Anne Frank was Jewish Girl who maintained a diary whilst hiding with her family from Nazi persecution during the German Occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War.
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| Anne Frank |
In May 1940 the Germans invaded the Netherlands and occupied the country. They began enacting anti Jewish laws and many Jews began to go into hiding. Amongst those who went into hiding were Otto Frank, his wife Edith and two daughters, Margot and Anne. Otto's family were of German descent, Otto having fought for Germany during World War One. They had moved to Amsterdam in 1934 when Hitler came to power and began persecuting the Jews.
On 5th July 1942 Otto Frank went into hiding when 16 year old Margot received a call-up notice requiring her to relocate to a work camp. They moved into the top three floors of an annex behind the building where Otto worked on the Prisengracht.
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| Anne Frank House Otto's Workplace Prisengracht |
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| Otto's Workplace Prisengracht Annex to rear of the building |
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| Anne Frank House Building Plan |
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| Anne Frank House Secret Annex Plan |
The Secret Annex could be reached via a door disguised as a bookcase.
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| Access to the Secret Annex |
They were joined a week later by the Van Pels family, Hermann, Auguste, and their 16-year-old son Peter. In November Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist and friend of the Frank family joined those in hiding.
Supporting those in hiding in the Secret Annex were work colleagues of Otto Frank, Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep Gies, and Bep Voskuijl. Together with Miep Gies' husband Jan, and Bep Voskuijl's father, they supplied food and news of the war.
Anne Frank had received a diary for her twelfth birthday in June 1942 just before the Frank family went into hiding. She immediately began to record her thoughts and experiences in that diary.
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| Anne Frank's First Diary |
She maintained the original diary until it was full then continued in a series of notebooks throughout the time in hiding until the Secret Annexe was raided by the Gestapo and it's occupants arrested.
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| Anne Frank's Diaries and Notebooks |
All those who were in hiding would end up in Concentration Camps, with the only Otto Frank surviving the war. Anne Frank perished in Bergen-Belsen in February or March 1945 aged fifteen. Her sister Margot also died in Bergen-Belsen.
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| Anne / Margot Commemoration Bergen-Belsen |
After the war Otto returned to Amsterdam where he was given Anne's diary and note books by Miep Gies who had found them and kept them safe after Secret Annexe had been raided.
The diaries were first published in Dutch on 25th June 1947 under the title of the Diary of a Young Girl.
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| Diary of a Young Girl 1947 |
It was subsequently published in more than 70 languages and over 36 million copies produced.
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| Anne Frank Dairy Multi Languages |