Anne Frank

Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank a Jewish girl who was born in the city of Frankfurt am Main in Weimar
Germany, and who lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. By nationality, she was
officially considered a German until 1941, when she lost her nationality owing to the anti-Semitic policies of Nazi
Germany. She gained international fame posthumously following the publication of her diary which documents
her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

Anne and her family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933, the same year as the Nazis gained power in
Germany. By the beginning of the 1940 they were trapped in Amsterdam due to the German Nazi occupation of
the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in
the hidden rooms of her father Otto Frank's office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and
transported to concentration camps. Seven months after her arrest, Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-
Belsen concentration camp, within days of the death of her sister, Margot Frank. Her father Otto, the only
survivor of the family, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that her diary had been saved, and his efforts
led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as
The Diary of a Young Girl.

Before going into hiding

For her thirteenth birthday on 12 June 1942, Anne received a book she had shown her father in a shop window a
few days earlier. Although it was an autograph book, bound with red-and-green plaid cloth and with a small lock
on the front, Anne decided she would use it as a diary,[13] and began writing in it almost immediately. While many
of her early entries relate the mundane aspects of her life, she also discusses some of the changes that had taken
place in the Netherlands since the German occupation. In her entry dated 20 June 1942, she lists many of the
restrictions that had been placed upon the lives of the Dutch Jewish population, and also notes her sorrow at the
death of her grandmother earlier in the year.[14] Anne dreamed about becoming an actress. She loved watching
movies, but the Dutch Jews were forbidden access to movie theaters from 8 January 1941 onwards.[15]

In July 1942, Margot Frank received a call-up notice from the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung (Central
Office for Jewish Emigration) ordering her to report for relocation to a work camp. Anne was told by her father
that the family would go into hiding in rooms above and behind the company's premises on the Prinsengracht, a
street along one of Amsterdam's canals, where some of Otto Frank's most trusted employees would help them.
The call-up notice forced them to relocate several weeks earlier than had been anticipated.[16]

Life in the Achterhuis

Reconstruction of the bookcase that covered the entrance to the Secret Annexe,
in the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam

On the morning of Monday, 6 July 1942,[17] the family moved into the hiding place.
Their apartment was left in a state of disarray to create the impression that they had left suddenly, and Otto Frank
left a note that hinted they were going to Switzerland. The need for secrecy forced them to leave behind Anne's
cat, Moortje. As Jews were not allowed to use public transport, they walked several kilometers from their home,
with each of them wearing several layers of clothing as they did not dare to be seen carrying luggage.[18] The
Achterhuis (a Dutch word denoting the rear part of a house, translated as the "Secret Annexe" in English editions
of the diary) was a three-story space entered from a landing above the Opekta offices. Two small rooms, with an
adjoining bathroom and toilet, were on the first level, and above that a larger open room, with a small room
beside it. From this smaller room, a ladder led to the attic. The door to the Achterhuis was later covered by a
bookcase to ensure it remained undiscovered. The main building, situated a block from the Westerkerk, was
nondescript, old and typical of buildings in the western quarters of Amsterdam.[19]

Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep Gies, and Bep Voskuijl were the only employees who knew of the people
in hiding, and with Gies's husband Jan Gies and Voskuijl's father Johannes Hendrik Voskuijl, were their "helpers"
for the duration of their confinement. These contacts provided the only connection between the outside world and
the occupants of the house, and they kept the occupants informed of war news and political developments. They
catered for all of their needs, ensured their safety and supplied them with food, a task that grew more difficult
with the passage of time. Anne wrote of their dedication and of their efforts to boost morale within the household
during the most dangerous of times. All were aware that if caught they could face the death penalty for sheltering
Jews.[20]

The house (right) at the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam

On 13 July, the Franks were joined by the van Pels family: Hermann, Auguste, and
16-year-old Peter, and then in November by Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist and friend of the
family. Anne wrote of her pleasure at having new people to talk to, but tensions
quickly developed within the group forced to live in such confined conditions.
After sharing her room with Pfeffer, she found him to be insufferable and resented his
intrusion,[21] and she clashed with Auguste van Pels, whom she regarded as foolish.
She regarded Hermann van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer as selfish, particularly in regards to the
amount of food they consumed.[22] Some time later, after first dismissing the shy and
awkward Peter van Pels, she recognised a kinship with him and the two entered a romance. She received her first
kiss from him, but her infatuation with him began to wane as she questioned whether her feelings for him were
genuine, or resulted from their shared confinement.[23] Anne Frank formed a close bond with each of the helpers
and Otto Frank later recalled that she had anticipated their daily visits with impatient enthusiasm. He observed
that Anne's closest friendship was with Bep Voskuijl, "the young typist... the two of them often stood whispering
in the corner."[24]

In her writing, Anne Frank examined her relationships with the members of her family, and the strong differences
in each of their personalities. She considered herself to be closest emotionally to her father, who later commented,
"I got on better with Anne than with Margot, who was more attached to her mother. The reason for that may have
been that Margot rarely showed her feelings and didn't need as much support because she didn't suffer from mood
swings as much as Anne did."[25] Anne and Margot formed a closer relationship than had existed before they went
into hiding, although Anne sometimes expressed jealousy towards Margot, particularly when members of the
household criticised Anne for lacking Margot's gentle and placid nature. As Anne began to mature, the sisters
were able to confide in each other. In her entry of 12 January 1944, Anne wrote, "Margot's much nicer... She's not
nearly so catty these days and is becoming a real friend. She no longer thinks of me as a little baby who doesn't
count."[26]

Anne frequently wrote of her difficult relationship with her mother, and of her ambivalence towards her. On 7
November 1942 she described her "contempt" for her mother and her inability to "confront her with her
carelessness, her sarcasm and her hard-heartedness," before concluding, "She's not a mother to me."[27] Later, as
she revised her diary, Anne felt ashamed of her harsh attitude, writing: "Anne is it really you who mentioned hate,
oh Anne, how could you?"[28] She came to understand that their differences resulted from misunderstandings that
were as much her fault as her mother's, and saw that she had added unnecessarily to her mother's suffering. With
this realization, Anne began to treat her mother with a degree of tolerance and respect.[29]

Margot and Anne each hoped to return to school as soon as they were able, and continued with their studies while
in hiding. Margot took a shorthand course by correspondence in Bep Voskuijl's name and received high marks.
Most of Anne's time was spent reading and studying, and she regularly wrote and edited her diary entries. In
addition to providing a narrative of events as they occurred, she wrote about her feelings, beliefs and ambitions,
subjects she felt she could not discuss with anyone. As her confidence in her writing grew, and as she began to
mature, she wrote of more abstract subjects such as her belief in God, and how she defined human nature.[30]

Anne aspired to become a journalist, writing in her diary on Wednesday, 5 April 1944:

I finally realized that I must do my schoolwork to keep from being ignorant, to get on in life, to become a
“ journalist, because that’s what I want! I know I can write ..., but it remains to be seen whether I really have
talent ...

And if I don’t have the talent to write books or newspaper articles, I can always write for myself. But I want
to achieve more than that. I can’t imagine living like Mother, Mrs. van Daan and all the women who go
about their work and are then forgotten. I need to have something besides a husband and children to devote
myself to! ... I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on
living even after my death! And that’s why I’m so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can
use to develop myself and to express all that’s inside me! When I write I can shake off all my cares. My
sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! But, and that’s a big question, will I ever be able to write
something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?