Anna Frank is one of a thousand Jewish children who died during the Holocaust of 1933-1945. Her name became widely known after the publication of the records of this young girl about the life of the Frank family in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.
A work entitled "Anne Frank Diary" was published by the girl's father a few years after her death. The book was later translated and published in more than 60 languages. In addition, the tragic life story of Anna inspired directors around the world to create plays and films that tell about the terrible events of that time.
Family and childhood
Annelise Maria (Anna) Frank, that is how the girl’s name at birth sounded, was born on June 12, 1929 in the German city of Frankfurt in the family of Otto Frank and Edith Frank - Hollander. She had an older sister, Margot.
Franks were a typical liberal Jewish family of a wealthy middle class, which was successfully assimilated in a society of people of various nationalities. Anna's father, a former military officer, had a small business. Mom was doing housework. Otto and Edith from childhood tried to instill in their daughters a love of reading.
However, it turned out that the birth of Anna coincided with the era of political chaos in Germany. In March 1933, the Nazi party of Adolf Hitler won the municipal council elections in Frankfurt. The party was known for its radical anti-Semitic views. The parents of the girl began to seriously think about the safety and future of their daughters.
When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, the family left the country and moved to Amsterdam. Franks fled to the Netherlands fearing for their lives. They were among the 300, 000 Jews who fled from Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1939.
The house in which Anna Frank lived from 1934 to 1942 Photo: Maksim / Wikimedia Commons
Ott Frank had to work hard to stabilize the financial situation of his family. In the end, he found a job at Opekta Works and continued to develop his own business.
Anna began attending Montessori school. In these years, she had a new addiction - to write. But despite her open and friendly nature, Anna never shared her recordings even with friends.
Montessori School, where Anna Frank studied Photo: Eyalreches / Wikimedia Commons
In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands. The life that the Franks family managed to establish in this country was cut short. The persecution of the Jews began. First, restrictive and discriminatory laws were introduced. Anna and her sister were forced to leave their schools and continue their studies at the Jewish Lyceum. And their father was banned from doing business, which seriously affected the financial situation of the family.
On her thirteenth birthday, June 12, 1942, Anna received a red checkered diary as a gift. Almost immediately, she began to make notes about her daily life, about the forced escape from Germany and life in the Netherlands.
Life in refuge
In July 1942, Anna Margot's elder sister received notice of the need to report to a Nazi labor camp in Germany. Realizing that the family was in a precarious situation, Otto hid his wife and daughters in an improvised secret shelter behind his company building.
At this difficult time, Otto Frank was assisted by his co-workers Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Mip Guise and Elizabeth Foscale. Soon Herman van Pels, his wife Augusta, and son Peter joined the Frank family. A little later, the dentist Fritz Pfeffer settled with them.
At first, it seemed to Anna that she was part of a certain adventure and wrote about it with excitement in her diary. She began a youthful affair with Peter van Pels, which she mentioned in her notes.
Over time, Anna lost her former optimism and began to tire of life inside the shelter. No one was allowed to go outside. However, she did not lose hope that someday life would return to normal and that a young girl could realize her dream of becoming a writer.
Arrest
In 1944, a secret informant issued a place of shelter for Jewish families. In August, Franks, van Pelsa and Pfeffer were arrested and interrogated. And then they were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, where men were forcibly separated from women.
Anna, her sister and mother were taken to a women's camp, where they were forced to do heavy manual work. After some time, Anna and Margot were separated from their mother, who later died in Auschwitz. And the girls were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where the conditions were even worse due to lack of food and lack of sanitary conditions.
