Opera tells story of Peter van Pels, beyond Anne Frank’s diary
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In Osnabrück, Germany, the Theater Osnabrück will premiere an opera about Peter van Pels, a Jewish boy who went into hiding with Anne Frank and her family.
Peter van Pels was born in Osnabrück in 1926, and his family moved to Amsterdam in 1937 to escape rising Nazism, where his father began working for Otto Frank. In 1942, the van Pels family joined the Franks and Fritz Pfeffer in hiding in the Secret Annex on the Prinsengracht canal.
The opera expands on the account in Anne Frank’s diary, as little is known about Peter van Pels’ life before and after this period. Creators constructed a fictional narrative to tell his complete story, from his childhood in Germany through his death in the Mauthausen concentration camp just days after the camp’s liberation. Peter van Pels died on May 10, 1945, due to the hardships he endured.
Ulrich Mokrüsch, artistic director of Theater Osnabrück, initiated the opera to present Peter van Pels as more than simply Anne Frank’s first boyfriend. Mokrüsch invited 2000 students from Osnabrück to attend, hoping they will relate to Peter’s experiences as a teenager and recognize the humanity of those affected by the Holocaust, especially as Germany faces a resurgence of right-wing political groups.
