Anne Frank is a Jewish girl who has to go into hiding during

World War Two to avoid the Nazis. Together with seven others
she hides in the secret annex on the Prinsengracht 263 in
Amsterdam. After almost 2 years in hiding they are discovered
and deported to concentration camps. Annes father, Otto Frank,
is the only one of the eight people to survive. After her death
Anne becomes world famous because of the diary she wrote
while in hiding.

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Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929 in the German town of Frankfurt am Main. Her fathers family had
lived here for generations. Annes sister, Margot is three and a half years older. The economic crisis,
Hitlers rise to power and growing antisemitism put an end to the familys carefree life. Otto Frank and his
wife Edith decide, just as many other German Jews, to leave Germany.

Otto can set up a business in Amsterdam and the family finds a home on the Merwedeplein. The children
go to school, Otto works hard in his business and Edith looks after the home. As the threat of war in
Europe increases, Otto and his family try to emigrate to England and the U.S.A. but these attempts fail.
On 1 September 1939 Germany invades Poland and World War Two starts.

For a while there is hope that The Netherlands will not become involved in the war, but on 10 May 1940
German troops invade the country. Five days later The Netherlands surrenders and is occupied. AntiJewish regulations soon follow. Jews are allowed to go to less and less places, Anne and Margot must
attend a Jewish school and Otto loses his business.
When a renewed attempt to emigrate to the U.S.A. fails, Otto and Edith decide to go into hiding. Otto
furnishes the house behind his business premises on the Prinsengracht and this becomes the hiding
place. He does this together with his Jewish business partner Hermann van Pels and help from
employees Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler.
On 5 July 1942 Margot Frank receives a call-up to report for a German work camp. The next day the
Frank family goes into hiding. The Van Pels family follow a week later and in November 1942 an eighth
person arrives; dentist Fritz Pfeffer . They remain in the secret annex for just over two years.
The people in hiding must stay very quiet, they are often afraid and despite good and bad times, spend
most of it together. They are helped by the office workers Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Miep Gies and
Bep Voskuijl, by Miep's husband Jan Gies and warehouse boss Johannes Voskuijl, Bep's father. These
helpers not only arrange food, clothes and books, they are contact with the outside world for the people in
hiding.

Shortly before going into hiding Anne receives a diary for her birthday. She starts writing straightaway and
during her time in hiding she writes about events in the secret annex and about herself. Her diary is a
great support to her. Anne also writes short stories and collects her favorite sentences by other writers in
a notebook.
When the Minister of Education makes a request on the radio for people to keep war diaries, Anne
decides to edit her diary and create a novel called 'The Secret Annex'. She starts to rewrite her diary, but
before she has finished, she and the other people in hiding are arrested.

On 4 August 1944 the people in hiding along with helpers Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler are
arrested. Via the Sichterheidsdienst headquarters, prison and transit camp Westerbork they are deported
to Auschwitz. The two helpers are sent to the Amersfoort camp. Johannes Kleiman is released shortly
after his arrest and six months later Victor Kugler escapes. Immediately after the arrest Miep Gies and
Bep Voskuijl rescue Anne's diary and papers that have been left behind in the secret annex. Despite
intensive investigations it has never been clear how the hiding place was discovered.

Otto Frank is the only one of the eight people in hiding to survive the war. During his long journey back to
The Netherlands he learns that his wife, Edith, has died. He knows nothing about his daughters and still
hopes to see them again. He arrives back in Amsterdam at the beginning of July. He goes straight to Miep
and Jan Gies and remains with them for another seven years.
Otto Frank tries to find his daughters but in July receives news that they have both died of disease and
deprivation in Bergen-Belsen. Miep Gies then gives him Anne's diary and papers. Otto reads the diary
and discovers a completely different Anne. He is very moved by her writing.

Anne wrote in her diary that she wanted to be a writer or a journalist and that she wanted her diary
published as a novel. Otto Frank's friends convince him of the great expressiveness of her diary and on
25 June 1947, 'The Secret Annex' is published in an edition of 3.000. Many more editions, translations , a
play and a film follow .
People from all over the world learn of Anne Frank's story. Over the years Otto Frank answers thousands
of letters from people who have read his daughter's diary. In 1960 the Anne Frank House becomes a
museum. Otto Frank remains involved with the Anne Frank House and campaigns for human rights and
respect until his death in 1980.

http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Frank/Anne-Franks-history-in-brief/

Who Was Anne Frank?

During the two years and one month Anne Frank spent hiding in a Secret Annex in
Amsterdam during World War II, she kept a diary. Anne Frank's diary, which was
published by her father after the war and has been read by millions of people around the
world, chronicles both the tensions and difficulties of living in such a confined space for
that long a duration as well as Anne's struggles with becoming a teenager.
Since the publication of her diary, Anne Frank has become a symbol of the children that
were murdered in theHolocaust.
Dates: June 12, 1929 -- March 1945
Also Known As: Annelies Marie Frank
The Move to Amsterdam
Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany as the second child of Otto and
Edith Frank. Anne's sister, Margot Betti Frank, was three years older.
The Franks were a middle-class, liberal Jewish family whose ancestors had lived in
Germany for centuries. The Franks considered Germany their home; thus it was a very
difficult decision for them to leave Germany in 1933 and start a new life in the
Netherlands, away from the anti-Semitism of the newly empowered Nazis.
After moving his family in with Edith's mother in Aachen, Germany, Otto Frank moved to
Amsterdam, Netherlands in the summer of 1933 so that he could establish a Dutch firm
of Opekta, a company which made and sold pectin (a product used to make jelly). The
other members of the Frank family followed a bit later, with Anne being the last to arrive
in Amsterdam in February 1934.

The Franks quickly settled into life in Amsterdam. While Otto Frank focused on building
up his business, Anne and Margot started at their new schools and made a large circle
of Jewish and non-Jewish friends. In 1939, Anne's maternal grandmother also fled
Germany and lived with the Franks until her death in January 1942.
The Nazis Arrive in Amsterdam
On May 10, 1940, Germany attacked the Netherlands. Five days later, the Netherlands
officially surrendered. The Nazis were now in control of the Netherlands and quickly
began issuing anti-Jewish laws and edicts. In addition to no longer being able to sit on
park benches, go to public swimming pools, or take public transportation, Anne could no

longer go to a school with non-Jews. In September 1941, Anne had to leave her
Montessori school to attend the Jewish Lyceum. In May 1942, a new edict forced all
Jews over the age of six to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes.
Since the persecution of Jews in Netherlands was extremely similar to the early
persecution of Jews in Germany, the Franks could foresee that just like it had for the
Jews in Germany, death and deportation was coming soon to Jews in the Netherlands.
The Franks realized they needed to find a way to escape. Unable to leave from the
Netherlands because the borders were closed, the Franks decided the only way to
escape the Nazis was to go into hiding. Nearly a year before Anne received her diary,
the Franks had begun organizing a hiding place.
Going Into Hiding
For Anne's 13th birthday (June 12, 1942), she received a red-and-white-checkered
autograph album that she decided to use as a diary. Until she went into hiding, Anne
wrote in her diary about everyday life such as her friends, grades she received at
school, even about playing ping pong.
The Franks had planned on moving to their hiding place on July 16, 1942, but their
plans changed when Margot received a call-up notice on July 5, 1942. After packing
their final items, the Franks left their apartment at 37 Merwedeplein the following day.
Their hiding place, which Anne called the Secret Annex, was located in the upper-back
portion of Otto Frank's business at 263 Prinsengracht. On July 13, 1942 (seven days
after the Franks arrived in the Annex), the van Pels family (called the van Daans in
Anne's published diary) arrived at the Secret Annex to live. The van Pels family included
Auguste van Pels (Petronella van Daan), Hermann van Pels (Herman van Daan), and
their son Peter van Pels (Peter van Daan). The last to arrive of the eight people to hide
in the Secret Annex was the dentist Friedrich "Fritz" Pfeffer (called Albert Dussel in the
diary) on November 16, 1942.
Anne continued writing her diary from her 13th birthday on June 12, 1942 until August 1,
1944. Much of the diary is about the cramped and stifling living conditions as well as the
personality conflicts between the eight that lived together in hiding. Also among the two
years and one month that Anne lived in the Secret Annex, she wrote about her fears,
her hopes, and her character. She felt misunderstood by those around her and was
constantly trying to better herself.
Discovered and Arrested
Anne was 13 years old when she went into hiding and she was only 15 old when she
was arrested. On the morning of August 4, 1944, around ten to ten-thirty in the morning,

an SS officer and several Dutch Security Police members pulled up to 263

Prinsengracht. They went directly to the bookcase that hid the door to the Secret Annex
and pried the door open. All eight people living in the Secret Annex were arrested and
taken to Westerbork. Anne's diary lay on the ground and was collected and safely stored
by Miep Gies later that day.
On September 3, 1944, Anne and all those who had been hiding in the Secret Annex
were shipped on the very last train leaving Westerbork for Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, the
group was separated and several were soon transported to other camps. Anne and
Margot were transported to Bergen-Belsen at the end of October 1944. In late February
or early March of 1945, Margot died of typhus, followed just a few days later by Anne,
also from typhus. Bergen-Belsen was liberated on April 12, 1945, just about a month
after their deaths.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/annefrank/p/AnneFrank.htm

Synopsis
Born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany, Anne Frank lived in Amsterdam with her family
during World War II. Fleeing Nazi persecution of Jews, the family went into hiding for two
years; during this time, Frank wrote about her experiences and wishes. She was 15 when the
family was found and sent to the camps, where she died. Her work, The Diary of Anne Frank,
has gone on to be read by millions.

Early Life
Holocaust victim and famous diarist Anne Frank was born Annelies Marie Frank on June 12,
1929, in Frankfurt, Germany. Her mother was Edith Frank, and her father, Otto Frank, was a
lieutenant in the German army during World War I, later becoming a businessman in Germany
and the Netherlands. Frank also had a sister named Margot who was three years her senior.
The Franks were a typical upper middle-class German-Jewish family living in a quiet, religiously
diverse neighborhood near the outskirts of Frankfurt. However, Frank was born on the eve of
dramatic changes in German society that would soon disrupt her family's happy, tranquil life as
well as the lives of all other German Jews.
Due in large part to the harsh sanctions imposed on Germany by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles
that ended World War I, the German economy struggled terribly in the 1920s. During the late
1920s and early 1930s, the virulently anti-Semitic National German Socialist Workers Party
(Nazi Party) led by Adolph Hitler became Germany's leading political force, winning control of
the government in 1933.
"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 later recalled. When Hitler became
chancellor of Germany on January 20, 1933, the Frank family immediately realized that it was
time to flee. Otto later said, "Though this did hurt me deeply, I realized that Germany was not the
world, and I left my country forever."
The Franks moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands, in the fall of 1933. Anne Frank described the
circumstances of her family's emigration years later in her diary: "Because we're Jewish, my
father immigrated to Holland in 1933, where he became the managing director of the Dutch
Opekta Company, which manufactures products used in making jam." After years of enduring
anti-Semitism in Germany, the Franks were relieved to once again enjoy freedom in their new
hometown of Amsterdam. "In those days, it was possible for us to start over and to feel free,"
Otto recalled.

Anne Frank began attending Amsterdam's Sixth Montessori School in 1934, and throughout the
rest of the 1930s, she lived a relatively happy and normal childhood. Frank had many friends,
Dutch and German, Jewish and Christian, and she was a bright and inquisitive student.

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Nazi Occupation
But that would all change on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, igniting a
global conflict that would grow to become World War II. On May 10, 1940, the German army
invaded the Netherlands, defeating overmatched Dutch forces after just a few days of fighting.
The Dutch surrendered on May 15, 1940, marking the beginning of the Nazi occupation of the
Netherlands. As Frank later wrote in her diary, "After May 1940, the good times were few and
far between; first there was the war, then the capitulation and then the arrival of the Germans,
which is when the trouble started for the Jews."
Beginning in October 1940, the Nazi occupiers imposed anti-Jewish measures on the
Netherlands. Jews were required to wear a yellow Star of David at all times and observe a strict
curfew; they were also forbidden from owning businesses. Frank and her sister were forced to
transfer to a segregated Jewish school. Otto Frank managed to keep control of his company by
officially signing ownership over to two of his Christian associates, Jo Kleiman and Victor
Kugler, while continuing to run the company from behind the scenes.
On June 12, 1942, Frank's parents gave her a red checkered diary for her 13th birthday. She
wrote her first entry, addressed to an imaginary friend named Kitty, that same day: "I hope I will
be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope
you will be a great source of comfort and support."
Weeks later, on July 5, 1942, Margot received an official summons to report to a Nazi work camp
in Germany. The very next day, the family went into hiding in makeshift quarters in an empty
space at the back of Otto Frank's company building, which they referred to as the Secret Annex.
They were accompanied in hiding by Otto's business partner Hermann van Pels as well as his
wife, Auguste, and son, Peter. Otto's employees Kleiman and Kugler, as well as Jan and Miep
Gies and Bep Voskuijl, provided food and information about the outside world.
The families spent two years in hiding, never once stepping outside the dark, damp, sequestered
portion of the building. To pass the time, Frank wrote extensive daily entries in her diary. Some
betrayed the depth of despair into which she occasionally sunk during day after day of
confinement. "I've reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die," she wrote on
February 3, 1944. "The world will keep on turning without me, and I can't do anything to change

events anyway." However, the act of writing allowed Frank to maintain her sanity and her spirits.
"When I write, I can shake off all my cares," she wrote on April 5, 1944.
In addition to her diary, Frank filled a notebook with quotes from her favorite authors, original
stories and the beginnings of a novel about her time in the Secret Annex. Her writings reveal a
teenage girl with creativity, wisdom, depth of emotion and rhetorical power far beyond her years.

Captured by the Nazis

On August 4, 1944, a German secret police officer accompanied by four Dutch Nazis stormed
into the Secret Annex, arresting everyone that was hiding there. They had been betrayed by an
anonymous tip, and the identity of their betrayer remains unknown to this day. The residents of
the Secret Annex were shipped off to Camp Westerbork, a concentration camp in the
northeastern Netherlands, and arrived by passenger train on August 8, 1944. They were
transferred to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland in the middle of the night on September 3,
1944. Upon arriving at Auschwitz, the men and women were separated. This was the last time
that Otto Frank ever saw his wife or daughters.
After several months of hard labor hauling heavy stones and grass mats, Anne and Margot were
again transferred during the winter to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Their
mother was not allowed to go with them, and Edith Frank fell ill and died at Auschwitz shortly
thereafter, on January 6, 1945.
At Bergen-Belsen, food was scarce, sanitation was awful and disease ran rampant. Frank and her
sister both came down with typhus in the early spring and died within a day of each other
sometime in March 1945, only a few weeks before British soldiers liberated the camp. Anne
Frank was just 15 years old at the time of her death, one of more than 1 million Jewish children
who died in the Holocaust.
Otto Frank was the only member of his immediate family to survive. At the end of the war, he
returned home to Amsterdam, searching desperately for news of his family. On July 18, 1945, he
met two sisters who had been with Anne and Margot at Bergen-Belsen and delivered the tragic
news of their deaths.

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'The Diary of a Young Girl'
When Otto returned to Amsterdam, he found Anne's diary, which had been saved by Miep Gies.
He eventually gathered the strength to read it and was awestruck by what he discovered. "There

was revealed a completely different Anne to the child that I had lost," Otto wrote in a letter to his
mother. "I had no idea of the depths of her thoughts and feelings."
Otto sought to have selections from his daughter's diary published as a book, and The Secret
Annex: Diary Letters from June 14, 1942 to August 1, 1944was published on June 25, 1947. "If
she had been here, Anne would have been so proud," he said. The Diary of a Young Girl, as it's
typically called in English, has since been published in 67 languages. Countless editions, as well
as screen and stage adaptations, of the work have been created around the world. The Diary of a
Young Girl remains one of the most moving and widely read firsthand accounts of the Jewish
experience during the Holocaust.
Anne Frank's diary endures, not only because of the remarkable events she described, but due to
her extraordinary gifts as a storyteller and her indefatigable spirit through even the most horrific
of circumstances. For all its passages of despair, Frank's diary is essentially a story of faith, hope
and love in the face of hate. "It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of
chaos, suffering and death," she wrote on July 15, 1944. "I see the world being slowly
transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I
feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything
will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return
once more."
In 2009, the Anne Frank Center USA launched a national initiative called the Sapling Project,
planting saplings from a 170-year-old chestnut tree that Anne had long loved (as denoted in her
diary) at 11 different sites nationwide. In more recent news, the Anne Frank House lost a lawsuit
to the Anne Frank Fonds in June 2013, after the Fonds sued the House for the return of
documents linked to Anne and Otto Frank.
http://www.biography.com/people/anne-frank-9300892#related-video-gallery