Anne Frank Over one million children under the age of sixteen died in the Holocaust. Anne Frank was one of these children. Here is a brief account of Anne’s life…

A picture of little Anne Frank in her first years. Anneliese (Anne) Frank was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. Proud parents Otto and Edith Frank were German Jews. Anne was also welcomed by her big sister, Margot Frank, 3 years old. One-day-old Anne with her mother at the hospital where she was born.

on their honeymoon in San Remo, Italy, Otto and Edith Frank on their honeymoon in San Remo, Italy, In 1925 Otto Frank (right) in his army uniform. Anne’s parents both came from respected German families. Otto, Anne’s father, was an officer in the German Army during World War I. Anne and her older sister Margot had friends of many different nationalities. Their parents had taught them to respect and tolerate others.

The Dutch Opekta Company sold pectin, a powder made from fruit extract and used to make jelly. Hitler’s anti-Semitic campaign affected the Jews more and more. The Frank family feared what the future might hold if they stayed in Germany. In the summer of 1933, Otto Frank left Frankfurt to Amsterdam to set up a new business called the Dutch Opekta Company. Less than a year later, Edith, Margot, and Anne (then four years old) joined Otto in Amsterdam. Anne and Margot posing for a photographer in Aachen, before their move to Amsterdam.

Anne(left and Margot at the beach, summer of 1934. By the mid-1930’s, the Franks were settling into a normal routine in their apartment at 37 Merwedeplein: the girls attended school, the family took vacations at the beach, and their circle of Jewish and non-Jewish friends continued to grow. From 1933 through 1942, the Franks lived in this bright new apartment complex on the Merweideplein in Amsterdam Anne(left and Margot at the beach, summer of 1934. In 1938, Otto expanded his business, going into partnership with a merchant Hermann van Pels, also a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany

Unfortunately, the Frank’s belief that Amsterdam offered them a safe haven from Nazism was shattered when, in May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands and the Franks were once again forced to live under the Nazi rule. At first, Anne and Margot continued to socialize with their friends and attend school. Anne Frank attended the local Montesori school, but after summer recess in 1941, she was not allowed to attend school with non-Jews.

In May 1942, all Jews aged six and older were required to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes to set them apart from non-Jews. Soon, however, the Nazi administration, in conjunction with the Dutch Nazi Party and civil service, began issuing anti-Jewish decrees. All Jews had to register their businesses and, later, surrender them to non-Jews. Fortunately, Otto Frank had thought this might happen, therefore he had already turned his business over to his non-Jewish colleagues Victor Kuler and Johannes Kleiman.

By 1942, Jews were being arrested simply because they were Jews By 1942, Jews were being arrested simply because they were Jews. Many were forced to go to German force labor camps. Fearful for their lives, the Frank family began to prepare to go into hiding. This is one of the last photographs taken of Anne and her sister Margot before they went into hiding.

The Franks already had a hiding place in mind-an annex of rooms above Otto Frank’s office at 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. 263 Prinsengracht-the hiding place The Frank family on the Merwedeplain, May 1940.

In addition, people on the office staff in the Dutch Opekta Company had agreed to help them. Besides Kugler and Kleiman, there were Miep and Jan Gies, Bep Voskuijl, and Bep’s father-all considered to be trustworthy. These friends and employees not only agreed to keep the business operating in their employer’s absence; they agreed to risk their lives to help the Frank family survive. Mr. Frank also made arrangements for his business partner, Hermann van Pels, along with his wife, Auguste, and their son, Peter, to share the Prinsengracht hideaway. The helpers, left to right: Mr. Kugler, Miep Gies, Bep Voskuijl, & Mr. Kleiman.

While these preparations were secretly under way, Anne celebrated her 13th birthday on June 12, 1942. On July, 5, 1942, her sister, Margot, received a call-up notice to be deported to a Nazi “work camp.” Although the hiding place was not yet ready, the Frank family realized that they had to move right away. They hurriedly packed their belongings and left notes implying that they had left the country. On the evening of July 6, they moved into their hiding place. Only a few weeks after receiving “Kitty,” Anne and her family went into hiding. Anne took Kitty with her, writing regularly while in hiding.

A week later, on July 13, the van Pels family joined the Franks. On Nov. 16, 1942, the seven residents of the Secret Annex were joined by its eighth and final resident, Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist. Anne decorated her narrow bedroom with photos and postcards of movie stars. Anne Frank’s family and the other residents of the secret annex were in hiding for two years. The Annex was crowded and they had to be extremely careful not to be heard or seen. If they were discovered, the Nazis would arrest them. Movement had to be done at night, when nobody was working in the offices below. Anne spent much of her days writing in Kitty.

A hinged bookcase at the rear of the office wall was all that separated the Secret Annex from the outside world. At approx. 10 a.m., Aug. 4, 1944, the Frank family’s greatest fear came true. A Nazi policeman and several Dutch collaborators appeared at 263 Prisnsengracht, having received an anonymous phone call about Jews hiding there, and headed straight for the bookcase leading to the Secret Annex. Karl Joseph Silberbauer, an Austrian Nazi, forced the residents to turn over all valuables. When he found out that Otto Frank had served in the German Army during WWII, he was a little less hostile. The residents were taken from the house, forced into a covered truck, taken to the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, and then to Weteringschans Prison. Two of the helpers, Mr. Kugler and Ms. Kleiman, were also imprisoned for their role in hiding the family. Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl were not arrested, although Miep was brought in for questioning by the police.

On August 8, 1944, after a brief stay in Weteringschans Prison, the residents of the Secret Annex were moved to Westerbork transit camp. They remained there for nearly a month, until September 3, when they were transported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. It was the last Auschwitz-bound transport ever to leave Westerbork. This selection, divided the transported Jews into two groups: those who would work—and those who would die. (the group on the right)

In October 1944, Anne and Margot were transported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Thousands died from planned starvation and epidemics at Bergen-Belsen, which was without food, heat, medicine, or elementary sanitary conditions. Anne and Margot, already weak from living in the concentration camps, contracted typhus and grew even sicker. Bergen-Belsen became overcrowded with prisoners as the Nazis retreated from the Eastern Front. Besides no food, heat, or medicine, the prisoners had no clean toilets or showers. Due to these conditions, thousands died from diseases and starvation.

Otto Frank (center) with his Opekta staff, the Helpers of the Secret Annex Otto Frank was the only one to survive the Holocaust out of those in hiding in the secret annex. After the war, Otto found it hard to live in Amsterdam because it reminded him of the wife and daughters he had lost. He and his second wife, Elfried Geiringer, also an Auschwitz survivor, moved to Basel, Switzerland, in 1953. Otto Frank died on August 19, 1980, at the age of ninety-one.

Remembering Anne Anne Frank died of typhus in March of 1945 at Bergen-Belsen. She was 15 years old. Her diary, saved during the war by one of the family’s 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. Let us never forget.