Biographies

Petronella van Daan

About Auguste

In her diary, Anne gave the Van Pels family the pseudonym Van Daan and called Auguste (Gusti) by the name Petronella. Auguste was born on 29 September 1900 in Buer near Osnabrück, Germany.

Before the Secret Annex

On 5 December 1925, Gusti Röttgen married Hermann van Pels and changed her nationality to Dutch, according to German law. Their only son Peter was born in November the following year.

During the Secret Annex

Hermann van Pels was a business partner of Otto Frank's and the families lived in the same neighbourhood. Having failed to emigrate to the United States, The Van Pelses joined the Franks in the Secret Annex on 13 July 1942.

The family provided some excitement in the Secret Annex; they were a source of fun and quarrels. According to Anne, Mrs Van Pels enjoyed talking about politics and being a flirt, but always ended up arguing with her husband.

After the Secret Annex

After the raid, Auguste was transported along with Margot and Anne from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Bergen-Belsen camp and was forced along on a brutal march.

Before the war ended, Auguste collapsed somewhere on the march between Raguhn (a camp outside Buchenwald) and the Theresienstadt concentration camp.