Anne Frank

There are a lot of people who could be my hero, my friends, family, and maybe even celebrities. To me a hero is someone who is trustworthy, brave and shows perseverance. My hero is Anne Frank.

Anne was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. She lived with her dad Otto, her mom Edith, and her older sister Margot. Around 1933 the Nazi party, lead by Adolf Hitler made a discrimination against Jews. This worried Otto and Edith because they were Jewish. On July 5, 1942 Margot got a call saying that the Nazis were going to put all Jews in work camps and if she didn’t report then they would be arrested.

When the Nazis started killing the Jews, the Franks got extremely worried. They hoped that they could hide in a secret room behind a bookcase in Mr. Frank’s office, which they called the secret annex. I think this shows perseverance because they hid from 1942 to 1944 even though there were Germans all around them. In a four bedroom small attic with one bathroom, eight people shared this small place. Living with an extended family is hard but living with them in small rooms must have been stifling.

(www.scrapbookpages.com/AnneFrank/AnneFrank01.html)

August 4, 1944 was the day the Franks and their other Jewish friends were discovered in the secret annex by German police. Everyone found in the secret annex were sent to, Auschwitz, Theresienstadt, Mauthausen, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, and Nevengamme, which were where the concentration camps were located. The camps were over crowed and most of the people were carrying diseases that spread throughout the camps. Not to mention the prisoners were under fed and the living conditions were horrible. The Franks were in Auschwitz when Edith, Anne`s mother, died on January 6, 1945. Margot and Anne were transferred to Bergen-Belsen where Margot died at the age of nineteen in March 1945. A few days after Margot`s death, Anne died, she was only sixteen. On January 27, 1945 the Russians liberated the Auschwitz camp, Otto was still there. Otto Frank was the only one out of the eight people from the secret annex who survived.

One of Anne`s dreams was to be a writer. Even though she didn’t survive the Holocaust, her dad helped fulfilled one of her biggest dreams. In the summer of 1947 Otto published his daughter`s diary. Now everyone can read the terrifying experience the Frank family and many others went through. Even though Anne was trapped in the annex for two years she never gave up on her dreams. She tried to keep a positive outlook on her situation.

Whenever someone talks about the Holocaust I think of Anne and the millions of Jews who died. To me the stories of the Franks and the millions of Jews show just how strong and courageous people can be. The Franks showed perseverance and bravery on their journey through the Holocaust.