Anne Frank’s Family Was Not Rejected By U.S. — Their Visa Request Was Never Processed

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Contrary to widely-held beliefs, Anne Frank and her family were never denied an entry visa to the United States, a new study by the museum for the Jewish diarist confirmed.

The museum in Amsterdam known as the Anne Frank House published Friday its report on the immigration attempts of the family of Anne Frank, who penned journals of her time in hiding from Nazi occupation for two years until 1944. The journals became the world-famous “Diary of a Young Girl.” She, her sister and parents were sent to concentration camps where only her father, Otto Frank, survived.

“Although the United States had a far from generous policy with regard to Jewish refugees, it is clear that Otto, Edith, Margot and Anne Frank were not refused entry to the United States,” the new study states. Due to rapidly-changing circumstances connected to World War II, the family’s “immigration visa application to the American consulate in Rotterdam was never processed.”

The finding follows decades of uncertainty as to how exactly U.S. immigration authorities handled the Franks’ immigration applications.

According to the study, one delay to the Franks immigration process followed the closing of the U.S. consulate in Rotterdam in May 1940. All documents, including his visa application, were lost and had to be resubmitted.