Maurice Frankenhuis

Maurice Frankenhuis (February 24, 1894 – September 22, 1969) was a Jewish Dutch businessman, historian, researcher, author, collector, numismatist, Holocaust survivor, and philanthropist. He documented the history of World War I and World War II through his family's experiences in the Netherlands and subsequent internment in two concentration camps. Throughout the ordeal he built a collection of memorabilia and authored a firsthand account to the Holocaust of Dutch Jewry. He dedicated himself to educating about the Holocaust, and preserve a record of history for future generations including donations of his collections of medals and posters to various museums around the world, and writing his personal memoirs, observations and commentary on world affairs after the war. In 1925, he married Hertha de Vries. Maurits Frankenhuis was one of several prominent textile manufacturers that supported the Jewish community of Enschede. In 1929, he moved away from Enschede, to the Hague, behind the Dutch water line. On May 14, 1940, four days after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, the family desperately tried to flee the country but were not successful. On July 23, 1942, the Jewish date of Tisha B’Av, the family went into hiding in Amsterdam. They were betrayed and arrested on March 28, 1944, imprisoned in Scheveningen and sent to Westerbork punishment camp on April 20, 1944. In early September they were transported by cattle-car train to Theresienstadt ghetto camp and interned until June 6, 1945. He immigrated to the United States in 1948 and his name changed from Maurits to Maurice when granted United States citizenship. He resided in New York, and died on Yom Kippur, September 22, 1969. Among his exhibitions were:

Amsterdam, Netherlands in "Odeon", April 24 – May 7, 1918. The Hague, Netherlands in "Pulchri Studio", July 17 – 30, 1918. Manchester, England, in Houldsworth Hall, November 9–20, 1920, Proceeds in aid of St. Dunstan's (Blind soldiers & sailors). Paris, France, in Chateau de Vincennes in 1924, presented with the Order of the “Officier de l’Instruction Publique de France" by then President Raymond Poincare. In 1919 he published his Catalogue of Medals, Medalets and Plaques Relative to the World War 1914 -1919 in three languages (English, Dutch, and French) detailing his World War I medal collection, acclaimed as the largest in existence. To this day it is a valuable reference work for numismatists and historians. After the war he was anxious to return to England, but foreign nationals were still barred from visiting. Through the efforts of Ambassador Sir Walter Townley, a visitor to Maurice Frankenhuis’ exhibitions, the British government gave special consideration to the request and granted his return in exchange for a donation of his World War I medals to the British Museum, deemed of national value: A letter from George Francis Hill, keeper of the department of coins and medals at the British Museum presented Maurice Frankenhuis with an opportunity: “in the ordinary circumstances the Secretary of State would not be prepared to allow you to return at the present time for business reasons, but if your offer of war medals is considered by the trustees of the British Museum to be of value to the nation, he will not place obstacles in the way of your return.” Published in Dutch and English, this was the only interview to have been conducted prior to sentencing while being detained.

A half hour docudrama film based on the self-published story of Maurice Frankenhuis’ interview with the Westerbork Commander Gemmeker premiered at the Westerbork Camp Remembrance Center on September 13, 2019, exactly 75 years after the last transport from the camp. The release date for the film is May 4, 2020, the official Remembrance Day in the Netherlands.

In 1961 he provided information to the prosecution of the Eichmann trial. In January 1965 at the Plaza Hotel in New York, Maurice Frankenhuis interviewed Prince Louis Ferdinand. Frankenhuis knew his father, the second son of the Crown Prince of Germany and had elaborate correspondence with the grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

He contributed World War II era photographs from his collection for historian writer Nora Levin's book, one of the first of its genre published in 1968, The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933–1945.

Donations to museums Between 1939 and 1940 Maurice Frankenhuis served as correspondent-representative of the Oranje Nassau Museum in The Hague and donated medals, prints, autographs, letters, and manuscripts, which are housed at the Museum. "As a result of the recent donation of the Frankenhuis Poster Collection, Columbia now possesses one of the most important privately held collections of posters and proclamations of the First World War and its immediate aftermath."

Tribute to the Six Million Martyrs Medal

In 1967, Maurice Frankenhuis commissioned a “Tribute to the Six Million Martyrs” medallion sculpted by renowned American artist Elizabeth N. Weistrop and struck by Medallic Art Co. The medal depicts a Jewish mother grasping her two daughters, the Star of David sewn on their garments. In the background, others are loaded onto a cattle-car transport under Nazi guard to an unknown fate. On the reverse, survival is symbolized by a tree stump with new branches growing forth, and the inscription: “THE FRANKENHUIS COLLECTION 1914 – 1918, 1939 – 1945 DESPITE THE FORCES OF DESTRUCTION MAURICE FRANKENHUIS PAINSTAKINGLY RECORDED THE HISTORY OF TWO WORLD WARS IN HIS COLLECTION”. He presented his medal to institutions, world leaders, individuals and Righteous Gentiles.

Numismatic activities In 1967, Frankenhuis was one of the founders of A.I.N.A, the American Israel Numismatic Association. He displayed exhibitions of his World War II medals at New York coin shows in 1967 - 1968. The Frankenhuis byline appeared over a series of Coin World articles tracing the history of World War II through tokens and medals. Other features about Karl Goetz and many assorted Adolf Hitler medals issues served as primary sources for such works as Colbert and Hyder's Medallic Portraits of Adolf Hitler.

World War I centennial exhibits Exhibits of several of his major collections pertaining to World War I were curated during the centennial years 2014 -2018. The British Museum prepared a special centennial exhibit in 2014 displaying a number of the Frankenhuis Collection medals donated in 1918–1920 in the context of “The Other Side of the Medal: How Germany Saw the First World War”. The Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Columbia University displayed an exhibition, “The European Home Front in WWI: Posters from the Frankenhuis Collection.” in 2014. The Kadman Numismatic Pavilion of Museum Haaretz in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2017 opened a permanent exhibit with select items from his vast contribution to the museum in 1961. It was described by the curator as “an important and rare collection of medals and medallions made during the war by the fighting powers, designed by the finest artists who lived and worked in Europe during World War I.”