Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany as the second daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Hollander Frank. Anne spent the first few years of her life in a mixed neighborhood of Christian and Jewish children, and spent many afternoons playing with her older sister, Margot. In March 1933, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party was elected in Frankfurt, and anti-Semitic measures were put into effect immediately. Otto Frank, fearing for his family’s safety, began to search for a new home in Amsterdam. Edith, Margot, and Anne moved to Aachen, Germany to stay with their grandmother until Otto Frank secured a new job and an apartment in Amsterdam. Otto was joined by the rest of his family in February 1934. Anne began school and attended a Montessori school where she enjoyed reading and writing.
Anne had a very good relationship with her sister, although their personalities were polar opposites. Anne was very outgoing, energetic and extraverted, while Margot was quiet, dedicated to her studies and introverted. The next few years in the Netherlands were relatively quiet, but the Franks kept hearing stories from friends in Germany about the deteriorating conditions for the Jewish population.
Otto Frank established a second company in June 1938 with Herman Van Pels, whose family would join the Franks in their hiding place. The Van Pels had also fled Germany in 1938 because of the escalating anti-Semitism. The escalating anti-Semitism also became evident in the Netherlands, and in May 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands, and immediately began to impose restrictions on the Jewish population. The restrictions included the registration of all Jews, segregation into Jewish schools, and the requirement that Jews wear a yellow star to distinguish them from other citizens.
In 1941, Anne started to attend the Jewish Lyceum, and had to leave many of her friends behind, and was discouraged to talk to them. The discriminatory laws continued to get worse over the course of the next year. Anne experienced a brief period of happiness when she turned 13 on June 12, 1942. Anne received a red, blue, and white plaid autograph book from her father, which she decided to use as a diary.
In July 1942, Margot received a notice to report for transportation to a Jewish work camp. Otto Frank then informed Anne of their plan to hide in the rooms behind Otto’s office at 263 Prinsengracht. This plan had to be moved up a few weeks so that Margot would not be forced to go to the camp. The Franks moved into the Secret Annexe on the morning of July 6, 1942. According to Anne, she had to squeeze into two vests, three pairs of pants, a dress, a skirt, a jacket, a summer coat, two pairs of stockings, lace-up shoes, a woolly cap, and a scarf before leaving for the Secret Annexe because if the Franks had suitcases, they would look very suspicious.
The Franks were eventually joined by four others in their hiding place: the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer (the family dentist and friend). Anne recorded the most intimate details of daily life during her two-year stay in the Secret Annexe, and conveyed her fear of being discovered almost daily. The members of the Secret Annexe passed time reading and studying. Anne wrote almost daily in her diary until her last diary entry on August 1, 1944. Three days later on August 4, 1944, the Franks, Van Pels, and Mr. Pfeffer were discovered and arrested by the Gestapo. They were then sent on to concentration camps. All members of the Secret Annex except Otto Frank died in the camps. It is believed that Anne died of typhus in February or March 1945.
When Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam, he was given Anne’s diary that had been forgotten when the Gestapo came. The diary was first published in German in 1947, and then published in America in 1952. Several films and documentaries have also been made about Anne’s experience in the Secret Annexe. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote the introduction to the diary’s American edition, and described the diary as "one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read."
Visit these pages to learn more about Anne Frank:
Excerpts from Anne Frank's Diary
Links to Anne Frank Websites and Bibliography
