Anne Frank
Anne Frank
Story
Anne’s
Adapted from www.annefrank.org
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 1926. I was born on June 12, 1929. - The Diary of Anne Frank
A
nne’s father, Otto, works at his family’s bank. Her mother, Edith, takes care of everything at home. It is a carefree period for Margot and Anne. However, their parents are worried. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party have made Jews the scapegoat for all of Germany’s social and economic problems. Anne’s parents no longer feel safe, and Otto’s bank is also in financial trouble because of the worldwide economic crisis. Otto and Edith decide to leave Germany. Otto goes to the Netherlands to start a company in Amsterdam, where his family would join him a year later. They feel free and safe until the German army invades the Netherlands on May 10, 1940.
Margot and Anne Frank (1933)
Margot, Otto, Anne, and Edith Frank (1940)
Her parents have expected such a call-up: the secret hiding place is almost ready. Not only for their own family, but also for the Van Pels family: Otto’s co-worker Hermann, Discrimination against the Jews be- his wife Auguste, and their son gan there as well: Jews could not Peter. The next day, the Frank own their own businesses, Jew- family immediately takes to hidish children had to go to separate ing. They are helped by four of schools, all Jews had to wear a yel- Otto’s employees: Miep Gies, Jolow star, and countless other restric- hannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, tions. and Bep Voskuijl. They arrange the food supplies, clothing, books, On her thirteenth birthday in 1942, and all sorts of other necessities. Anne receives a diary as a present. [Continued on next page] It is her favorite gift. She begins writing in it immediately: “I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.” Like thousands of other Jews, Margot receives orders to report to a German work camp on July 5, 1942.
Miep Gies (date unknown)
[Continued from previous page]
In November, 1942 an eighth person joins: Fritz Pfeffer, an acquaintance of both families. The people in hiding pass their time by reading and studying. There is a lot of tension, probably due to the oppressive nature of the hiding place and their constant fear of being discovered. They often quarrel among themselves. When the people in hiding have spent almost two years in the Secret Annex, there is fantastic news: a massive landing of the Allies on the beaches of Normandy. Europe could soon be liberated. Anne hopes to return to school in the fall.
The occupants of the Annex spend a month at a transit facility before being taken by train to Auschwitz. At the end of October 1944 Anne and Margot are moved to BergenBelsen. Their mother remains behind, but soon falls ill and dies of exhaustion. Anne and Margot succumb to typhus in March 1945, only a few weeks before the camp is liberated by the British army.
Otto Frank is liberated from Auschwitz in January 1945. He does everything he can to find out the fate of his daughters: placing an ad in the newspaper and talking to survivors, until he meets witnesses of But on August 4, 1944, an SS Of- their deaths. When Miep Gies hears ficer and three Dutch policemen ar- the news, she gives Otto Anne’s dirive and demand to be taken to the ary and notebooks. Otto reads about Secret Annex. The people in hiding the plan Anne had to publish a book have been betrayed. They are arrest- about the time she spent in the Annex ed, as are some of their helpers, but and decides to fulfill his daughter’s Miep and Bep are left behind, where wish. they find and rescue Anne’s diary.
Following the war, Otto devotes himself to human rights, and answers thousands of letters from across the world. He says,
“Young people especially always want to know how these terrible things could ever have happened. I answer them as well as I can. And then at the end, I often finish by saying, ‘I hope Anne’s book will have an effect on the rest of your life so that insofar as it is possible in your own circumstances, you will work for unity and peace.’”
Peter van Pels (date unknown)
Educational Outreach
(315) 443-1150 (315) 442-7755
Otto Frank (date unknown)
Educational Outreach
34
35
(315) 443-1150 (315) 442-7755