Peter van Pels

Osnabrück, 1937: The van Pels family, who lived on Martinistraße, decides to leave Germany for the Netherlands due to the increasing persecution of Jews. But with the German occupation beginning in 1940, life there also becomes life-threatening for Jewish citizens. Together with the Frank family, they move into the hiding place in the rear building at Prinsengracht 263. Their time there becomes an ordeal for the residents; for the two growing children, Anne and Peter, the need for trust and love is essential for survival. They fall in love.

After more than two years, on August 4, 1944, the hiding place was raided by the Security Police, and the residents were deported to Auschwitz. While Anne’s father was the only one to survive the Holocaust, Peter van Pels died in 1945 at the Mauthausen concentration camp, just a few days after its liberation, at the age of 18.

November 8, 2026, marks the 100th anniversary of his birth. This is reason enough to commemorate the son of Osnabrück and Anne Frank’s quiet confidant on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of other young people who were killed by the Nazis. Composer Anno Schreier, together with his librettist Joscha Schaback, has created an opera commissioned by Theater Osnabrück that tells the story of Peter’s brief and moving life and is intended for an audience of all ages.

Why shouldn’t we kiss each other in times like these?

Anne Frank, diary entry, April 17, 1944