Anne Frank (Annelies Marie Frank) was a Jewish girl whose diary became one of the most important and widely read books about the Holocaust and World War II. She was born on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to Otto and Edith Frank. When the Nazi regime began persecuting Jews, the Frank family fled to the Netherlands in 1933, hoping to find safety in Amsterdam.
After Germany occupied the Netherlands in 1940, anti-Jewish laws were introduced, restricting Jewish people’s rights and freedoms. In July 1942, to avoid deportation, the Frank family went into hiding in a concealed space behind Otto Frank’s business premises. This hiding place later became known as the Secret Annex. Anne lived there for more than two years with her parents, her sister Margot, and four other people, relying on a small group of helpers for food and news from the outside world.
During her time in hiding, Anne wrote in her diary, which she received for her thirteenth birthday. In it, she described daily life in confinement, her thoughts and emotions, her conflicts with others, and her hopes for the future. Anne dreamed of becoming a writer or journalist, and her diary shows remarkable insight, honesty, and maturity for someone so young. She also reflected deeply on human nature, fear, and the desire for freedom.
In August 1944, the hiding place was discovered, and the people in the Annex were arrested. Anne and her family were deported to concentration camps. Anne and her sister Margot were eventually transferred to concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, where they died in early 1945 from illness and extreme deprivation, only weeks before the camp was liberated. Anne was just 15 years old.
Otto Frank, Anne’s father, was the only member of the family to survive the war. After returning to Amsterdam, he found Anne’s diary, which had been preserved by one of the helpers. He decided to fulfill Anne’s wish to become a writer by having the diary published. It first appeared in 1947 as The Diary of a Young Girl.
Anne Frank and Margot Frank Memorial
The Anne Frank Memorial at Bergen-Belsen is located at the site of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Lower Saxony, Germany. Anne Frank and her sister Margot Frank died there in early 1945, shortly before the camp was liberated by British forces.
The memorial consists of a simple grave marker and commemorative stone honoring Anne and Margot, situated within the camp’s burial grounds. It is part of the larger Bergen-Belsen Memorial (Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen), which commemorates tens of thousands of victims who died from starvation, disease, and mistreatment.
The site is a place of remembrance and education, emphasizing the human impact of the Holocaust and Anne Frank’s enduring legacy as a symbol of persecution, resilience, and the importance of human rights.
