Anne Frank's fountain pen.

[Ondina]

Perhaps it is good to remember, on betrayal day, that some Dutch successfully hid Jews throughout the war. I've met some -- children who were hidden and people who hid them.

 

Or adopted by families, like in Poland. I've always found Gehaha's quote of Ana Frank very true. Love it.

[ruud2904]

Yesterday, on the high age of 100 years old, the woman that rescued Anne's diary, Miep Gies, died. Miep Gies found Anne's writings after the raid of August 4, 1944 and did hide them at Miep's work in a desk drawer. After the war, when Otto returned as the sole surviver, she returned the diaries to Otto saying: "dit is de erfenis van je dochter". Or, in UK language: this is the heritage of your daughter.

 

Ruud

[Carrie]

There's an article on the BBC news website.

[Mille]

I have not her diary, but from the little part in the beginning of the thread, (I have not read the whole of it), I am a little surprised of the maturity of her language and topic. It is sad that she did not have the opportuntity to become an author. Obviously she was interested in writing as she was given a fountain pen as a present and valued it so dearly.

[richardandtracy]

Her whole story makes me weepy every time I think of it. Such a dreadful waste. And then the fact she died only 2 weeks before the camp was liberated. Awful.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[Rena]

Thanks, Ruud. I also saw on the news that Miep Gies had passed away.

 

I looked back through this thread to see if the following video had been posted, and I did not see it. If you're feeling reflective now, as I am, then maybe you'd be interested in viewing too.

 

[WanderingAuthor]

Yes, as one poster noted, the very real tragedy of the Holocaust, the millions of innocent victims murdered by Nazi evil, does overshadow details such as what type of fountain pen Anne Frank owned. However, as long as we remember this, I see nothing wrong it trying to fill in the details of history, especially when they relate to such an important figure as Anne. And I have a personal reason for my interest; as a writer, I would love to know that I owned a pen just like the one Anne treasured. (Even though we will probably never know for certain.)

 

But I've read this thread over very carefully, and it seems that at least one clue, perhaps several, have been overlooked. We don't know if her grandmother sent a new or a used pen - although if she took the trouble to label it a "sample" to avoid customs duty, that suggests it might have been new. We don't know how much her grandmother spent, although we do know she was not poor. But Anne tells us a few things about that pen, aside from the suggestion it may have been new. (And, as I think of it, Anne was sentimental enough, if her grandmother had sent one of her own pens, might she not have mentioned that fact?)

 

We don't know the colour or size of the pen: Anne doesn't say. But we can infer that it was of a colour which would not stand out among dust and discarded, spoiled beans. Green, as in the photo (and I do note that the diary in that photo at least is an accurate picture of the original) seems possible. So does black. Vibrant colours would have made the pen less likely to be overlooked. (Actually, even black might have stood out more starkly in a heap of spoiled beans. I am inclined to 'like' the idea that the pen may have been green.) We can infer that it was not a huge pen; the larger it was, the harder it would have been to overlook, and it was originally sent to a nine year old, so a huge pen doesn't seem like a good choice. We know that the pen had a broad, gold nib - but the clip was probably not gold. Why do I infer this? The nib melted in the fire, but the clip was found intact. So it was probably steel or gold plated steel and not gold. It probably had no or insignificant other metal parts, since she mentions only the nib and the clip. And we know that the body of the pen was celluloid, since Anne says so. In addition, we know that she received the pen with a single, red case without a zipper. This case may have been made by the pen manufacturer, or it may have been an entirely unrelated accessory her grandmother bought for the pen.

 

That might not be enough to identify a particular brand or model, but, once we recall that it was also likely to be a fairly common type - unless her grandmother had very specific loyalties, I would doubt that she searched every store in Aachen to track down some unusual brand - all the little details ought to be enough to eliminate some of the possibilities. I suspect it would be possible to at least assemble a list of the "likely suspects". I just wish I knew more about German fountain pens of that period. If I did, I'd assemble a database, try to collect production figures for each type (which would speak to how readily available those pens would have been), and match up the known features.

Edited February 18, 2011 by WanderingAuthor

[nightwing]

I have nothing of value to add here, but I found this thread to be a fascinating read. I've read The Diary of Anne Frank twice, maybe thrice in junior high. I should reread it some day.

[Robinkeys]

:embarrassed_smile: I might be sounding like a sentimental idiot, but i love that piece of writing. it is wonderful to her that such famous personalities are plumophiles like us...

[robofkent]

I've just returned from a few days in Amsterdam and I visited the Anne Frank House/Museum - it was quite moving to see the actual diaries on display. The staircases in the house are very steep and narrow and somehow emphasised the horror of the situation her family found itself in....

[Keyless Works]

I heard it was a demonstrator type pen because it was harder to find.

[WanderingAuthor]

I heard it was a demonstrator type pen because it was harder to find.

 

Is that some sort of sick joke, or are you serious? Because I've never heard a single detail which suggested to me Anne's pen might be a demonstrator. As unusual as those were, I suspect she might have mentioned something about it in that case.

[ele]

Can't someone like Rick Propas who knows his pens see this thread!

[UK Mike]

It's a Mont Blanc according to Rick Conner at Penspotters here:

 

<a href="http://www.rickconner.net/penspotters/montblanc.html" target="_blank">http://www.rickconner.net/penspotters/montblanc.html</a>

 

I think there is a kind of universal sensitivity among people who write journals and use fountain pens.

 

With respect, that does not appear to be provenance to me.

 

I suspect Anne's pen will always remain a mystery - although it might suit MontBlancs Marketing Department to suggest it was one of theirs - who will ever prove them wrong? I would find it distasteful if Montblanc were to commission a tribute pen unless 100% of any profit was donated to a related charitable cause.

 

Certainly she was the victim of a very cruel regime of the type that rears its head every few generations. To give some editorial balance, we should remember that General Eisenhower reclassified the surrendering German Army in 1945 as Disarmed Enemy Forces instead of Prisoners of War, the war itself having ended in Europe. This removed them from the protection of the Geneva Convention.

The Germans in captivity were put in detention camps supervised by American and British troops, where because of the logistical problems and the general war shortages, they were obliged to live on around 800 calories per day instead of the 2000 calories considered to be healthy. Many died and the German Red Cross who are still trying to trace families of this period still have 1.3 million names listed as missing.

In war there are no winners.

[paperballs]

<i>Dear Kitty,

 

Thursday, 11th November, 1943.

 

I have a good title for this chapter:

 

"ODE TO MY FOUNTAIN-PEN IN MEMORIAM".

 

My fountain-pen has always been one of my most priceless possessions; I value it highly, especially for it's thick* nib, for I can only really write neatly with a thick nib. My fountain-pen has had a very long and interesting pen-life, which I will briefly tell you about.

 

When I was nine, my fountain-pen arrived in a packet (wrapped in cotton-wool) as "sample without value" all the way from Aachen, where my grandmother, the kind donor, used to live. I was in bed with 'flu, while February winds howled round the house. The glorious fountain-pen had a red leather case and was at once shown round to all my friends. I, Anne Frank, the proud owner of a fountain-pen!** When I was ten I was allowed to take the pen to school and the mistress went so far as to permit me to write with it.

 

When I was eleven, however, my treasure had to be put away again, because the mistress in the sixth form only allowed us to use school pens and ink-pots.

 

When I was twelve and went to the Jewish Lyceum, my fountain-pen received a new case in honour of the great occasion; it could take a pencil as well, and as it closed with a zipp looked much more impressive.

 

At thirteen the fountain-pen came with us to the "Secret Annexe" where it has raced through countless diaries and compositions for me.

 

Now I am fourteen, we have spent our last year together.

 

It was on a Friday afternoon after five o'clock. I had come out of my room and wanted to go and sit at the table to write, when I was roughly pushed to one side and had to make room for Margot and Daddy who wanted to practice their "Latin". The fountain-pen remained on the table, unused while, with a sigh, it's owner contented herself with a tiny corner of the table and started rubbing beans.

 

"Bean rubbing" is making mouldy beans decent again. I swept the floor at a quarter to six and threw the dirt, together with the bad beans, into a newspaper and into the stove. A terrific flame leapt out and I thought it was grand that the fire should burn up so well when it was practically out. All was quiet again, the "Latinites" had finished, and I went and sat at the table to clear up my writing things, but look as I might, my fountain-pen was nowhere to be seen. I looked again, Margot looked, but there was not a trace of the thing; "Perhaps it fell into the stove together with the beans," Margot suggested. "Oh, no, of course not!" I answered. When my fountain-pen didn't turn up that evening, however, we all took it that it had been burnt, all the more as celluloid is terribly inflammable.

 

And so it was, our unhappy fears were confirmed; when Daddy did the stove the following morning the clip used for fastening was found amongst the ashes. Not a trace of the gold nib was found. "Must have melted and stuck to some stone or other," Daddy thought.

 

I have one consolation, although a slender one: my fountain-pen has been cremated, Just what I want later!

 

Yours,

 

Anne.</i>

 

I thought this would be a nice entry for all you fellows. It's from the Diary of Anne Frank.

 

* - I assume that the pen probably had a broad nib.

 

** - This is the entry where my signature-quote comes from <img src="https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

 

And now - Does anybody know what fountain pen Anne might possibly have owned? I read somewhere that it might've been a Montblanc...Hmm. Since the pen doesn't exist anymore, I suppose this might be a hard question to answer...but I thought this might make for some interesting reading-material, if nothing more.

 

 

I love Anne Frank. Reading her diary had such an effect. She's so lovely.

 

 

 

She speaks of the fountain pen, as a close friend. Funny, sometimes I feel the same way. Ms. Frank may you rest in peace.

 

I like to think she's been reincarnated and very active on FPN.

[Shangas]

Wow, I never thought I'd see this thread again! Nice to see that it's still producing discussions here on the Network.

[Arkamas]

These are the photos I've found of her with her pen. If this is the pen it looks more like a dip pen to me, given the length and what looks like the lacking of a posted cap, even with regard to her hands being smaller at her age. Someone had also mentioned that the text in her diary thinned out at intervals, as would be caused by a dip pen. In each image the pen looks the same (which would make all the more sense, regarding her fondness for it, and thus frequent use) in length and style, though my guess on the third is the reflection of light. If I'm not mistaken I think I see what looks like a finial on the rear of the pen in the second image.

From everything I've seen, Mont Blanc is the biggest candidate, but the answer as to what brand this fabled pen is remains questionable. Celluloid with a broad-tipped gold nib, packed in cotton in a zipper-less, red leather case as a "sample of no commercial value" from Aachen, Germany in 1938. If only this could be fully solved...

 

In a way the irony of her mentioning she wanted to be cremated barely fell short, since she very likely died of the typhus epidemic at Bergen-Belsen. Still, the remark hits hard regarding the countless Jews who were cremated.

 

Ditto to the idea of the mystery company making a special Anne Frank edition of the original pen. It would be a great memento to her.

[Arkamas]

Does anyone recognize the pen used for the 2009 BBC series on Netflix?

[Jamesbeat]

I don't like the idea of an 'Anne Frank edition' pen.

I think cashing in on this poor girl's life/death is in poor taste.

I suppose I would be less uncomfortable if all proceeds go to an appropriate charity, but I doubt that's the plan.

[Kaweco]

Does anyone recognize the pen used for the 2009 BBC series on Netflix?

But this is not her pen and this is no historic trace.

Kind Regards

Thomas