Annelies Marie Frank

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My hero is Anne Frank because her diary helped people understand what she was going through in a personal perspective. Her full name was Annelies Marie Frank. Anne was forced to go into hiding from the German army who were rounding up Jews to take them to concentration camps for two years during World War II when she was just thirteen. Born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany, she moved to Amsterdam in 1933. She attended the Montessori School in Amsterdam. She went into hiding with her family in July 1942. When she was in hiding, she wrote short stories and even started on a novel. But her most famous writing is her diary.

Her diary was first published as ‘Het Achterhuis’ (The House Behind.) She called her diary ‘Kitty.’ Kitty was first published in 1947.

(Anne Frank. Online Image. 20 May, 2005. )

She lived in the attic of a warehouse with help from her father’s friends, Mr. Koophuis, Victor Kraler, Miep (de Jong) van Santen, Henk van Santen, and Elli Vossen. During the daytime the warehouse was being used, so they had to be extremely quiet during normal working hours. The only time on weekdays that they could move around freely and talk was whenever they got up to 8:30, and 6 pm to 10 pm.

Anne was in hiding with seven other people: her older sister, Margot, her mother, her father, Mr. Van Daan, Mrs. Van Daan, Peter Van Daan, and Dussel.

Margot was pretty and girly, and got along with Anne’s mother well. Anne was often angry at her mother, especially in the beginning, because Anne felt that her mother sided with Margot in everything.

The person that Anne was closest with in the family was her father, Otto. She felt that at times, he really understood her. His parents were wealthy, but they lost their wealth in the 1920’s. Otto got into promoting name brands and banking.

Anne was often agitated at Mrs. Van Daan because she seemed to criticized Anne and her family on everything they did. Her son, Peter, was another story. At first, Anne didn’t think much of Peter, but gradually grew to have a huge crush on him. Mr. Van Daan was a co-worker of Otto’s.

Dussel went into hiding with them later than the others. He was an old Jewish dentist, and Anne shared a room with him. She didn’t like him much either.

Anne Frank is my hero because her diary helped people understand the personal perspective of what the Jewish people went through to escape World War II. She was a normal girl shoved into a horrible circumstance. It’s sort of weird to think that this girl is around my age! Her talent as a writer and her ability to express her feelings is amazing, and ‘Kitty’ really shows that.

My definition of a hero is someone who has sacrificed something they have (time, money, skills) to help someone else, and made that person’s life better. Anne Frank fits that definition because she has sacrificed something she had (time and skills) to help someone else by helping her readers understand about WW II and made that person’s life better by giving them knowledge so they can see the world differently.

In March 1945, at age 15, Anne Frank died of typhus in a concentration camp called Bergen Belsen.