08/30/2026
ABOUT AUGUSTE VAN PELS (6th in a series)
“Being industrious is one, cheerful is two, coy is three and sometimes a pretty face,” is how Anne characterized Auguste van Pels in her diary. Auguste van Pels was 41 years old when she first set foot in the Secret Annex, together with her husband Hermann and son Peter. But who was she?
Auguste Röttgen married Hermann van Pels in 1925. Through her marriage, she acquired Dutch nationality. The couple settled in the German city of Osnabrück, where Hermann's family lived. In November 1926, their first and only child, Peter, was born.
Auguste and Hermann were deeply concerned about the rise of antisemitism. They no longer saw a future in N**i Germany and in 1937 moved to the Netherlands.
In Amsterdam, they found a house in the same neighborhood as the Franks. Hermann joined Otto Frank’s company as an herbalist. Auguste ran the household. She also took care of boarders they had taken in to earn some extra money.
In early 1942, Otto Frank and Hermann van Pels prepared a hiding place in an empty section of the business premises. They believed that there was enough room for both their families. A week after the Frank family had moved in, the Van Pels family joined them in the Secret Annex. Anne had a good laugh at their arrival, because Auguste had carried her chamber pot in a hatbox. “I don't feel at home anywhere without my chamber pot,” she said, according to Anne.
Anne considered Auguste the “busy housewife” of the Secret Annex. She usually cooked and tried her best to prepare tasty meals - no easy feat in times of scarcity. Anne wrote that Auguste was tired of “the job as queen of the kitchen, but that she stuck with it, just to have something to do.” In addition, she learned English and Dutch and liked to read biographies and novels.
Anne's diary gives the impression that Auguste and her husband Hermann frequently quarreled but were always quick to reconcile. One of these rows occurred when Hermann forced Auguste to sell her fur coat to finance the hiding.
Said Anne, “The yells and screams, stamping and abuse - you can’t possibly imagine it! It was frightening. My family stood holding their breath, ready if necessary to drag them apart. Soon after, according to Anne, the reconciliation period of “Oh darling Putti” and “my cute Kerli” set in. Auguste and Hermann had nicknames for each other: she called him Putti, he called her Kerli.
On August 4, 1944, the period in hiding ended when they were all arrested. Auguste and the others were transferred to the Westerbork transit camp.
Together with Hermann and Peter, she then spent three days in a cramped cattle car. On the Auschwitz-Birkenau platform, she had to say goodbye to her husband and son.
In the concentration camp, Auguste was supported by Edith, Margot, and Anne.
In the night of November 1, Auguste was transported from Auschwitz-Birkenau to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, together with Anne and Margot. The women ended up in an overcrowded barracks with several hundred others.
In February 1945, the month in which Margot and Anne died, Auguste van Pels was put on another transport to Raguhn, a satellite camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. A few weeks later Auguste was put on a transport to Theresienstadt.
We do not know exactly how Auguste died. Two witnesses stated that she died during the transport from Raguhn to Theresienstadt. One of them was Annelore Beem-Daniel, who had met Auguste van Pels in the barracks in Bergen-Belsen. After the war, she said that Auguste - just like Anne and Margot - had contracted typhus and had died right next to her during the transport. Together with someone else, she had lifted Auguste off the train and placed her by the side of the tracks.
However, testimony given by Rachel van Amerongen, the other witness, is even more gruesome. She said in her statement to the Red Cross: “During the journey from Raguhn to Theresienstadt, the Germans threw under the train and killed Mrs. Gusti van Pels-Röttgen.”
No other witnesses were found to corroborate this version of events.
Auguste is portrayed as Petronella Van Daan in THE DIARY OF ANNE FANK.
PHOTOS: Auguste van Pels in her beloved coat and Bonnie Von Dohre, who plays Mrs. Van Daan in our play, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK..
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