Science  People  Locations  Timeline
Index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Home > Anne Frank


 

Statue of Anne Frank outside the Westerkerk, Amsterdam

Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank ( June 12 1929March 1945) was a Jewish girl who wrote a diary while hiding with her family from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II. Her family was betrayed and they were transported to Nazi concentration camps, and by the end of the war all but Anne's father Otto had died. After the war, her diary was published. It eventually became one the world's most widely read works, and made her one of the most renowned and discussed victims of the Holocaust.


1 History

She was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the second daughter of Otto Heinrich Frank ( May 12 1889Events January-April January 8 Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine January 22 Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, DC. February 11 Meiji Constitution of Japan adopted; 1st Diet convenes in 1890 January 30 ? Crown - August 19August 19 is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 134 days remaining. Events 1561 Mary Stuart returns to Scotland. 1692 Salem Witch Trials: In Salem, Massachusetts five women and a clergyman are executed aft 19801980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. Events January-February January 1- April 1 National steel strike in United Kingdom January 1 Changes to the Swedish Act of Succession creates Victoria of Sweden, Crown Princess over her younger brother January 5 He) and his wife Edith Hollander ( January 16January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 349 days remaining (350 in leap years). Events 27 BC Octavian Caesar given the title Augustus by the Roman Senate. 1362 One of the North Sea's greatest stormtides ever destroys th, 19001900 is the common year starting on Monday. see link for calendar) For the film, see 1900 (film). Events January January 1 Nigeria becomes British protectorate January 2 John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China. January 2 Chicag - January 6January 6 is the 6th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 359 days remaining (360 in leap years). Events 871 Alfred of England defeats the Danes in the Battle of Ashdown 1066 Harold Godwinson crowned King of England 1205 Philip of Swabia b, 1945) of a family of German patriots that had served in World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of. She had an older sister, Margot Betti Frank ( February 16 1926 - March 1945). She and her family later had to move to Amsterdam to escape persecution by the Nazis. There she received a diary book for her thirteenth birthday. Still barely 13 years old, her family went into hiding in the Achterhuis, a small two-story space behind Otto Frank's company space. (This Achterhuis was located in a rather typical - and old - building on the Prinsengracht, a canal on the western side of Amsterdam, about a block from the Westerkerk, which was called the Westertoren in the play.) The door to the Achterhuis was hidden behind a bookcase. They lived there from July 9 1942 until August 4 1944, during the Nazi occupation. During this period, friends of the Frank family provided them with food and other necessities.

There were 8 people in the hiding place: Otto and Edith Frank (Anne's parents); Anne and her older sister Margot; Fritz Pfeffer, a Jewish dentist (named Mr Dussel in the diary); and Mr and Mrs van Pels with their son Peter from Osnabrück (named van Daan in the diary). During those years Anne wrote her diary, in Dutch, describing with considerable talent her fears of living in hiding for years, the awakening feelings for Peter, the conflicts with her parents, and her aspirations to become a writer. A few months before they were discovered, Anne started to rewrite her diary with the idea to have it published after the war.


After more than two years, a tip from a Dutch informer led the Gestapo to their hiding place. They were arrested by the Grüne Polizei and on September 2 1944 Frank and her family were placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrived three days later. Meanwhile Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl (Elly Vossen in the diary), two of the people who cared for them during the hiding years, found the diary and saved it.

Anne, Margot and Edith Frank, the van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer did not survive the German concentration camps (in Peter van Pels' case, the death marches between concentration camps). Margot and Anne spent a month in Auschwitz-Birkenau and were sent on to Bergen-Belsen, where they died of typhus in March 1945, shortly before the liberation. Only Anne's father Otto made it out of the concentration camps alive; he died in 1980. Miep gave him the diary and he edited it for publication under the title The Diary of Anne Frank. It has since been published in 55 languages.

Margot Frank was also known to have written a diary during her period in hiding. No trace of it was ever found, and it is assumed to have been destroyed after the family were captured.

A recent critical edition Anne Frank's diary compares her original entries with her father's edited versions. The house where Anne and her family hid is now a museum. It is at Prinsengracht 263 in the city center, within walking distance of the main train station, the palace and the Dam.

In 1956 Frank's diary was made into a play that won the Pulitzer Prize, in 1959 it was made into a motion picture (see The Diary of Anne Frank (film)), and in 1997 it was made into a Broadway play with added material from the original diaries.

Though the diary's authenticity has been proven beyond a doubt, Holocaust deniers continue to question it.


In 2004 a new book was published in The Netherlands, called 'Mooie zinnen-boek' (Book of beautiful sentences). Following her father's advice, Anne copied fragments of books and short poems that especially struck her from the many books she read during her stay in the Achterhuis.

The Dutch broadcaster KRO (part of Omroep) tried to get Anne Frank posthumous citizenship as part of the company's De Grootste Nederlander programme. Becoming a Dutch citizen was one of Anne Frank's many unfulfilled wishes. However the Dutch authorities said that this was practically impossible.

See the BBC article




Read more »

Non User