special pen" and coming from a middle to upper class family who valued education, it is likely the gift was considered carefully.

 

But, I am at a total loss to name what pen manufacturer was popular in those days having been born after the fact.

 

Yet, as my own father gave me an expensive fountain pen, among other gifts, at a similar age and only a decade later, we can't dismiss any brand at any price

 

During the the best of times, grand-mothers are very generous (I vouch for that as I am one) and with the acute pain of separation from her grand-children, Anne's grandmother may have gone overboard with her gift....all conjecture on my part. :embarrassed_smile:

 

I thought I had it posted in this thread earlier, but I have had some correspondence with the museum and its sattelites earlier this year. Being a native Dutch speaker, I had some interesting discussions. There is no idea whatsoever at the museum what the brand of Anne's FP might have been. The pen itself was lost in the fire and there were heeps of black pens with gold clips and nibs out there at that period. I have made a listing for myself with even only the German brands and even than you are left with too many possibilities and too little clues. I fear it will remain a mystery forever.

 

One angle of view is that her grandmother had some money. There were servants in her house, so not likely she could only afford third tier brands. On the other hand, it is not very wise to give a child a very expensive pen as her first FP. But that's all just guessing. I would love to see more clues....

 

[DrPJM1]

Thank you all for your efforts and a most excellent discussion.

[BillTheEditor]

But, I am at a total loss to name what pen manufacturer was popular in those days having been born after the fact.

I found some information (on Penopoly, I think) about German pen manufacturers in the 1920s and 1930s. There were dozens if not hundreds. Only three survived the war: Pelikan, Montblanc, and Lamy. We probably don't even have a record here in FPN of the German manufacturer names, at least not all of them (there was a thread long ago that was an attempt to document the names of all FP mfrs by country, IIRC). Guessing that it was a Montblanc, a Lamy, or a Pelikan is pretty futile, when the odds are it was another company, defunct and long-forgotten.

 

There are so many good people who died in the camps and for whom we now have no relics whatsoever. Even the people who knew them are dead and so now they don't even live in human memory, the most fragile of virtual spaces. Anne Frank, Edith Stein, Maximilian Kolbe (to name ones we remember every August) are three of the ones for whom we at least have something: their work, some photos. Anne is more poignant, because she was so young and we have so little. But we are lucky to have what we do, and we are all richer for it.

[Zoe]

Sensitively put, BillTheEditor and well said.

 

When speaking with the Holocaust Museum curator, I brought up one or two survivors who I believe used a fountain pen, and made reference to some of the materials salvaged or recovered that we would least expect--strange but necessary survival items like shoes in the hope that some morsel of information might surface.

 

But alas, we, she and I, agreed that in the time of either escape or concentration, it may not have occurred to anyone to fetch or look for a fountain pen and hence, the museum has less than a dozen or so in their archives.

 

We are fortunate to have Anne Frank's remarkable diary to read, and for those of us who knew and still know survivors, of which I am one, there remains a few bread crumbs of memory to follow--life is fragile.

[BillTheEditor]

We are fortunate to have Anne Frank's remarkable diary to read, and for those of us who knew and still know survivors, of which I am one, there remains a few bread crumbs of memory to follow--life is fragile.

I did know survivors, including a Polish priest who was used for "medical experiments" (you don't want to know), and a couple who were hidden by Catholics in Austria for the entire duration of the war. It is hard to think of what those people suffered, and what those who tried to help them risked.

Edited August 11, 2008 by BillTheEditor

[Zoe]

ruud2904, I discovered that a diary was recently published in German written by a young Jewish girl from the Netherlands whose diary survived together with her pencil and a fountain pen!

 

Her name was Helga Deen.

 

If you have any time or interest perhaps the book was also published in Dutch (De Bezige Bij, perhaps).

 

Many thanks.

 

Zoe

[MYU]

Was Montblanc a premium pen brand in the early 1940's? If so, then I'd have to doubt that Anne Frank possessed one given the circumstances. Also, Montblanc did have the star logo then... I'd expect that she'd mention it, since she was so taken with the pen. Knowing that there were so many brands available then, it's really quite a difficult mystery to solve. If only she'd mentioned a few details that would give a clue. There's also the matter that it could've been an old pen. Was steel used in pre-war nibs, or did it become a more widely used metal just during the war?

[ruud2904]

A couple of additions. Anne's pen was not a sample pen. The shipment from her grandmother to Anne in 1938 was marked as a "sample without value". I suspect that was a way to avoid some sort of financial consequence.

 

Anne described the details of her pen only in relation to its remainders. The clip that was found and the thick pointed gold nib that was not found in the ashes the day after it was accidentally burned. It might very well be that her pen had some brand specific details (star on the cap), the fact that she did not mention them, does not exlude it didn't have any specific details.

 

Steel nibs were not uncommon in the 30s for the lower end pens. During war time, when materials got scarce, the gold parts were often replaced or simulated. For instance, gold cap bands were replaced by grooves. Gold nibs were replaced by steel nibs. Since Anne received het pen in 1938, and it had a gold nib, I do not think that her pen was a effected by material shortages.

Edited August 12, 2008 by ruud2904

[Juan in Andalucia]

Just a guess, but if it was a Montblanc, perhaps it was a Simplo or a Rouge et Noir, which were MB's 2nd line or student grade pens. Same with Pelikan: it could have been an Ibis; also Pelikan's cheaper line.

 

Anyway, it's just a guess; the info Anne left is not enough, one would have to use other sources like her family.

 

Juan

[Zoe]

It is difficult after years of research for me to "give up an idea" so as a final resort I've written to a friend in Tel Aviv and asked if they'd make inquiries. A surmise, conjecture--any small lead would possibly satisfy my increased curiosity even knowing that the facts are impossible to obtain.

 

If they learn anything I'll be back to share the information, if nothing materialises, I'll put this flight of fancy out of my head.

 

Zoe

[chrmanusiwa]

The Anne Frank Stichting (AFS) reply to me regarding the brand of the fountain pen. The brand is also unknown to the AFS. In all writing pictures of Anne she used a pencil, this make it all so difficult.

[Henrik]

This is not in anyway historical or scientifically an evidence of anything, but…

At some point Anne Frank’s hiding place in“het Achterhuis” was refurnished an as far as possible look like it was, when the Frank family and others were hiding there. Of course many of the original things wasn’t available anymore ( I don’t know exactly when this took place, probably sometime in the 60ies) – but I assume some thought has been given to make it look like it was. A set of photos were taken and the house was cleared again.

 

The other day one of these photos caught my eye – the replica of Anne Frank’s desk. Yes, they have placed a fountain pen beside the replica of her first diary. Maybe it just acts as “a fountain pen” – and that’s it, nobody have given it further consideration, maybe Otto Frank (still alive then) wanted it to be green like the one Anne had? Or maybe he didn’t care, and just let the people place any old pen at Anne’s desk? We’ll never know either.

Anyway her it is:

scan.bmp

Maybe a small clue to what we’re looking for? Anyway I couldn’t help sharing this.

 

Best regards Henrik

Edited August 30, 2008 by Henrik

[Zoe]

Wat loek, as they say in Dutch (how nice, translation), Henrik, to see the photograph. For all the years I lived two stones away from the Prinsengracht, I never stepped foot into the Frank Achterhuis although two of my closest friends lived across the canal. At this greater distance from Amsterdam, I have more objectivity, I suppose of the war and occupation.

 

Greetings to you and all.