Anne Frank was a German-Jewish girl who died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early March of 1945. She became famous around the world when her diary, which chronicles her life in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Europe, was published. Click through the gallery to read about her remarkable life as we commemorate the 70th anniversary of her death.
“One day this terrible war will be over. The time will come when we will be people again and not just Jews! We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well. But then, we'll want to be.” - April 9, 1944, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank
Anne (right-hand picture, center) was born to Otto Frank (center, behind) and Edith-Frank Hollander on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. She had one sister, Margot (left), who was three years older. The Franks lived at 307 Marbachweg (left-hand picture), a large house in a quiet multi-cultural neighbourhood. In 1939, they were joined by Rose Hollander (Edith’s mother), who lived with them until her death in January 1942.
“I have loving parents and a sixteen-year-old sister, and there are about thirty people I can call friends.” - June 20, 1942, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank
Though Anne’s childhood was relatively happy, it was overshadowed by the growing popularity of the Nazi Party and its leader Adolf Hitler. In early March 1933, Otto and Edith decided to move to the Netherlands to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jews with the help of Erich Elias (husband of Otto’s sister Helene).
“Our lives were not without anxiety, since our relatives in Germany were suffering under Hitler's anti-Jewish laws.” - June 20, 1942, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank.
Pictured: Anne and Margot at the seaside in 1937.
In Amsterdam, Otto began working for a company that sold fruit extract pectin (Opekta Works). He found an apartment in Merwedeplein (Merwede Square), Amsterdam. The rest of his family joined him by February 1934.
“Because we’re Jewish, my father emigrated to Holland in 1933.” - June 20, 1942, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank.
Pictured: Front row, left to right, Otto Frank (center) is seen here with his colleagues Miep Gies, and Bep Voskuijl; (back row, left to right) Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman.
Soon after emigrating to Amsterdam, Margot joined the elementary school on Jekerstraat while Anne was enrolled in the Montessori kindergarten. Though, once the pogroms began, the sisters were required to join the Jewish Lyceum as mandated by the new laws.
“In 1943 I started right away at the Montessori nursery school and I stayed there. In the last year my teacher was Mrs. K., the headmistress. At the end of the year we were both in tears as we said a heartbreaking farewell, because I'd been accepted at the Jewish Lyceum, where Margot also went to school: she went to the fourth grade, and I – to the first.” - June 20, 1942, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank.
Pictured: Anne Frank (front row left) and her sister Margot (back row right) at Margot's 8th birthday party in their neighborhood of Merwedeplein in February 1934.
To avoid his company being confiscated by the new government, in 1941, Otto transferred his Pectacon shares to Johannes Kleiman. Later on, the company was liquidated and all the assets were transferred to Gies and Co., headed by Jan Gies (pictured with wife Miep). For Opekta Works, Otto did the same thing, allowing him to earn enough to survive.
“After May 1940 the good times were few and far between: first there was the war, then the capitulation and then the arrival of the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews." – June 20, 1942, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank
Otto gifted Anne a red-and-white checkered cloth-covered diary shortly before her 13th birthday. Anne immediately started using this diary to document her daily life. Though her initial entries were mundane, as time progressed it reflected the changing social times. In one of her entries, Anne listed various restrictions imposed upon the Dutch Jews.
“I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in to anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.” - June 12, 1942, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank
As the Nazi Reichskommissariat Niederlande (civil government appointed after the 1940 Dutch surrender) tightened their strangle hold so anti-Semitic sentiment grew, the Franks decided to go into hiding in July 1942. The space behind Otto’s office premises was fashioned into the secret bunker. This "annex" or Achterhuis was made up of a series of small rooms that could be accessed by an secret entry hidden behind a bookcase.
“Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees: Jews were required to wear a yellow star;… I don't dare do anything anymore, 'cause I'm afraid it's not allowed.” - June 20, 1942, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank
On July 5, 1942, Margot received her papers to report to 'work camp' in Germany and the next day, the Franks entered the secret annex. A week later they were joined by the van Pels family: Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter. In November of the same year, they were joined by dentist Fritz Pfeffer, a family friend. Opekta’s trusted employees were the only ones who knew of the existence of this secret bunker and its occupants.
“So much has happened it's as if the whole world had suddenly turned upside down. But as you can see, Kitty, I'm still alive, and that's the main thing, Father says. I'm alive all right, but don't ask where or how.” - July 6, 1942, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank
Pictured: The occupants of the annex: Top row - Edith Frank-Holländer, Margot Frank, Anne Frank and Auguste van Pels. Bottom row; Otto Franks, Fritz Pfeffer, Peter van Pels and Hermann van Pel.
While the Frank family were in hiding for 25 months (1942-1944), Anne’s diary was a historical record of her time in the secret annex.
"Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. The Gestapo is treating them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars to Westerbork, the big camp in Drenthe to which they're sending all the Jews....If it's that bad in Holland, what must it be like in those faraway and uncivilized places where the Germans are sending them? We assume that most of them are being murdered. The English radio says they're being gassed." - October 9, 1942, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank.
Pictures: Anne is seen in photographs by Otto Frank, taken in 1941.
Anne used her diary to expressed herself and her deepest thoughts in her entries to several imaginary friends, including Kitty, Pop, Phien and Jacky. Through her writing, Anne examined her relationship with her family members and difference in each of their personalities.
“Don’t think I’m in love, because I’m not, but I do have a feeling that something beautiful is going to develop between Peter and me, a kind of friendship and a feeling of trust.” - February 18, 1944, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank
On August 4, 1944, the people hiding in the annex were discovered by the German Police who were tipped off by an anonymous informer. The Franks, van Pels and Pfeffer were held at a detention center, and on August 7, 1944, they were transferred to the Westerbork transit camp.
"As I've told you, what I say is not what I feel, which is why I have a reputation for being boy-crazy as well as a flirt, a smart aleck and a reader of romances." - August 1, 1944, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank.
Pictured: A view of the attic of the Achterhuis.
Soon after the arrest, Otto's colleagues Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl returned to the Achterhuis and recovered the items left behind, including Anne’s dairy and family photos, which they hoped to return to the Franks after the war ended.
Pictured: A copy of the first edition of 'Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl' is seen on display at the Anne Frank Center USA on March 26, 2012 in New York City.
On September 3, 1944, the group was on the last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz concentration camp. As per the norm, upon arrival, the men and the women were forcibly separated and none knew the fate of the other. Anne bore her incarceration with great compassion and strength as recalled by those who witnesses her at the camps.
Pictured: A view of the Westerbork transit camp.
While their mother, Edith, perished at Auschwitz, Margot and Anne were relocated to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on October 28, 1944. Nine months after their arrest, Margot and Anne died within days of one another of typhus in March of 1945, only a few weeks before the camp's liberation by the British on April 15.
Otto endured his internment at the Auschwitz concentration camp, becoming the sole survivor from the Achterhuis. He received Anne’s diary and other family possessions saved by Miep Gies. Moved by Anne’s candid description of their life during the war and her desire to be a published writer once she grew up, he endeavored to get the diary published. The diary was first published under the title Het Achterhuis (Diary of a Young Girl) in the Netherlands in 1947. Since its first publication, the diary has been translated in 67 languages and has sold more than 30 million copies.
Pictured: A file photo taken in 2005 at the Holocaust Education Center in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, shows the typewriter used by Otto Frank to transcribe his daughter's diary after the end of World War II.
The Diary of Anne Frank was a stage adaption of the book by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, which premiered in New York City on October 5, 1955. It won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This was followed by the movie in 1959, which was a critical and commercial success.
Pictured: A scene from the 1959 play based on The Diary of Anne Frank.
The house on Prinsengracht, where the group hid, and the neighbouring area was in a deplorable condition after the war. To save them from demolition, the Anne Frank Stichting was set up in 1957 with the help of Otto. In 1960 the Anne Frank House was opened to the public, aimed at educating people about Anne’s life and her ideals.
Over the years, Anne’s voice became an inspiration and a symbol of the youth affected by the war. She became one of the most recognizable faces of the Holocaust and in 1999 TIME magazine included her in their Most Important People of the Century list.
Pictured: German sculptor Knud Knudsen (left) stands besides Fritzi Frank, stepmother of Anne, whose sculpture was unveiled in the yard of Anne-Frank School in Frankfurt, Germany, in May 1981.