Anne Frank

Annelies Marie Frank, born on June 12th 1929, was a Jewish writer, well known for her diary which details her life in hiding.

She was born in Frankfurt, Germany to Otto and Edith Frank. She had an older sister, Margot. The family were liberal Jews, and as such moved to Amsterdam in 1933 when the Nazi party came to power. Anne was enrolled in a Montessori school, and later a Jewish school because of the law that Jews had to attend Jewish schools, with the invasion of the Netherlands.

On her 13th birthday, she was given a red-and-white notebook, which she decided to use as a diary, named ‘Kitty’. She explained in her diary that while she had friends, she was never able to truly connect or feel close with them, so she wrote in the diary as a substitute.

In July 1942, the Frank family moved into a hiding place, a three-story building behind the Opekta offices in Amsterdam. The door to the Achterhuis (‘Back house’; translated in English as ‘The secret annex’) was covered by a bookcase to avoid being discovered.

The only people who knew of their existence were Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep Gies, Bep Voskuijl, Jan Gies and Johannes Voskuijl. They provided them with food, and political developments in the war. Anne had a particularly close friendship with Bep.

The Franks were later joined by the Van Pels family (called in her diary the Van Daans); Hermann, Auguste, and their teenage son Peter. In November 1942, they were joined by dentist Fritz Pfeffer (called in her diary Albert Dussel).

Anne wrote in her diary about her strained relationship with her mother, and at one point described her contempt and hate for her. As she matured she grew a respect for her and stopped arguing with her as much. She adored her father, however, and was close with him.

Her relationship with her sister Margot wasn’t bad, but Anne frequently was jealous of her as she was criticized less than the others in hiding. As Anne grew older they were able to talk and confide in eachother, at one point showing eachother their diaries (although Margot’s was never recovered).

She shared a bedroom in the Annex with Fritz, and frequently referred to him as selfish, inconsiderate and a grumpy old man. She thought the same of Hermann. Anne thought of Auguste as stupid, arguable and boastful.

While she initially considered Peter to be lazy and dumb, in the last few months of their 2 year confinement they started to fall in love. They also shared their first kiss together. In time, however, Anne’s infatuation lessened and she started to question whether the romance was true, or a result of being in hiding.

On August 4th 1944, the Annexe was stormed by Nazis and the 8 people in hiding were taken to concentration camps. Anne died of typhus in February/March 1945, only a few weeks before the Bergen-Belsen camp was liberated.