Anne Frank

(1929 - 1945)

 

Anne Frank was born in 1929 in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. In 1933, the anti-Jewish National Socialist Party led by Hitler comes to power. Anne Frank's Jewish parents Edith and Otto Frank perceive that there is no future in Germany for themselves and their children. They flee to the Netherlands in 1933. Anne is then four years old. Until she is eleven she grows up without a care in a relatively safer Holland. In 1940, the Netherlands is occupied by Germany and the protection that Holland provides comes to an end.

Anne's life is increasingly restricted by the anti-Jewish Decrees. Beginning in 1942, the first Jews receive call-up notices to report for the so-called "work" camp Westerbork. Refusal can result in being sent to a prison camp. The majority of Jews obey the call-up to report for the "work" camps. Fleeing the Netherlands is almost impossible because neighboring countries are also occupied.

To avoid deportation, Jews must arrange a hiding place with non-Jews. Such hiding places are difficult to find, but Anne's parents see the possibility of going into hiding in the annex of the building that houses Otto's business.

Otto and Edith Frank protect Anne from the danger that threatens them for as long as possible. Only a few days before going into hiding, Anne's father tells her that they are not going to a camp but are going to hide from the Germans.

On July 6, 1942, the family goes into hiding. Even though Anne sees hiding as an exciting adventure in the beginning, soon enough the hiding place becomes too small for her restless character. For more than two years Anne Frank describes her daily life in hiding in writing.

On August 4, 1944, the Secret Annex is raided by the Grüne Polizei (Security Police). Anne Frank and the seven others in hiding are arrested. What follows are long journeys to concentration camps in Holland, Poland, and Germany. Of all those in hiding, only Otto Frank survives the camps.

The eight residents of the Secret Annex are transported to Auschwitz on the last train leaving the transit camp Westerbork. After a month at Auschwitz, Anne Frank and her sister Margot are transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where thousands of people are dying of hunger and sickness everyday. Margot and Anne both contract typhus and die within a short time of each other in March 1945, only a few weeks before the liberation.

Courtesy of:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/frank.html