Natalie's Historical Highlights - Anne Frank
Historical Highlights: The Life of Anne Frank
Welcome everyone to the next segment of Historical Highlights. Today we are going to be talking about the life of Anne Frank. Now, some of you may recognise Anne Frank as the girl in the WW2 section of your school history book who lived in an attic - for two years. Regardless, I’m here to tell you that her faithful story was much more compelling. You may be asking why Anne Frank is so famous in the first place. Well, to put it simply, she wrote a diary.
Now you may be thinking: “A diary…..that’s it?” Well, yes, but also, NO. It was so much more than just a diary, and I’m going to tell you why.
Annelie Marie Frank was born on June 12th, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany. Her parents were Otto and Edith Frank, and she had an older sister named Margot. During WW1, Otto Frank was a lieutenant in the German army, but subsequent to that, he became a businessman.
Anne and her family
In 1933, anti-semitism had been on the rise for years. It was around this time when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party - were growing more and more rapid support. Hitler hated and despised the Jews and used them as a scapegoat for all of Germany’s problems. He took advantage of his dominant influence and the widespread anti-semitism when the Nazi party took control of the government in January 1933. Since the Franks were Jewish and in peril because of it, they knew that they had to leave their home for their own safety. Ultimately, they packed up their things and moved to Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam, Otto founded a company that traded in pectin, a gelling agent needed for making jam. Anne and her family were happy with their new life in the Netherlands. It was here that Anne went to Amsterdam’s Sixth Montessori school. She made several friends and lived a comfortable, happy childhood for the rest of the 1930s.
However, on the 10th of May 1940 (several months after WW2 began), the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. Anne and her family were in danger once more. Imminently, the Nazis passed several decrees against Jews, including:
All Jews were to wear the yellow Star of David on their clothes.
They had to follow a strict curfew.
Nuremberg laws denied Jews many fundamental civil rights.
They were not allowed to vote.
They were prohibited from entering parks, restaurants, swimming pools, and several other public spaces.
They no longer received ration cards for clothes and food.
They were not permitted to leave the country.
As a result of these degrading laws, Otto renounced ownership of his company to Christian associates. Evidently, he still managed it behind the scenes. Both Margot and Anne had to move to a segregated Jewish school.
On the 12th of June 1942, it was Anne’s 13th birthday. It was then that she received her red-and-white-checked diary as a birthday present from her father. As we will soon see, Anne used this diary as her closest confidante, and in some ways, her best friend. She wrote in the diary as if she were talking to a friend whom she called ‘Kitty.’
This the first-ever entry Anne wrote in her diary:
‘I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be able to a great source of comfort and support.’
In July 1942, the Nazis began sending Dutch Jews to concentration camps. The Franks shortly started to make plans of going into hiding. Otto set up a hidden area in the back of the annex at his firm. Along with his Jewish business partner, Hermann van Pels and associates, Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler. The Franks planned on moving into the annex on July 16th. Yet, on July 5th, Margot was summoned to go to a concentration camp.
Consequently, Anne and her family moved into the annex the next day. Anne documents the events of the move in her diary. She says that after Margot received the summons, they were woken up the next day in preparation for leaving the house - each of them bundled up in layers upon layers of clothes on a warm Sunday morning. Bringing even a small suitcase with them would raise too much suspicion and may ruin all of their plans. Anne and Margot also brought one schoolbag each, which they both packed the previous day with the essential belongings they wanted to take with them as everything else would be left behind. In her school bag, Anne packed: her diary, a comb, curlers, handkerchiefs, schoolbooks, and some old letters. As mentioned in her diary, Anne’s thoughts were too busy thinking about going into hiding that she stuck the craziest things into her bag, but she didn’t regret it because memories meant more to her than dresses.
A week after the Franks arrived in their new home, a second family - the Van Pels, joined them, whom Anne refers to in her diary as the van Daans. They included: Hermann Van Pels, Auguste van Pels and their 16-year-old son Peter van Pels. In November 1942, a ninth member joined the annex family: Fritz Pfeffer, whom Anne refers to as Albert Dussel. Luckily for them, the members of the Secret Annex weren’t completely alone. They received a lot of help from friends and colleagues of Otto’s who worked in the warehouse. Miep Gies, Johann Kleiman, Bep Voskuijl, Johann Voskuijl, Jan Gies, and Victor Kugler helped the members of the Secret Annex stay hidden and provided them with supplies such as food, magazines, newspapers, books, clothes, etc.
The helpers
The annex had several rooms which they all lived in and never ever left. Anne reveals that she had to share a room with Fritz; her sister and parents shared a room together, Peter lived in his own small room, and Mr. and Mrs van Daan slept in the shared kitchen and living room. There was also a bathroom, a small attic, and a front office. Moreover, there were very strict rules the people of the Secret Annex had to follow. These included being completely silent at certain times of the day so that the workers wouldn’t hear them in the office below them. Because of this, they also tried to flush the toilet as little as possible during the day.
Over the next two years, life in the annex certainly had a lot of ups and downs for Anne, she particularly had some troublesome relationships with the other members of the Secret Annex including her mother and sister. Anne says that her mother always takes her sister’s side and we see throughout her diary that Edith Frank is the source of Anne’s frustration. We also see how she’s had some bad run-ins with Auguste van Daan. However, Anne’s relationship with the people in the annex wasn’t all bad, she got on very well with her father and had praised him several times in her diary and admitted that he was the person in her life she loved most. Anne also developed a friendship with Peter van Daan over the two years and in that time their relationship became somewhat romantic for a while.
When she wasn’t studying or reading, Anne spent a lot of time writing in her diary. It's important to note that from 20th May 1944 onwards, Anne rewrote a lot of her diary because she wanted to publish it after the war was over.
Although life in the annex wasn't always fun, everyone was - for the most part, happy. They understood how lucky they were and that the alternative to their situation would have been so much worse. Sadly, on the 4th of August, 1944, German police discovered and stormed the secret annex, and everyone, including Anne, was arrested. To this day, it is unexplained how the police found the annex, and it’s likely that the world will never find out. There are several theories, of course. One being they were betrayed by the warehouse staff, or a more recent one was that the police were investigating fraud regarding ration coupons in the same building as their hiding place when they came across the annex.
As you can guess, Anne’s story doesn’t have a happy ending. Everyone in the secret annex was first sent to the Westerbork transit camp, and then on September 3rd, 1994, they were transported to Auschwitz, known as the largest and most dangerous concentration camp in WW2. Since men and women were separated, Anne’s father was split from the rest of his family - while Anne, her mother, and sister were able to stay together. This was the last time Anne ever saw him. Then, on November 1st, 1944, Margot and Anne were moved to Bergen Belson, a concentration camp in Germany. There, both girls developed typhus. Margot died of this disease in February 1945, while Anne died shortly after. This was only two months before Bergen Belson was liberated by British forces. Unfortunately, Anne and Margot weren't the only ones who died - not long after being captured. In fact, Anne’s father Otto was the only person from the secret annex who survived the war.
Miep Gies was the one who found Anne’s diary after the Franks were arrested. She gave the diary to Otto when he arrived back in Amsterdam. Upon reading her diary, Otto said, “A revelation. There, was revealed a completely different Anne, to the child that I had lost. I had no idea of the depth of her thoughts and feelings.”
Otto knew that Anne wanted to publish her diary, so that’s what he did. Due to the fact that parts of her original diary were missing and the edited diary wasn’t completed - he combined sections of her original and edited diary together. It was then published in 1947, with some editorial changes and paragraphs about Anne’s sexuality and negative feelings towards her mother removed. However, different editions of Anne’s diary, including one without Otto’s edits, have been published since.
Since then, Anne’s diary has been translated into 70 languages, and in 1960, the Secret Annex became a museum called ‘The Anne Frank House.’
To this day, Anne Frank is well known all around the world. The publication of her diary made her a significant historical figure of WW2. Anne’s diary gave us an insight into how a normal girl had to survive a not-so-normal situation. A girl who wanted to live the best way she could and to publish her own books, including one about her time in hiding, which was one wish that in the end came true.
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