(1929 – 1945)

 Diarist and Holocaust victim

The Frank House in Amsterdam

The Bookcase concealing the secret rooms

Memorial to Anne Frank

Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929 in the German town of Frankfurt am Main. Her father’s family had lived there for generations. The economic crisis, Hitler’s rise to power and growing anti-semitism had put an end to the family’s carefree life. Otto Frank and his wife Edith decided, like many other German Jews, to leave Germany.

Otto set up a business in Amsterdam and the family found a home on the Merwedeplein.  As the threat of war in Europe increased, Otto and his family tried to emigrate to England or the USA., but these attempts failed. On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland.

On 10 May 1940 German troops invaded The Netherlands. Five days later The Netherlands surrendered and became occupied. Anti-Jewish regulations soon followed. Anne and her sister were forced to attend a Jewish school and Otto's business was seized.

When a renewed attempt to emigrate to the USA failed, Otto and Edith decided to go into hiding. Otto furnished the house behind his business premises on the Prinsengracht and this became their hiding place, together with his Jewish business partner Hermann van Pels. Concealed rooms were hidden behind a bookcase.

On 5 July 1942 Anne's sister Margot received a call-up to report to a German work camp. The next day the Frank family went into hiding. The Van Pels family followed a week later and in November 1942 they were joined by dentist Fritz Pfeffer. They remained in the secret annex for just over two years.

They were helped by Otto's former office workers Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl, by Miep's husband Jan Gies and by warehouse boss Johannes Voskuijl, who was Bep's father. These helpers arranged food, clothes and books and were the only contact with the outside world for the people in hiding.

Shortly before going into hiding Anne received a diary for her birthday. She started writing straight away and during her time in hiding she wrote about events in the secret annex and about herself. Her diary was a great support to her. Anne also wrote short stories and collected her favourite quotes from other writers in a notebook.

When the Minister of Education made a request on the radio for people to keep war diaries, Anne decided to edit her diary and create a novel from it called 'The Secret Annex'. She started to rewrite her diary, but before she had finished, she and the other people in hiding with her were arrested.

On 4 August 1944 the people in hiding along with their helpers Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler were arrested. Via the Sichterheidsdienst headquarters, prison and transit camp Westerbork they were deported to Auschwitz. The two helpers were sent to the Amersfoort camp. Johannes Kleiman was released shortly after his arrest and six months later Victor Kugler escaped. Immediately after the arrest Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl retrieved Anne's diary and other papers that had been left behind in the secret annex. Despite intensive investigations it has never been clearly understood how exactly the hiding place was discovered.

Otto Frank was the only one of the eight people who were in hiding to survive the war. The rest of his family had died of disease and deprivation in Bergen-Belsen. After learning of her death, Otto read Anne's diary and was very moved by what she had written. Anne had written in her diary that she wanted to be a writer or a journalist and that she wanted her diary published as a novel.

Otto set about making this happen and on 25 June 1947, 'The Secret Annex' was published in an edition of 3.000. It was translated from its original Dutch version and first published in English in 1952 as 'The Diary of a Young Girl'. The diary, which was given to Anne on her thirteenth birthday, chronicles her life from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944. Many more editions, translations, a play and a film followed.

 In 1960 the Anne Frank House became a museum. Otto Frank remained involved with the Anne Frank House and a campaigner for human rights until his death in 1980.

Original pages from

The Diary of a Young Girl