The Story of Anne Frank


Close your eyes and just imagine being shut up for 25 months in an attic above the rest of the world with no communication with the outside world. One girl didn't have to imagine. For this girl it really happened to her. This is the story of a girl named Anne Frank.
On May of 1889, Otto Frank (Anne's father) was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In 1914 to 1918 Otto Frank served in the German Army during World War 1 as a lieutenant. On January 16, 1900 Edith Hollander (Anne's mother) was born in Aachen, Germany. Otto Frank and Edith Hollander got married in the year of 1925. Then one year later they had their first child on February and named her Margot. Then three years later together they had their last but not least child on June 12,1929. They named her Anneliesse Marie Frank (Anne Frank).
Together they all lived in Frankfurt, Germany until Anne was four years old. Then because they were Jewish Otto Frank immigrated to Holland in 1933. Edith Frank went with him to Holland in September. Margot and Anne were sent to Aachen to stay with their grandmother. In December, Margot went to Holland and Anne then came in February.
Then it all started. The Nazis declared a boycott of Jewish businesses and medical and legal practices. A law excluding non-Aryans removes Jews from government and teaching positions. An Aryan was thought to be the German race. It was originally the name of a family of languages of the people of Europe and India. On May 10, 1933 all of the books by Jews, political enemies of the Nazi state, and other "undesirables" were burned in huge rallies throughout Germany. That was when the Franks had had enough so they decided that the family must move to the Netherlands because of increasing tensions in Germany. Edith, Margot and Anne Frank joined their grandmother Hollander in Aachen, Germany. But in the mean while Otto Frank traveled to Holland. On September 15, 1933 Otto Frank established his firm Opekta Werke in Amsterdam. In December 5, 1933 Edith and Margot moved to Holland. But it wasn't until February 1934 that Anne also joined with them in Holland.
On December1 of the year 1940 Otto Frank's company moved into the premises at number 263 Prinsengracht. Then one year later Otto's company named Opekta-Werke changed its name to Messrs. Gies and Company. In the summer of 1941, Anne and Margot attended the Jewish School in Amsterdam.
In January 1942 was a sad time for the Frank family. Their Grandmother Hollander died. But on June 12, 1942 was a very happy time for Anne! She got a very special present for her thirteenth birthday. That was when Anne got her diary that she is so famous for. On July 5 of the year 1942 it wasn't a very happy day. Margot, Anne's older sister, received a call-up notice to report for deportation to a labor camp. The family went into hiding the next day. On June 6 the family now has moved officially into the "Secret Annex."
In Anne's diary she wrote: "We put on heaps of clothes as if we were going to the North Pole, the sloe reason being to take clothes with us. No Jew in our situation would have dreamed of going out with a suitcase full of clothing. I had on two vests, three pairs of pants, a dress on top of that, a skirt, jacket, summer shorts, two pairs of stockings, lace-up shoes, woolly cap, scarf, I was nearly stifled before we started." (July 8, 1942)
Even though the Secret Annex was damp and the floors were lop-sided the family knew that they had to move in there as soon as possible. But the family was not alone in the Secret Annex. On July 13, 1942 the van Pels, another Jewish family originally from Germany, joined the Frank family in hiding. Then later on in November 16, 1942 Fritz Pfeffer, the eighth and final resident of the Secret Annex, joined the Frank and the van Pels families.
There were helpers that helped the families out a lot. There was Bep Elli Voskuijl, Miep Santrouschitz Gies, Victor Kugler, and Johannes Kleiman. But there were also all of the silent helpers too, the butcher, the vegetable grocer, Miep's husband, Jan. All of those people were wonderful helpers to all of the families.
The Secret Annex had a radio in it but the families had to stay very quiet because next door to the Secret Annex there was another place. So the residents in the Secret Annex had to talk very quietly and always walk around very low in front of the windows so no one could see them all in there hiding.
In Anne's diary she wrote: "Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. The Gestapo is treating them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars to Westerbork, the big camp in Drenthe to which they're sending all the Jews...If it's that bad in Holland, what must it be like in those far away and uncivilized places where the Germans are sending them? We assume that most of them are being murdered. The English radio says they're being gassed." (October 9, 1942)
August4,1944 was a terrible day for the people in the Secret Annex. That was the day the residents were betrayed and arrested. They were taken to a police station in Amsterdam. Four days later they were all taken to the camp at Westerbork. On September 3, 1944 the eight prisoners were transported in a sealed cattle car to Auschwitz, the largest camp. Mr. van Pels was gassed the next day and died.
October 6, 1944 Anne and Margot were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. But in December 20,1944 Fritz Pfeffer, one of the residents of the Secret Annex, died in Neuengame. Then in January 6,1945 Edith Frank, Anne and Margot's mother, died at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
On January 27, 1945 Otto Frank was liberated from Auschwitz by the Russian Army. He was taken first to Odessa and then to France before he was allowed to make his way back to Amsterdam. Out of all the residents of the Secret Annex, he was the only survivor.
February of the year 1945 was the month Anne and Margot Frank died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp within days of each other. On May of the year 1945 Peter van Pels died in Mauthausen. Also died his mother Mrs. van Pels. She died in Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.
On June 3,1945 Otto Frank arrived in Amsterdam, where he went with Miep and Jans Gies. He was really concentrating on find the whereabouts of his two daughters. On October 24, 1945 Otto got a letter telling him that his two daughters died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp within days of each other. They both died of typhus. Typhus is transmitted to people by the bite of fleas, lice, etc. Which there was a lot of at the camps they were sent to. Typhus is characterized by fever, headaches, and an eruption of red spots on the skin.
Miep was sure that Anne was no longer alive so she gave the diary to Otto. She found it after the families were taken to the camps. Otto read it as soon as he could. He had no idea that Anne kept such accurate writings of their life in the Secret Annex.
On April 3, 1946 an article in the Het Parool, a German paper, discussed Anne's diary. Otto also showed some of Anne's diary to his friends and they told him that he should get her diary published. Otto tried to get a publisher to publish it but none of them wanted to publish it so soon after the war. But by the summer of 1947 1,500 copies of Anne's diary had been published by Contact Publishers in Amsterdam. But it wasn't until 1951 that Anne's diary was translated into English. Today 31 million copies of her diary have been sold.
This is the story of the girl and her family and her friends that didn't have to imagine.