Annelies Marie Frank was born on 12th June 1929 to her parents Otto Frank and Edith Frank

Hollnder in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. Her family were Jewish and in 1933 they had to leave Germany for Amsterdam in the Netherlands after the Nazis took power under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. Anne, her parents and her older sister Margot spent many happy years living in Merwedeplein in Amsterdam. However in May 1940 when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, the persecution of Jewish people began and in July 1942, Otto Frank decided to take his family into hiding to escape the horrors of the Nazi regime. The Frank family, along with the van Pels and Mr Fritz Pfeffer spent 3 years hiding in the annex behind the warehouses of Otto Frank's pectacon company at 263 Prinsengracht with the help of Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler and Bep Voskuijl who worked in the offices. It was during this time when Anne wrote her diary, which she recieved on her 13th birthday on 12th June 1942, a month before she went into hiding. In her diary, Anne wrote her thoughts and feelings as well as sketches of everyday life in 'het achterhuis' (or 'the secret annex'). Around 1944 after hearing a broadcast on the radio, Anne decided that after the war she wanted to publish a book based on her diary and so began to rewrite all her diary entries. On the 4th August 1944, the eight people in hiding were arrested by the Gestapo after an anonomous phonecall. They were taken to Westerbork, a Dutch Jewish transport camp and then in September they were transported to Auschwitz. Both Anne and Margot spent about 2 months in Auschwitz Birkanau (the women's camp) with their mother Edith and Mrs van Pels. However in November, after a selection, Margot and Anne were taken to Bergen Belsen. It was there where they both died, in March 1945 from typhus. Only Otto Frank survived the war and when he arrived back in Amsterdam, Miep Gies, who managed to save a few things from the annex after it was raided, gave Otto Anne's diaries. In 1947, Otto Frank published Anne's diaries, which were edited slightly and based upon Anne's rewrites for publication. In the Netherlands it became known as 'Het Achterhuis'. In the UK and USA it became known as 'The Diary of a Young Girl'. The diary has since become a worldwide best seller, becoming the most widely read non fiction book after the Bible. The annex, where the Frank family hid, has since been made into a museum. Many organisations have been created in Anne's name, which aim to fight prejudice and discrimination around the world and spread Anne's message of tolerance. This fan page has been created by an Anne Frank fan like yourself and has no links with any Anne Frank organisation.

The Diary of Anne Frank" redirects here. For other uses, see The Diary of Anne Frank (disambiguation).

The Diary of Anne Frank

1947 first edition cover

Author

Anne Frank

Original title

Het Achterhuis

Translator

B. M. Mooyaart

Cover artist

Helmut Salden

Country

Netherlands

Language

Dutch

Subject(s)

WWII, Nazi occupation of the Netherlands

Genre(s)

Autobiography

Publisher

Contact Publishing

Publication date

1947

Published in English

1952

Media type

Print (Hardcover)

OCLC Number

1432483

The Diary of a Young Girl is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944 and Anne Frank ultimately died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After the war, the diary was retrieved by Anne's father, Otto Frank, the only survivor of the family. The diary has now been published in more than 60 different languages. First published under the title Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven van 12 Juni 1942 1 Augustus 1944 (The Annex: diary notes from 12 June 1942 1 August 1944) by Contact Publishing in Amsterdam in 1947, it received widespread critical and popular attention on the appearance of its English language translation Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Doubleday & Company (United States) and Valentine Mitchell (United Kingdom) in 1952. Its popularity inspired the 1955 play The Diary of Anne Frank by the screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, which they subsequently adapted for the screen for the 1959 movie version. The book is in several lists of the top books of the twentieth century.[1]

Anne Frank's world famous diary charts two years of her life from 1942 to 1944, when her family were hiding in Amsterdam from German Nazis. The diary begins just before the family retreated into their 'Secret Annexe'. Anne Frank recorded mostly her hopes, frustrations, clashes with her parents, and observation of her companions. Its first version, which appeared in 1947, was edited by Anne's father, who removed certain family references and some of her highly intimate confessions.
"I haven't written for a few days, because I wanted first of all to think about my diary. It's an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary; not only because I have never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I - nor for that matter anyone else - will be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Still, what does that matter? I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart." (from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, 1952)

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany. The Frank's family business included banking, management of the springs at Bad Soden and the manufacture of cough drops. Anne's mother, the former Edith Hollnder, was the daughter of a

manufacturer. She had married Otto Frank in 1925. Their first daughter, Margot Betti, born in 1926, was followed by Anneliese Marie, called Anne, in 1929. After the Nazis won in national elections in 1932, Adolf Hitler was appointed next year chancellor of Germany. Otto Frank had earlier toyed with the idea of emigrating, and in 1933 the family fled from Frankfurt to the Netherlands, where Otto Frank continued his career as a businessman. In 1938 Anne Frank's two uncles escaped to the United States. After the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands anti-Jewish decrees followed in rapid succession. Anne's sister received a notice to report to the Nazis. The family went hiding with four other friends in a sealed-off office flat in Amsterdam. In 1944 Gestapo was informed of the flat - from 10 000 Jews, who went into hiding, some 5 000 were betrayed. SS Officer Karl Joseph Silberbauer - found in the 1960s by Simon Wiesenthal - arrested the Frank and the Van Pels families. The Franks were transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Anne's mother died. Anne and her sister were transferred from the Dutch concentration camp, Westerbork, to Bergen-Belsen where they both died of typhus.
"Whoever is happy will make others happy too. He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!" (from The Diary of a Young Girl)

Otto Frank's secretary Miep Gies, who had searched the hiding place, gave Otto Frank the diary after the war. It was published in 1947 as HET ACHTERHUIS. The diary has been translated into some 60 languages since its publication. First translation into English was made in 1952 and published under the title The Diary of a Young Girl. It was adapted into a motion picture in 1959, directed by George Stevens. The Diary - Anne Frank received a diary in 1942 for her 13th birthday, and wrote in an early entry: "I hope that you will be a great support and comfort to me." When she started the diary, she was still attending the Jewish Secondary School. On her birthday, 14, June, she opens presents: "The first to greet me was you, possibly the nicest of all," she writers about her new friend. After moving in the hiding place in a spice warehouse, Frank depictes the nightmare reality of eight persons crowded into tiny living quarters, in fear of being discovered, but also her dreams, hopes and feelings of a young girl on the verge of womanhood. "I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are still truly good at heart..." But there were moments of doubt, impatience, rage: "I simply can't built up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death." The poignancy of the diary is increased by her use of epistolary form. The letters are addressed, in the absence of her friends, to the imaginary 'Kitty'. Frank started to write at school, and planned to become a writer. When she heard from radio broadcast from London about the importance of war diaries and letters, and

possible publication, she changed the style of her diaries. On May 20, 1944 she decided to rewrite her earlier texts, and in two and half months she produced 324 handwritten pages, which she entitled Het Achterhuis. The family was betrayed before Frank finished her work. The final entry is 1 August 1944. On 4 August they were arrested. After the war Otto Frank combined her daughter's writings, earlier and later, into version C, which became known as the Diary of Anne Frank. First it did not sell well, but when the diary gained a wide fame in the United States, where it was dramatized and filmed, the lively and moving book sold most copies in the world in the 1960s and 1970s. Also Anne Frank Huis the hiding-place - was opened in Amsterdam on the Prinsengracht 263. The house was given by its owner to the Anne Frank foundation. The authenticity of the diary was examined in the 1980s, when neo-Nazis claimed that it was forged. All the versions of Anne Frank's texts were published in 1986. However, Otto Frank had put aside before the publication five diary pages, giving them later to his close friend, Cor Suijk. In these pages Ane Frank depicted her parents marriage, defended her mother, and hoped that nobody would see her writings. In 1995 selections of diary suppressed by Otto Frank were made public.
Who betrayed the Frank family? - In the late 1940 Otto Frank's warehouse man Willem Van Maaren was under the investigations. Due to the lack of evidence the process was stopped, but opened again in the 1960s. No evidence was found. In the 1980s a new name came up: Lena Van Bladeren, who worked in the office as a cleaning woman. Carol Ann Lee has claimed that Otto Frank's business friend, Tonny Ahlers, who helped him to continued his spice trade from the hiding place, betrayed the family. Tonny Ahlers was a member of the Nazi party. - For further information: The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank by Willy Lindwer (1992); Anne Frank: A Biography by Melissa Mller; Anne Frank: The Missing Chapter, Dateline Productions (document film, 1998); Roses from the Earth by Carol Ann Lee (1999); The Story of Anne Frank by Mirjam Pressler (1999) - Battle over the American stage adaptation of Anne Frank's diary: In his book The Stolen Legacy of Anne Frankauthor Ralph Melnick documented how Anne Frank's diary was staged in New York. Originally correspondent Mayer Levin adapted it for a stage play, but then a "less Jewish" was produced by Lillian Hellman. She helped with the last of eight drafts of the play. Anne's words,"Perhaps through Jewish suffering the world will learn good" were revised in the play to "Jews were not the only ones who suffered from the Nazis." The production was a major success and earned a Pulitzer. Kevin spent the rest of his life, three decades, fighting for the right to produce his version. - Other famous diaries: Samuel Pepys (started in 1660, ended the first in 1669), Jonathan Swift, James Boswell, Sir Walter Scott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Andr Gide's Journals (1889-1951), Katherine Mansfield, Anas Nin - fictional diaries: Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plaque Year (1722), Georges Bernanos' Journal d'un cur de Campaigne (1936)

REACTIONS
After reading Anne Frank's thoughts, hopes, passion for life, and courage that she shows from her writing, you can't help but feel ashamed for how you act sometimes and how you take the littlest things for granted, when in fact, they would be the biggest blessing to others who do not have the luxary of an established life that others have. Anne Frank is one of the best examples of a good, pure human being because, despite of

all that she goes through and the age that she is, she choices to write of how people can improve the world and the lives of the less fortunate.

Anne Frank was a very intelligent and insightful girl at a very young age. The hardships that her family had to endure are sad. The values that this young girl had are amazing. Even though her family was being prosecuted she thought everyone was good at heart. Everyone can learn something from this girl she is an inspiration to people all over the world. Name: Sean Carney February 09, 2010 01:50 PM Location: Pascack Valley High School Response: After reading the Diary of Anne Frank, i was very upset that Anne and her family had to go through that terrible phase. I was surprised that they were able to find a hiding place to stay. I couldn't believe that they had to survive on that low supply of food. I felt that her dairy gave us a good perspective on how a person had to deal with hiding during the Holocaust. The whole experience was very touching and I thought that Anne Frank was very smart of keeping her thoughts in a diary on a day to day basis during the Holocaust.

hen we read Anne Franks story we realized that her life was rough. She didn't have a normal childhood like us. Her life was difficult and hard to understand. She had to hide for 2 yrs behind a bookcase. She wasn't only there with her family, another family was living with them in the Annex. Anne also had many diary entries that helps us learn about our history. Her story has had an effect on us.

Quotes

"I have often been downcast, but never in despair; I regard our hiding as a dangerous adventure, romantic and interesting at the same time. In my diary I treat all the privations as amusing. I have made up my mind now to lead a different life from other girls and, later on, different from ordinary housewives. My start has been so very full of interest, and that is the sole reason why I have to laugh at the humorous side of the most dangerous moments." "Whoever is happy will make others happy too." "It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet, I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again." "I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart." "Is discord going to show itself while we are still fighting, is the Jew once again worth less than another? Oh, it is sad, very sad, that once more, for the umpteenth time, the old truth is confirmed: What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews." "Mrs. Van Daan's grizzling is absolutely unbearable; now she can't any longer drive us crazy over the invasion, she nags us the whole day long about the bad weather. It really would be nice to dump her in a bucket of cold water and put her up in the loft."

Story For her 13th birthday on 12 June 1942, Frank received a book she had shown her father in a shop window a few days earlier. Although it was an autograph book, bound with red-and-green plaid cloth and with a small lock on the front, Frank decided she would use it as a diary,[13] and began writing in it almost immediately. While many of her early entries relate the mundane aspects of her life, she also discusses some of the changes that had taken place in the Netherlands since the German occupation. In her entry dated 20 June 1942, she lists many of the restrictions that had been placed upon the lives of the Dutch Jewish population, and also notes her sorrow at the death of her grandmother earlier in the year.[14] Frank dreamed about becoming an actress. She loved watching movies, but the Dutch Jews were forbidden access to movie theaters from 8 January 1941 onwards.[15] In July 1942, Margot Frank received a call-up notice from the Zentralstelle fr jdische Auswanderung (Central Office for Jewish Emigration) ordering her to report for relocation to a work camp. Otto Frank told his family that they would go into hiding in rooms above and behind the company's premises on the Prinsengracht, a street along one of Amsterdam's canals, where some of

his most trusted employees would help them. The call-up notice forced them to relocate several weeks earlier than had been anticipated.[16]