During the 2 years before she and her family were caught by the SS officers, Anne wrote in a diary all the fears and hopes she had lived in the tiny house where they were hiding in the Netherlands. In this article, we have compiled the curious things about Anne Frank's life story.
“It is absolutely impossible for me to build my life on chaos, pain, and death. I see the world slowly turning into a desert, and I can hear the sound of sky noise that will one day destroy us too. But still, when I look at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will be okay, that this persecution will end, and that peace and tranquility will return.”
These words belong to Anne Frank, who was taken to a Nazi concentration camp at the age of 15 and died there due to typhus.
During the 2 years before she and her family were caught by the SS officers, Anne wrote in a diary all the fears and hopes she had lived in the tiny house where they were hiding in the Netherlands. This diary, one of the most important documents on the Holocaust, has been turned into a book and translated into 70 languages.
The story has also been adapted for the screen and stage. Let's examine together who is Anne Frank, the author of this important diary that resonates all over the world, and how her story changed the world.
Anne Frank was born in 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany.
Annelies Marie Frank (12 June 1929 – c. February or March 1945) was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary in which she documented life in hiding under Nazi persecution. She is a celebrated diarist who described everyday life from her family hiding place in an Amsterdam attic. One of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, she gained fame posthumously with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl (originally Het Achterhuis in Dutch, lit. 'the back house'; English: The Secret Annex), in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. It is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.
In the years she was born, the unemployment rate was high in Germany, and the people were suffering from poverty. At the same time, this period coincided with the years when Adolf Hitler gradually gathered supporters and took advantage of widespread anti-Semitism. Hitler, so to speak, hated the Jews and blamed them for almost all the problems in Germany.
Due to the growing hate speech against Jews and the bad economy, Anne Frank and her family had to go to the Netherlands
His father, Otto, started a pectin trading company in Amsterdam. In a short time, Anne Frank also started to like the Netherlands. She learned the local language, made new friends, and enrolled in a Dutch school.
Not long after, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940.
5 days later, the Dutch army surrendered to Germany. Slowly but surely, the Nazis introduced laws and regulations that would complicate Jewish life in the Netherlands. Parks and cinemas were banned, and they were barred from entering non-Jewish shops. The rules became more stringent, and finally, Jews were forbidden to do their own business. As a result, Anne's father Otto lost his company. All the children, including the mother, had to attend separate Jewish schools.
The Nazis went one step further at a time, making life difficult for Jews in the Netherlands.
While the Jews were now forced to wear the Star of David on their collars, the rumor that they would be exiled from the Netherlands was spreading rapidly among the people. Just at this time, Anne's older sister, Margot, who was 3 years older, was summoned to the country by Nazi Germany on July 5, 1942, to report for the labor camp. Suspecting this situation and thinking that the call was not for the report, the family decided to hide the next day.
In the spring of 1942, Anne's father, Otto Frank, began preparing a hiding place in the annex of the workplace.
Otto, who was trying to create a living space with the help of his former colleagues, was joined by 4 more people, although the place to stay was cramped. Shortly before she went into hiding, her family had given Anne a diary for her 13th birthday. Anne Frank wrote in this diary for two years all the events of her life in the little house at Prinsengracht 263, where they were hiding. Anne Frank, who also included her feelings and thoughts in her diary, was unaware that she was actually writing a war document that would resonate all over the world.
The Dutch Minister of Education, who was in England at the time, made a special call to keep war diaries and documents, in a statement to Radio Orange.
Learning of this, Anne Frank began to rewrite her experiences in more detail in a single story she called The Hidden Annex. Anne started writing the diary again, but before it was finished she and the other hiding people were caught by police officers on August 4, 1944. Despite the raid, some of Anne's writings were preserved for a long time by Miep Gies, who helped hide them.
Sent to Westerbrok on 8 August, the Franks were put on a train to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland a month later by SS officers.
At the end of the 3-day journey, the doctors examined about 1000 people to check who could or could not do heavy work. Father Otto Frank finds himself in the men's camp, while mother, sister Margot and mother Edith Frank are taken to a concentration camp reserved for women.
In November 1944, Anne Frank and her older sister Margot were taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, while their parents remained in Auschwitz.
Conditions in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were more challenging; Dozens of people were dying every day due to food shortages, cold weather, and epidemics. Shortly after being brought to camp, sisters Anne and Margot also contracted typhus. In February 1945, first Margot and then Anne Frank passed away due to illness. Their mother, Edith, died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz in January 1945. The only survivor of this terrible journey was her father Otto Frank. Returning to the Netherlands after the Soviet forces liberated those in the Auschwitz concentration camp, Otto learned that his daughters and wife Edith were no longer alive.
Anne Frank's diary, in which she recorded her fears, hopes, and experiences during their hiding, was protected by Miep Gies, who helped hide the Frank family.
When Father Otto returned to the Netherlands, Gies handed Otto the diary kept by Anne Frank. At the insistence of his friends, Otto Frank approved the publication of his daughter's diary, and 3,000 copies were printed in the first place. Later translated into 70 languages, the diary was adapted for both the stage and the big screen. Their hiding place was turned into a museum in 1960. Thus, people from all over the world became acquainted with the story of Anne Frank and witnessed the terrible face of the Holocaust. Many institutions, organizations, and individuals who want to keep the legacy of Anne Frank alive for a long time have implemented numerous scholarship programs to improve the living conditions of poor children. Today, efforts to raise young people on behalf of Anne Frank continue without slowing down.