Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Born on June 12, 1929, Anne Frank was a German-Jewish teenager who was forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust. She and her family, along with four others, spent 25 months during World War II in an annex of rooms above her fathers office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After being betrayed to the Nazis, Anne, her family, and the others living with them were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. In March of 1945, nine months after she was arrested, Anne Frank died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen. She was fifteen years old.

Her diary, saved during the war by one of the familys helpers, Miep Gies, was first published in 1947. Today, her diary has been translated into 67 languages and is one of the most widely read books in the world.

Background
Anne Frank and her family were German refugees who resettled and tried to build their lives in the Netherlands. Although the Franks were proud of their German heritage, their feelings toward Germany became very complicated during the war When the Nazis invaded Holland, the Frank family, like all Jewish residents, became victims of a systematically constricting universe. First came laws that forbade Jews to enter into business contracts. Then books by Jews were burned. Then there were the so-called Aryan laws, affecting intermarriage. Then Jews were barred from parks, beaches, movies, libraries. By 1942 they had to wear yellow stars stitched to their outer garments. Then phone service was denied them, then bicycles. Trapped at last in their homes, they were "disappeared."

While these preparations are secretly under way, Anne celebrates her thirteenth birthday, on June 12, 1942. On July 5, 1942, her sister, Margot, receives a call-up notice. This means that she will be deported to a Nazi "work camp." Anne is reading a book on the veranda in the sunshine,having just said goodbye to her friend, Hello, when a policeman rings the Frank's doorbell at about 3 p.m.Even though the hiding place is not yet ready, the Frank family realizes that they have to move right away. They hurriedly pack their belongings and leave notes implying that they have left the country. On the morning of July 6, Anne wakes up at 5:30 to make final preparations. Margot leaves first with Miep. Then, at 7:30, Anne says goodbye to her cat, Moortje, and leaves with her father and mother for the hiding place.

In May 1942, all Jews aged six and older are required to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes to set them apart from non-Jews.

The Nazi administration, in conjunction with the Dutch Nazi Party and civil service, begins issuing anti-Jewish decrees. All Jews have to register their businesses. Later, they are forced to surrender them to non-Jews. Fortunately, Otto Frank, in anticipation of this decree, has already turned his business over to his non-Jewish colleagues Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman.

 February, March, April - Auschwitz, Belzec and Sobibor all become fully operational death camps.

1942

June 12 - Anne receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday, which she calls "Kitty," July 5 - Margot Frank, 16, receives a call-up notice to report for deportation to a labor camp. The family goes into hiding the next day. July 6 The Frank family leaves their home forever and moves into the 'Secret Annex' July 13 - The van Pels family, another Jewish family originally from Germany, joins the Frank family in hiding. November 16 - Fritz Pfeffer, the eighth and final resident of the Secret Annex, joins the Frank and van Pels families.

In addition, people on the office staff in the Dutch Opekta Company agree to help them. Besides Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman, there are Miep and Jan Gies, Bep Voskuijl, and Bep's father - all considered to be trustworthy. These friends and employees not only agree to keep the business operating in their employer's absence, they agree to risk their lives to help the Frank family survive. Mr. Frank also makes arrangements for his business partner, Hermann van Pels, along with his wife, Auguste van Pels, and their son, Peter, to share the Prinsengracht hideaway.

The helpers, from left to right: Mr. Kleiman, Miep Gies, Bep Voskuijl, and Mr. Kugler.

1942 and 1944,

February 2 - The encircled German Sixth Army surrenders to Soviet forces at Stalingrad, Russia. The tide of the war begins to turn against Germany.
1943

liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in the Soviet Union and Poland. With a diary kept in a secret attic, she braved the Nazis and lent a searing voice to the fight for human dignity Along with everything else she came to represent, Anne Frank symbolized the power of a book. Because of the diary she kept between 1942 and 1944, in the secret upstairs annex of an Amsterdam warehouse where she and her family hid until the Nazis found them, she became the most memorable figure to emerge from World War II besides Hitler, of course, who also proclaimed his life and his beliefs in a book. In a way, the Holocaust began with one book and ended with another. Yet it was Anne's that finally prevailed a beneficent and complicated work outlasting a simple and evil one
1943

. Excerpts:

Fine specimens of humanity, those Germans, and to think I'm actually one of them! No, that's not true, Hitler took away our nationality long ago. And besides, there are no greater enemies on earth than the Germans and Jews." October 9, 1942

"I don't believe the war is simply the work of politicians and capitalists. Oh no, the common man is every bit as guilty; otherwise, people and nations would have rebelled long ago!" (May 3, 1944.)

Anne Frank's family and the other residents of the Secret Annex are in hiding for two years. The Annex is crowded and they have to be extremely careful not to be heard or seen. If they are discovered, the Nazis will arrest them. During these two years, Anne keeps a diary of her life.

Excerpts:
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? "...if you're wondering if it's harder for the adults here than for the children, the answer is no...Older people have an opinion about everything and are sure of themselves and their actions. It's twice as hard for us young people to hold on to our opinions at a time when ideals are being shattered..." (July 15, 1944.) When was the last time as an adult that you experienced the "shattering" of an ideal? Is the media a neutral force, or do you think it plays a role in supporting or destroying idealism?

Anne Frank's diary is the voice of the Holocaust-the voice that speaks for the millions Hitler silenced. Anne went into hiding at the age of 13, a rambunctious and at times difficult child. Her diary reveals her maturation into a gifted young writer, and when discovered two years later, the precocious child had evolved into a young woman. Anne was eventually transported to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, where she died of typhus shortly before the Allies liberated the camp. Anne Frank's diary is the legacy of young girl denied her adulthood by Hitler's killing machine, and stands for the many women and men, young and old, whose lives Hitler's final solution snatched. The story of her life is a tragedy, but the enduring message is one of hope and tolerance that will never die. The new edition reveals a new depth to Anne's dreams, irritations, hardship, and passions . . . There may be no better way to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II than to reread The Diary of a Young Girl, a testament to an indestructivle nobility of spirit in the face of pure evil."