Anne Frank is most well-known for her diary and as a victim of the Holocaust. She received recognition for her first published book, ‘The Secret Annex’, which was published by her father following the Second World War as Anne had passed away in a Nazi Concentration Camp. Her book describes her time in hiding from 1942 to 1944 as well as the short stories she wrote during that time. Anne Frank’s book is one of the most well known and read books from across the world. It has been translated into over sixty languages.
Anne Frank was born Annelies Marie Frank on the 12th of June 1929 to her parents Edith Frank and Otto Frank and younger sister to Margot Frank. Anne was born in Frankfurt, Germany and continued to live there until she was four years old. However after a series of events including Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party winning the federal election, the Frank family was forced to flee. After leaving Germany, the Frank family settled into life in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Margot and Anne started to attend school and both excelled in their studies. Margot especially excelled in arithmetic and Anne frequently read and wrote although she often shielded her work and didn’t like to talk about what she wrote. The Frank sisters had many friendships with children their own age as well as their teachers. Life seemed to be perfect until 1940 …
The Nazi’s invaded the Netherlands during the May of 1940, along with them came a lot of restrictive and discriminatory laws against Jews. Anne writes about these passionately in her diary. Rules such as Jews not allowed to use public transport, drive in cars and forced to wear a yellow star identifying them as Jews were the rules that were the most hard to follow. Things were getting progressively worse. Otto Frank was forced to give up his two businesses and give his shares in each business to his colleague Johannes Kleinman. Margot and Anne were forced to move to a Jewish only school because of the new rules. Despite the hard times Margot and Anne made many friends and still excelled in their studies. Little did they know that this would be the last school they would be attending forever.
Otto and Edith Frank had planned for the family to go in to hiding after Otto’s failed attempt to move the family to America. Otto had created a space in the secret annex of his work premises to hide his family and original plan was to move in a fortnight. However after Margot received a call-up notice demanding her to report to be moved to a work camp, Otto and Edith were forced to move the plan ten days forward. Anne wrote in her diary that her and Margot both had a satchel to put their most precious items in. Before she left, Anne gave a box of marbles as well as other toys to her next door neighbour Toosje Kupers. Toosje and Anne regularly played on the street so because of their friendship, Anne tasked Toosje to look after her possessions. The Frank Family went in to hiding on the 6th of July, 1942 unaware that they would never be free again.
While in hiding, emotions ran high. The people in hiding had to stay quiet otherwise the people in the warehouse would hear them. They also had to try to pass the time as best they could. The Frank Family was joined by the Van Pels family a week after they went into hiding and a few months later also joined by dentist Fritz Pfeffer. The people in hiding were helped by Otto’s employees, Johannes Kleinman, Victor Klugler, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. They organised basic necessities like food, water and hygiene requirements – the only connection with the outside world for those in hiding. Anne mainly spent the time reading or writing in her diary about the events that were happening in the secret annex, her fears, dreams and inspirations. As well as writing about her daily life, Anne wrote short stories and collected her favourite sentences and quotes in a ‘book of beautiful sentences’. Anne wanted to be a journalist or a writer and wanted to publish her diary as a book. She started to rewrite her diary into a novel but didn’t get the chance to finish.
On the 4th of August, 1944 shortly after the Frank family had been hiding for two years, the people in hiding were betrayed. They were arrested and sent to the transit camp, Westerbrook and shortly deported to Auschwitz where they spent the rest of their lives. Slowly each member of the secret annex died, from disease, exhaustion or being gassed. Margot and Anne both died of typhus just days apart. Otto Frank was the sole survivor. After being freed, he made his way back to the Netherlands to discover that his wife Edith had died, but he still remained hopeful that he would see his daughters again. Unfortunately he shortly discovered that they had both died.
Anne Frank lived a life we can all learn from. I hope you all understand the effect of discrimination through my recount of Anne Frank’s life. Please check out her diary and I would highly recommend visiting the Anne Frank House (Huis) the next time you are in Amsterdam. Thank you for reading.