Funeral services were held today for Victor Kugler, the man who sheltered Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II. He died here Monday at the age of 81.
Kugler was one of the main characters in “The Diary of Anne Frank,” begun when she was 13 years old. She lived in hiding from the Nazis for two years with her family and four other Jews in the annex of Kugler’s business office. Kugler and Otto Frank, Anne’s father who was the only member of the family to survive the Holocaust, were partners in a spice importing firm. Otto Frank died last year in Switzerland at the age of 91.
Kugler, who was arrested along with the Frank family and the others whom he hid, managed to escape from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany and returned to Holland. He emigrated to Canada in 1955 and resided with his wife, Lucy, in the Toronto suburb of Weston. In 1977, Kugler received the Hedy Munk Award by the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. A year later he received the Joseph Award by the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
