Anna Frank (1929 - 1945) was a German girl of Jewish descent who went into hiding with her family for several years during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Holland, in World War II. The experiences of the young woman were reflected in Ana Frank's diary.
Despite their best efforts, the Franks were discovered by German soldiers who sent them to concentration camps. They were first in Auschwitz and from there Ana and her sister were transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where they both died of typhus in 1944.
Anne Frank's dream was to become a writer, so during the time she remained in hiding she collected all her experiences in her personal diary. Then he transformed it into a book format after hearing on the radio that this information would be very useful..
Neighbors who had helped the Frank family while they were in hiding found Anne's diary in the house and when her father was released they handed it over to him. Otto Frank was the only survivor of the family and seeing that his daughter Ana's goal was to become an author and live forever through her work, he managed to publish the girl's memoirs. That work became one of the best-known pieces of literature about the Holocaust..
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Annelies Marie Frank, known as Anne, was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. His mother was Edith Holländer and his father Otto Heinrich Frank, who was a successful local merchant; the couple had another daughter three years older named Margot.
Although both Otto and Edith came from Jewish families, both were liberal, that is, they did not follow exactly what the religion of their ancestors told them. They lived in an area of Frankfurt that was mostly inhabited by members of the Jewish community.
During Anne's childhood, the National Socialist movement, led by Adolf Hitler, was gaining popularity in Germany. The postwar national economy was devastated.
The Nazi movement began to find in the Jews a simple target to blame for the misfortunes that the Germans had to endure and that idea quickly permeated the population.
At first, Ana's parents saw no problems with continuing to live in their country, but everything changed in 1933, when Hitler's party won the elections and he was appointed chancellor. At that time, Anne Frank was about five years old..
The antisemitism that was growing in Germany was what prompted Otto Frank to leave his life behind to start anew in Holland. Ana's father left for Amsterdam in the autumn of 1933 and little by little his family joined him.
In February 1934 the youngest of the Franks arrived, Anne, who had spent a season with her grandparents, living in the German city of Aachen. That same year the sisters began attending local schools where they learned the language and socialized with children their own age..
At the time that Ana attended school she was very attracted to reading and writing, some girls who knew her commented that she used to write in secret and did not allow anyone to know the content of her texts.
Otto had gotten a job at a company called Opekta Works, which was in charge of marketing pectin, a necessary ingredient for making jams. Some time after settling in Amsterdam, Frank decided to found a new company called Pectacon..
The specialty of the new company, in addition to pectin, was the sale of condiments and spices necessary for the production of sausages. A Dutch Jew named Hermann van Pels began working in this business..
Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland occurred in September 1939. At that time, Anne Frank was 10 years old and until then had been able to lead a happy life in Amsterdam with her family..
The landscape quickly changed for Jewish families who had left German territory in search of a safe life. In May 1940 the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and at that time Otto Frank's fears began to come true..
The special laws applied to segregate Jews were applied throughout the occupied Dutch territory. Ana and her sister Margot were forced to attend a school for Jewish children.
No Jews were allowed to go for walks in parks or watch movies, nor were they allowed to enter businesses that were not owned by other Jews. Then the mandatory use of a Star of David was imposed to mark the difference between the Jewish population of the rest.
Subsequently, the Jewish businesses were claimed by the Nazi Government and Ana's father could not continue to develop his commercial activities officially, but he did so through his two Christian partners who remained as the owners in all legal documents.
Otto Frank arranged for his family to be transferred to the United States, which at the time was the ideal destination for those fleeing the dangers of Nazi anti-Semitism. Your efforts did not have a positive result, as the Rotterdam consulate closed and your application was not processed..
Anne received an autograph notebook from her parents in June 1942, which was a popular notebook among girls Frank's age in which they could write down their interests, as well as those of their friends..
In the case of Anne Frank, she used that notebook as a personal diary. He began to write down the things that he lived since then, for example, he made a list of all the restrictions that Jews had in Holland.
Ana's father knew that the situation could escalate at any moment, so he began to fix a small secret annex hidden in his business, behind a library.
They had planned to wait a few more days but everything accelerated because Margot received a letter informing her that they required her to attend a “work camp” from the Central Office of Jewish Emigration..
Before retiring with her family, Ana bequeathed her most precious belongings to her neighbor and friend Toosje Kupers. From July 6, 1942, the clandestine life of the Franks began.
To show their disappearance as a legitimate flight, they left a note at his house in which they made it appear that they had left Dutch territory. Some of Frank's employees knew where his hiding place was and supplied him with food and other supplies..
The contributors were Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Beo Voskuijl and Miep Gies. At first the task of these helpers was not very complicated, but later it became difficult to get food and other items to take to Ana's family..
The Franks welcomed the family of Hermann van Pels, a worker and friend of Otto Frank who also moved into the annex. Then they were joined by the last member of the house, which was Fritz Pfeffer.
Although Ana liked the new company, it was very difficult for everyone to live in such a confined space with few resources, so she began to express her discontent in her diary.
They had to remain very quiet, since if discovered they not only risked the lives of all those who were inside the annex, but also their external collaborators, who could be sentenced to death for helping a group of Jews.
The relationships between Ana and the people who lived with her were not easy. Of the members of his family he considered his father, Otto Frank, as the closest. As time went by, his opinion about Margot changed, whom he began to see as a true friend..
She had a little crush on the son of the van Pels family, named Peter. He was a little older than her, but Ana was afraid that her feelings were not real but the result of the time they spent together in his confinement.
At first Ana's differences with her mother were great. In the same way that he understood his sister better, he came to understand that she had also contributed to his mother's concerns and began to have a more harmonious attitude with her.
The last time Anne Frank wrote in her diary was on August 1, 1944. Three days later the secret annex was discovered by the German authorities. All those who were hiding in the place were transferred to the Central Reich Security Office.
They were then taken to a transit concentration camp known as Westerbork and later sent to Auschwitz. Some of those who collaborated with the Frank family were arrested, but Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl were only questioned and they found Ana's texts.
They decided to save all the belongings and documentation they could for when the Franks returned..
It is not yet known if someone betrayed the Franks, but the possibility that the property raid was motivated by some information has been raised..
In Auschwitz the prisoners were separated by sex and age; many of the other Jews who came with them were killed in gas chambers almost immediately.
All members of Ana's family met the physical conditions to be sent to do forced labor. After entering the concentration camp, Otto Frank never saw his daughters or his wife again..
Edith, Ana's mother, died in Auschwitz in January 1945. The girls, on the other hand, were transferred to Bergen-Belsen and Auguste van Pels, who had been hiding with them in the annex, left with them..
In the new camp the conditions of the prisoners were worse and to this was added an outbreak of typhus in the facilities. Although it is not known exactly what was the disease that killed Anne Frank, it is believed that it was the strong epidemic that spread in Bergen-Belsen.
The first to fall ill was Margot. Auguste and Ana tried to take care of her, but were unsuccessful and she passed away after falling from her bunk. Ana was very discouraged, because she believed that her entire family had died.
Anne Frank died in February or March 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany. The exact date on which he died is not known, but it is believed that it could be in late February, since he began to show symptoms of typhus in the first week of that month.
Anne Frank's death is thought to have occurred just weeks before the camp in which she and her sister had been imprisoned was liberated by the British Army in April 1945..
The only surviving member of the family was Anne's father, Otto Frank. He had remained in Auschwitz, where he was hospitalized until the liberation of that concentration camp in January 1945..
Otto tried to find his family for a while. He first learned that his wife had passed away in the camp, but he had no further information about his daughters so he hoped to see them again..
Upon returning to Amsterdam, Otto received from the Gies the texts that had been written by Ana. He also learned that his two daughters were dead and that they could never leave the camp to which they had been sent..
After Otto Frank read the experiences that his daughter had recorded in his diary, he was very moved, especially by the young woman's desire to become a journalist and for her story to reach thousands of readers..
That inspired him to find someone willing to post. The back room. The book, which went on sale in 1947, became a worldwide success, was translated into more than 70 languages, inspired films and plays.
In later editions the title of the work was changed to Ana Frank's diary, with which it is popularly known. That is how Ana managed to live after death thanks to her work.
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