Anne Frank in Pictures

Jewish and German “My father, the most adorable father I've ever seen, didn't marry my mother until he was thirty-six and she was twenty-five. My sister Margot was born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany in I was born on June 12, 1929.” Anne Frank

Anti-Semitism “I can remember that as early as 1932, groups of Storm Troopers came marching by singing: ‘When Jewish blood splatters from the knife.'" Otto Frank Storm Troopers "Brownshirts" marching through a German town.

Edith Frank and Her Daughters This photo is taken in the centre of Frankfurt am Main on March 10, It is the last photograph Otto Frank takes before the family leaves Germany. Dictator "The world around me collapsed. I had to face the consequences, and though this did hurt me deeply I realized that Germany was not the world, and I left forever." Otto Frank

A New Start “In the Netherlands, after those experiences in Nazi Germany, it was as if our life was restored to us. In those days it was possible for us to start over and to feel free.” Otto Frank Anne and Margot, 1933 While their parents are busy arranging the family's emigration to Holland, Anne and Margot spend the summer of 1933 with Grandmother Holländer in Aachen.

Discrimination “After May 1940, the good times were few and far between: first there was the war, then the capitulation and then the arrival of the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews.” Anne Frank The Frank Family Margot, Otto, Anne and Edith Frank on Merwedeplein in Amsterdam, 1941.

The Call-Up Jews, who are summoned, receive this document from the Central Office of Jewish Emigration: an exact list of what they are allowed to bring with them. It also indicates when they must depart. To the Hiding Place “I was stunned. A call-up, everyone knows what that means. Visions of concentration camps and lonely cells raced through my head.” Anne Frank

The Hiding Place In this post-war aerial photo, the back part of the building, especially the Secret Annex, is clearly visible. Behind a Movable Bookcase “Now our Secret Annex has truly become secret… Mr. Kugler thought it would be better to have a bookcase built in front of the entrance to our hiding place. It swings out on its hinges and opens like a door." Anne Frank

The Prinsengracht A photograph from the 1950s. The third building from left is 263 Prinsengracht, where the hiding place is located.

The Movable Bookcase Behind this (movable) bookcase is the entrance to the Secret Annex.

Van Pels' Room A few years ago, the Secret Annex was temporarily refurnished to reflect the atmosphere of the hiding period. This is Hermann and Auguste van Pels' room. It was also used as a common space. Tension and Bickering “ My mind boggles at the profanity this honourable house has had to endure in the past month…To tell you the truth, I sometimes forget who we're at odds with and who we're not. The only way to take my mind off it is to study, and I've been doing a lot of that lately.” Anne Frank

Peter's Room A few years ago, the Secret Annex was temporarily refurnished based on information from Anne's diary and descriptions from people like Miep Gies. Peter's room once looked like this.

More than Two Years In July 1942, the people in hiding still do not know that they will spend more than two years in the Secret Annex. All that time, they will not be able to go outside and they will have to share the darkness and dampness of the hiding place, continually fearful of being discovered…

In November 1942, an eighth person joins the people in hiding: Fritz Pfeffer. He is a dentist and an acquaintance of both the Franks and the Van Pels family. The Eighth Person in Hiding “The Annex is an ideal place to hide in. It may be damp and lopsided, but there's probably not a more comfortable hiding place in all of Amsterdam. No, in all of Holland.” Anne Frank

The Helpers “ They come upstairs every day and talk to the men about business and politics, to the women about food and wartime difficulties and to the children about books and newspapers. They put on their most cheerful expressions, bring flowers and gifts for birthdays and holidays and are always ready to do what they can.” Anne Frank Miep Gies Miep sees to the food and all sorts of other necessities. Her husband Jan is also involved in helping the people in hiding. He arranges for ration coupons.

Discovered! “ It was around ten-thirty. I was upstairs with the Van Pelses in Peter’s room and I was helping him with his schoolwork. I was showing him the mistake in the dictation when suddenly someone came running up the stairs. The stairs were squeaking, I stood up, because it was still early in the morning and everyone was supposed to be quiet - then the door opened and a man was standing right in front of us with a gun in his hand and it was pointed at us.” Otto Frank

The Jail After the arrest, the people in hiding and the helpers are brought to the German Security Police's jail on Euterpestraat in Amsterdam. “Later Bep and I went upstairs to the Franks' bedroom. And there we saw Anne’s diary lying on the ground. Let’s pick it up I said. Because Bep stood there looking around in a daze. I said: Pick it up, pick it up, let’s get out of here! We did the best we could to to collect it; we were so frightened! We went downstairs and there we were, Bep and I. What now Bep? Then she said: ‘You’re the oldest. You should keep it’.” Miep Gies

Camp Westerbork Westerbork is a transit camp: from here Jews, gypsies, and members of the Resistance in the Netherlands are deported to the concentration and extermination camps. To Westerbork “ Of course, all of us had to work in the camp, but in the evenings we were free and we could be together. For the children especially, there was a certain relief; to no longer be cooped up and to be able to talk to other people. However, we adults feared being deported to the notorious camps in Poland.” Otto Frank

Auschwitz The front gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Never Forget “I will never forget that moment when the 17-year-old Peter van Pels and I saw a group of selected men. Peter’s father was among them. They were marched away. Two hours later a cart with their clothes on it went by.” Otto Frank

Camp Bergen-Belsen Prisoners of Bergen- Belsen concentration camp, shortly after it is liberated by the British Army. Typhus “First, Margot had fallen out of bed onto the stone floor. She couldn’t get up anymore. Anne died a day later.” Janny Brilleslijper provided an eyewitness account of the deaths of Margot and Anne Frank in Bergen-Belsen.