Annelies Marie Frank was born on June12,1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.  Margot, her older sister, was born in 1926 in Frankfurt am Maine, Germany. Their father's name was Otto Frank.  Their mother's name was Edith Frank.
"I can remember that as early as 1932, groups of Storm Troopers came marching by singing: 'When Jewish blood splatters from the knife'."-Otto Frank
Anne's father worked at the family bank.  They have many friends.  Their parents are worried because Hitler made all Jews the scapegoat of all of Germany's economic and social problems.  The country grows more and more anti-semitism.  In 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor.  Anne's father and mother no longer felt safe.  Otto and Edith decided to leave Germany.  in the summer of 1933, Otto went to the Netherlands.  While Anne and Margot stayed with their Grandmother Hollander.  On May 10,1940, the German army invaded the Netherlands.  Until that time, the Frank family felt free and safe.  Discrimination became evident as the Jewish people could no longer own their own businesses.  Jewish children had to go to Jewish schools, and all the Jews had to wear the yellow star of David on their clothes.   The Jews had to hand in their bikes.  Further more, they were banned from the trams and had to be indoors by 8:00 PM.  They were not allowed to drive and could only shop between 3:00 and 5:00 PM.  
On July 5,1942, Margot got a call up.  The whole family would be arrested if she didn't report.  The Nazis are planning to put the people the have summoned to work in camps.  The family goes into hiding.  "Now our Secret Annex has truly become secret. . .Mr. Kugler thought it would be better to have a book case built in front of the entrance to our hiding place.  It swings out on its hinges and opens like a door."- Anne Frank 
The hiding place is an empty part of the building owned by by Otto Frank's Company.  Soon the entrance to the Secret Annex is concealed behind a movable bookcase.  Four of Otto's employees helped the people in hiding.  The employees who helped were Meip Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, and  Bep Voskuijl.  They arranged for food, clothing, books, and other supplies. They also kept the people in hiding up-to-date on the news from Amsterdam.  Most of the reports were bad.    
"The Annex is an ideal place to hide in.  It may be damp and lopsided but there is probably not a more comfortable hiding place in all of Amsterdam. No, in all of Holland."-Anne Frank
In November 1942, Fritz Pfeffer joined them in hiding.  He was the eight person.  He was a dentist.  The other seven people are the four Franks, Herman, Auguste, and Peter van Pels. The people in hiding must stay inside must be extremely quiet during the day. They passed their time by reading and studying.  The helpers ate lunch with the people in hiding in the afternoon while the other workers went home for a short break. After two years in hiding the Secret Annex there was fantastic news that the Allies had landed on the beaches of Normandy.    
"It was around 10:30.  I was upstairs with the van Pelses in Peter's room and I was helping him with his homework.  I was showing him the mistake in dictation when suddenly someone came running up the stairs. the stairs were squeaking, I stood up, because it was still early in the morning and everyone was supposed to be quiet -then the door opened and a man was standing right in front of us with a gun in his hand it was pointed at us."-Otto Frank  On August 4,1944, Victor Kugler escorted three Dutch policemen and a SS-officer to the Secret Annex.  The people in hiding have been betrayed. The two male helpers and the people in hiding were arrested and taken for interrogation in a jail ran by the Germans.  The helpers were taken to a city prison.  Meip Gies and Bep Voskuijl were left behind.  They rescued Ann's diary papers.   
On August 8,1944, the people in hiding were taken to Westerbork by a passenger train. They were arrested and assigned to barracks in the punishment block because they didn't report voluntarily.  They worked all day breaking up old batteries.  The prisoners could still talk to each other even though it was grimy and unhealthy work.  On September 3,1944, a very long freight train left for Auschwitz-Birkenau.  There was 1,019 Jewish prisoners and among them were the eight people from the Secret Annex.  The men and women were separated and the doctors divided the people into two groups: the healthy who are able to work and the unhealthy who will be sent to the gas chambers.  The eight people were spared however, later on Herman van Pels was murdered in the gas chambers because he was no longer able to work. 
"First Margot had fallen out of bed onto the stone floor.  She couldn't get up anymore.  Anne died a day later."-Janny Brilleslijper-witness of the deaths.  In October 1944, Anne and Margot were transported from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Bergen-Belsen.  Their mother remained in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Edith died in January 1945, of exhaustion.  Auguste van Pels arrived in Bergen -Belsen in November 1944. Auguste died during a transport to Theresienstadt. Anne and Margot died of typhus a few weeks before the camp was liberated by the British Army.  On January 27,1945, Otto Frank was liberated from Auschwitz.  Shortly before his release, the Nazis evacuated the camp.  The prisoners that could still walk must go with them.  Peter van Pels was one of them, and arrived at the Mathausen Concentration camp in Austria.  They had to perform heavy labor.  He died of exhaustion on May 5,1945.
After a long journey, Otto arrived in Amsterdam on June 3,1945. During his trip he heard that his wife had died in Auschwitz.  He was told that all four of the helpers survived.  Otto does everything to find out about his daughters.  He place ads in the newspapers. On July 18,1945, he meets the Brilleslijper sisters who witnessed Anne's and Margot's death.  It took a few days before Otto could tell his family about Anne's and Margot's death.  When Meip heard the sad news, she gave Otto the diaries, notebooks, and the loose sheets of paper.  When Otto read the Anne's diary he realized how little he knew about his daughter.  He read the plan Anne had to publish a book after the war about the time she spent in the Secret Annex.  She had edited and rewritten a large part of the original diary.  Otto felt uncertain about it, but finally he fulfilled Anne's wish.   
"This play is part of my life, and the idea that my wife and children as well as I will be presented on the stage is a painful one for me.  Therefore it is impossible for me to come and see it."-Otto Frank.  The dairy is written in French, German, English, and American versions as well as Dutch.  There was a play in New York City, Otto wrote a letter and explained why it was impossible for him to go.  A few years later it was made into a film.  More and more people became interested in seeing the Secret Annex.  It was in danger of collapsing.  A group of citizens came together to find the house. The important objective of the organization was to preserve the building where the Secret Annex is.  On may 3,1946, the Anne Frank house officially opened.  The Secret Annex is a museum.  Otto Frank devoted himself to human rights and achieving mutual respect.  He answered thousands of letters, with his second wife Fritz.  The letters were written by people who had read the diary and they reached him from all over the world.  He died on August 19,1980.
 

Anne's Diary

The Diary of Anne Frank was published in 1947 and was translated into almost seventy languages.  Between the ages of 13 and 15, Anne wrote short stories, fairy tales, essays, and the beginnings of a novel.  Five notebooks and more than three-hundred sheets of loose papers that were handwritten during her two years in hiding, survived the war.  Anne received her first diary on June 12,1942, her 13th birthday.  Anne kept an photo album.  Most of the picture were taken by her father. The last photographs of Anne date back from the early summer of 1942, shortly before she went into hiding.  Anne called her writings "pen children".  On September 2,1943, she began to copy them into a notebook and added a table of contents.  She gave it the title, "Stories and Events from the Annex".  Anne planned to send her fairy tales to a Dutch magazine.  She considered "Eva's Dream" to be her best fairy tale.  
On March 28,1944, a radio broadcast from the Dutch government-in exile urged the Dutch people to keep diaries, letters, and other items that would document life under German occupation.  When Anne heard this she began t edit her diary, hoping to publish it after the war under the title, "The Secret Annex".  From May 20 until her arrest on August 4,1944, she transferred nearly two-thirds her diary to loose pages. On April 17,1944, Anne began writing her final diary notebook.  June 6,1944, her and the other people in hiding celebrated the Allied invasion of France.  They were certain the war would be over soon.  August 4,1944, they were arrested.  Anne's last entry was written on August 1,1944.
   
Jade Schilling

7th Holocaust Project

Rossville Jr. High, April 2005

Bibliography