Who was Anne Frank?
Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on June 12, 1929, the second daughter of Otto and Edith Frank. Anne’s sister, Margo was three years older. There are photographs of the family that show the comfortable, normal and happy life they led there surrounded by many friends. The Frank sisters grew up speaking German and playing with Catholic, Protestant and Jewish children. The Frank family expected to live their lives in Frankfurt as Otto Frank’s family had done for generations but conditions of life in Germany were changing. In March 1933, the National Socialist (Nazi) party was elected to lead the municipal council in Frankfurt. The Nazis, whose power was spreading throughout Germany, expressed strong and violent feelings against the Jews. With Adolf Hitler as their leader, the Nazis banned all other parties. Anyone who opposed them was beaten or imprisoned. Soon, the prisons were so overcrowded that new ones, called concentration camps had to be built. The concentration ca
Anne Frank was a teenager living in Amsterdam during the Second World War. In 1942, at the age of 13, she had to go into hiding from the Nazis. She hid in a secret room, in her father’s place of work, the entrance to which was hidden by a bookcase. For two years this brave young lady lived there, with her family and others. She kept a detailed personal diary of her daily life and her thoughts during her enforced stay in hiding. (If you live in the UK, you can watch a television drama about her – it is on BBC 1 Television at 7.00pm Monday to Friday of this week.
