Perhaps one of the most famous individuals chosen for this year’s advent calendar is Anne Frank.
Anne Frank was born in the German city of Frankfurt am Main in 1929. She was born in a country that was still recovering from the social and economic disaster of the First World War and a global financial crisis was just around the corner.
Through this chaos came a man that claimed he had the answers and knew who had caused all of Germany’s problems. Adolf Hitler hated the Jews and blamed them for the problems that the country faced. Anne’s parents could see this blatant rise in anti-semitism and opted to move to Amsterdam, Netherlands. There, Otto founded a company that traded in pectin, a gelling agent for making jam.
Life in Amsterdam
It didn’t take long for the Frank’s to settle into a new homeland. They learnt the language, made new connections and Anne went to school not far from home.
When Anne was aged 10, the Second World War broke out. Just eight months later, the Netherlands was invaded and the Nazi regime established itself across all parts of life. Regulations prohibited many things for Jews, included a ban on visiting sites such as parks, cinemas and non-Jewish run shops. All Jewish children had to go to separate Jewish schools.
Into Hiding
When Anne’s sister Margot received a call-up to report for a so-called ‘labour camp’ in Nazi Germany on 5 July 1942, her parents were suspicious. They did not believe the call-up was about work and decided to go into hiding the next day.
Otto Frank had a good idea of what was happening to his fellow Jewish man, and so began furnishing a hiding place in the annex of his business premises at Prinsengracht 263. Moving into this set of rooms, the Frank’s were to be joined by four others.
The Diary
On her thirteenth birthday, just before they went into hiding, Anne was presented with a diary. During the two years in hiding, Anne wrote about events in the Secret Annex, but also about her feelings and thoughts. In addition, she wrote short stories, started on a novel and copied passages from the books she read in her Book of Beautiful Sentences. Writing was a method of passing the time.
When the Minister of Education of the Dutch government in England made an appeal on Radio Orange to hold on to war diaries and documents, Anne was inspired to rewrite her individual diaries into one running story, titled Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex).
The hiding place is discovered
Anne started rewriting her diary, but before she was done, the annex was discovered on 4 August 1944. The police also arrested two of the helpers. To this day, the identity of those who betrayed the family remains uncertain.
Auschwitz
Via the offices of the Sicherheitsdienst (the German security police), a prison in Amsterdam, and the Westerbork transit camp, all those from the Secret Annex were put on transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Upon arrival at Auschwitz around 350 people from Anne's transport were immediately taken to the gas chambers and murdered. Anne, her sister and mother were sent to a labour camp for women, their father to the men’s equivalent.
Bergen-Belsen
In early November 1944, Anne was put on transport again. She was deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp with Margot. Their parents stayed behind in Auschwitz. While in Belsen, the sisters contracted typhus, the disease that would claim their lives in February 1945, just three months before the end of the war in Europe. Anne was 15 years old.
Only Otto Frank would survive the war. He was liberated from Auschwitz by Soviet troops and during his long journey back to the Netherlands he learned that his wife Edith had died. Once in the Netherlands, he heard that Anne and Margot had also perished.
The Diary
Anne's writing made a deep impression on Otto. He read that Anne had wanted to become a writer or a journalist and that she had intended to publish her stories about life in the Secret Annex. Friends convinced Otto to publish the diary and in June 1947, 3,000 copies of Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) were printed.
The book would be translated into 70 languages and adapted for stage and screen. People all over the world were introduced to Anne's story and in 1960 the hiding place became a museum: the Anne Frank House. Until his death in 1980, Otto remained closely involved with the Anne Frank House and the museum: he hoped that readers of the diary would become aware of the dangers of discrimination, racism, and hatred of Jews.
While one can say Anne Frank did not serve or save, her writings have taught millions of people about the horrors of the Nazi regime and the terror of hiding from it. Her work had educated and inspired and she will forever be one of the most published authors of all time. She is but one voice from over 6 million Jews that murdered, and countless million more than suffered at the hands of National Socialism.
Never Forget
If you would like to take a special pilgrimage to Belsen, Auschwitz or other areas synonymous with the Holocaust, please contact Sophie’s Great War Tours today.