Frank, Anne, 1929-1945

Anne Frank was born June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Her parents were Edith and Otto Heinrich Frank; she had an older sister Margot (born 1926). The family were liberal Jews. During the rise of Hitler's Nazi Germany the hatred of Jews and the poor economic situation made Anne's parents decide to move to Amsterdam in 1934. There, Otto founded a company that traded in pectin, a gelling agent for making jam. The Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940 and started putting restrictions on Jews. In the spring of 1942, Anne’s father had started furnishing a hiding place in the annex of his business premises at Prinsengracht 263. He received help from his former colleagues (Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep and Jan Gies, and Bep Voskuijl). Before long, they were joined by four more people (Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer). On her thirteenth birthday, just before they went into hiding, Anne was presented with a diary. During the two years in hiding, Anne wrote about events in the Secret Annex, but also about her feelings and thoughts.

On August 4, 1944, the hiding place was raided by the police and Nazi officers. The Franks, Van Pelses, and Pfeffer were taken to RSHA headquarters, where they were interrogated and held overnight. On August 5 they were transferred to an overcrowded prison on the Weteringschans. Two days later they were transported to the Westerbork transit camp. Having been arrested in hiding, they were considered criminals and sent to the Punishment Barracks for hard labour. Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman were arrested and jailed at the penal camp for enemies of the regime at Amersfoort. Kleiman was released after seven weeks, but Kugler was held in various work camps until the war's end. Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl were questioned and threatened by the Security Police but not detained.

On September 3, 1944, the Franks were sent to Auschwitz and split up: Anne, Margot, and their mother were sent to the labour camp for women; Otto ended up in a camp for men. On October 28, selections began for women to be relocated to Bergen-Belsen. More than 8,000 women, including Anne and Margot Frank, and Auguste van Pels, were transported. Edith Frank was left behind and died from starvation. In early 1945 there was a typhus epidemic at Bergen-Belsen. Anne and Margot both died sometime between February and March from typhus, just a few weeks before the British liberated the camp.

Anne’s father Otto was the only one of the people from the Secret Annex to survive the war. Miep Gies gave Otto Frank Anne's diary that she found after the annex was raided. Friends convinced Otto to publish the diary and in June 1947, 3,000 copies of Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) were printed. The book was later translated into around 70 languages and adapted for stage and screen. People all over the world were introduced to Anne's story.