Point of View Assignment – After reading the article below about Fritz Pfeffer (Mr. Dussel), write a letter to his girlfriend Charlotte that retells a portion of the play and illustrates how he gets along with Anne. Use details from the playand make sure that you are writing from Pfeffer’s perspective.
Contrary to Anne's depiction of Dr.Pfeffer, historian Louis van der Zee's research uncovered an active, athletic man who was a member of East Berlin's Undine Jewish rowing club. A man with a "beautiful voice," which he used to lead friends and family during Jewish holiday celebrations. He was an accomplished horseman -- riding every week in Berlin -- and a loving, doting father to his son. An active outdoorsman, he enjoyed hiking in Germany's forests and mountains. He was an inquisitive traveler, soaking up the cultures of Italy, Greece, and England, which he visited. Many of the old photos depicted Dr.Pfeffer and his longtime girlfriend Kaletta at various holiday destinations enjoying themselves.
When Germany overran Holland in May of 1940, the Nuremberg Laws were immediately adopted. As the Nazis tightened their grip on the Jews, Otto Frank had the foresight to begin preparation to hide his family in the unused upstairs annex and attic of his office building. They went into hiding in July 1942. Dr.Pfeffer joined them in November when MiepGies, an employee of Otto, asked that he be included. Dr.Pfeffer was Gies' dentist.
Gies would be one of the four "helpers" providing outside news and supplies during their confinement. She exchanged weekly letters between Dr.Pfeffer and Kaletta.
Anne had to share her bedroom with Dr.Pfeffer, which likely led to her animosity towards him. John Blair, the producer of the 1995 Academy Award-winning documentaryRemembering Anne Frankwrote about these love letters from Pfeffer to Kaletta: "For this lonely man, shorn of his own family while ... sharing a bedroom with a difficult adolescent girl, this contact that Miep gave him with the outside world and with someone whom he loved and loved him, must have provided unimaginable support."
These love letters were immediately destroyed after being read -- for fear of what would happen if they fell into the hands of the Nazis. Besides the letters, Kaletta provided Dr.Pfeffer with money, toiletries, books, and his dental instruments, which he used to provide dental care to his seven fellow annex inhabitants.
In 1994, Jon Blair persuadedPfeffer’s son Werner to go with him to Amsterdam and visit the hiding place -- now a museum. There he was introduced to MiepGies. The two had never met before. Blair describes one very sad scene when Werner "wiped away tears of embarrassed emotion" and an equally emotional Miepwho told him his father "was a lovely, lovely man ... and a very good dentist." Werner died two months later of cancer at the age of 64.
No one ever interviewed Kaletta, who married Fritz posthumously in 1950 -- retroactive to 1937. It allowed her to obtain a pension. She died in 1984 at age 74. One of Anne's entries in her diary reads: "He only thinks of his Lotte [Charlotte]," which speaks volumes of their love. van der Zee interposes a thought wondering, "Can you imagine what it means to see your loved one, your husband, who was so fond of children and everything that was young, being portrayed by a teenager like a moody and annoying idiot who is in her way?"