Anne Frank

Anne Frank at her desk.

Anneliese (Anne) Marie Frank was a German-Jewish girl born June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany to Otto and Edith Frank, who had another daughter named Margot Betti. Anne had dark brown hair, brown eyes, and three dimples. She was a happy child while living in Germany, until she was four.

At age four, the Frank family moved to Amsterdam, Holland where they could be safe from Adolf Hitler, a brutal dictatorial Jew-hater. The soldiers who looked up to Hitler were the National Socialists (Nazis), who also hated Jews and tried to kill or do away with them.

Meanwhile, Anne was having a wonderful life in Amsterdam with girlfriends and boyfriends, who adored her. Suddenly, she had to change from a Montessori school to a Jewish Lyceum because Jews were not allowed to go to a school with non-Jews. On her thirteenth birthday, she received a beautiful red plaid autograph book from her father. She used the little book as a diary which she named "Kitty".

Soon after Anne's birthday, Margot received a call-up from the Nazis, demanding for her to go to a work camp. The Frank family quickly went into hiding at the back of Mr. Frank's office building with another Jewish family named the van Pelses. Soon, a Jewish dentist named Fritz Pfeffer moved in as well. Anne named the hiding place the "Secret Annex".

Anne's Diary

Anne wrote everything in her diary, including her secrets. She named Hermann, Augusta, Peter van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer, Hermann, Petronella, Peter van Daan, and Albert Dussel in her diary. She also gave different names to the non-Jewish helpers of the Annex. Several events happened in the Annex. Anne wrote to "Kitty" about her dislike of her mother, Margot, Mrs. van Pels, and Mr. Pfeffer, intense romance with Peter, about World War II, and most of all, her dream of becoming a famous writer. Since she heard a radio announcement about publishing diaries after the war was over, she wrote more and edited her diary in order to be published. Unfortunately, she did not finish editing. She made her last diary entry August 1, 1944.

The Annex residents were captured by Nazis on August 4, 1944. They were all sent to work camps where most of them died of the brutality or sickness. At age fifteen, Anne died of the terrible sickness, typhus, on March 1945 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

Otto Frank was the only resident of the Annex to survive. After the war, when he came back to his office building, a non-Jewish helper, Miep Gies gave him Anne's diary which she saved on the day of the arrest. Mr. Frank was afraid to read it at first, but he started reading anyway. His heart was touched by Anne's mature writings. Several people urged him to publish the diary, but this was Anne's private writings also. Finally, he consented. He edited and published the diary of his daughter.

Anne Frank became famous worldwide as a writer, voice of the Holocaust, and most of all, the voice of hope.