Anne Frank Biography

(Diarist)

Birthday: June 12, 1929 (Gemini)

Born In: Frankfurt, Germany

Anne Frank was one of the thousands of Jewish children who were killed in the Holocaust. She became a well-known name and one of the most discussed victims of the holocaust after her diary ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ was published by her father a couple of years after her death. The diary is today one of the world’s best-known books and has been translated into several languages. It has also been adapted into many plays and films all over the world. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, during a highly tumultuous period in the nation’s history, she moved from Germany to Amsterdam with her family in the early 1930s after the rise of Nazis in her homeland. At the height of World War II, the Germans occupied the Netherlands and the Jews were no longer safe in Amsterdam as well. As the persecution of the Jewish population continued to increase, the Frank family was forced to move into hiding. A young teenager who hoped to become a writer growing up, Anne dutifully wrote in her diary, documenting her daily life in hiding. She remained hopeful that one day her life would return to normalcy but her hopes were unfounded; she, her mother, and her sister were killed along with thousands of other Jews in the concentration camps. Only her father survived the war.

102
Quick Facts

German Celebrities Born In June

Also Known As: Annelies Marie Frank

Died At Age: 15

Family:

father: Otto Frank

mother: Edith Frank

siblings: Margot Frank

Born Country: Germany

Died Young Dutch Women

Died on: March 12, 1945

place of death: Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany

Cause of Death: Typhus

City: Frankfurt, Germany

  • 1

    When and where was Anne Frank's diary published?

    Anne Frank's diary, also known as "The Diary of a Young Girl," was first published in 1947 in Dutch, and later translated into many languages.

  • 2

    What happened to Anne Frank and her family during World War II?

    Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in Amsterdam to escape persecution by the Nazis during World War II. They were eventually discovered and sent to concentration camps, where Anne died of typhus.

  • 3

    How did Anne Frank's diary become famous?

    Anne Frank's diary became famous after her father, Otto Frank, who survived the war, published it. The diary provides a firsthand account of the Holocaust and has since become an important historical document.

  • 4

    Where is the Anne Frank House located?

    The Anne Frank House is located in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at the address of Prinsengracht 263. It is the building where Anne and her family hid during World War II.

Childhood & Family Life

She was born as Annelies Marie Frank on 12 June 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany, to Otto Frank and Edith Frank-Holländer. She had an elder sister, Margot. The Franks were a typical upper-middle-class liberal Jewish family who lived in an assimilated community of Jewish and non-Jewish citizens. Her father, an army man turned businessman, had scholarly interests and both her parents encouraged their daughters to read.

Anne was born during an era of political chaos in Germany. In March 1933, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party won the elections held in Frankfurt for the municipal council. The party was notorious for its anti-Semitism and her parents began to fear for their children.

When Hitler became chancellor of Germany, the family left Germany and moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands fearing for their lives. They were among 300,000 Jews who fled Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1939.

Otto Frank, an industrious man, worked hard to stabilize the family’s financial position. He found a job at Opekta Works, a company that sold fruit extract pectin, and went on to establish his own business.

Anne started attending a Montessori school. She was an extrovert, outspoken and friendly. She had always loved reading and now she developed a writing habit as well. But she was very secretive about what she wrote and never shared it even with her friends.

However, when the Frank family had finally settled into a comfortable routine, Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 and the peaceful lives of the Jews came to an abrupt end. The persecution of Jews began with the implementation of restrictive and discriminatory laws, and Otto Frank once again feared for his wife and daughters.

Due to the restrictive laws, Anne and her sister were forced to leave their respective schools and had to enroll at the Jewish Lyceum. Meanwhile, their father struggled to provide financially for the family as being a Jew he was not allowed to continue running his business.

Anne received a gift from her parents for her 13th birthday on 12 June 1942: a red checkered diary. She began writing on it almost immediately. Even though most of her initial entries were about the mundane routines of day-to-day life, she also wrote about how her family fled Germany and adjusted to life in the Netherlands.

Continue Reading Below
Recommended Lists:
Life in Hiding

In July 1942, Anne’s elder sister Margot received a notice to report to a Nazi work camp in Germany. Realizing that the family was in dire circumstances, Otto took the family into hiding in makeshift quarters at the back of his company building.

Otto’s employees Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep Gies, and Bep Voskuijl helped the family during this crucial time. Soon the Frank family was joined by another family, the van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist, in hiding.

Initially, Anne found living in hiding an adventure and wrote about it excitedly in her diary. She also developed a romance with Peter van Pels during this time which she mentioned in her writings.

Since the family was not allowed to go outside, she spent most of the time reading and writing. Her diary became her closest confidante and she wrote in detail about her relationships with each of her family members.

As time wore by, Anne lost her youthful optimism and began to grow weary of the confinement. However, she did not lose hope that life would one day return to normal and she would go back to school. She mentioned in her diary that she wanted to be a writer one day.

Arrest

The Jewish families were betrayed by an informer in 1944. Their hiding place was discovered in August and the Franks, van Pelses, and Pfeffer were arrested and interrogated. Having been arrested in hiding, they were considered criminals.

The group was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where the men were forcibly separated from the women. Anne, her sister, and her mother were pulled away from their father and taken to the women’s camp where they were made to perform heavy manual work.

After some time, Anne and Margot were separated from their mother, who later died, and moved to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where the conditions were even worse with scarcity of food and lack of sanitation facilities.

Continue Reading Below
Death & Legacy

A typhus epidemic spread through the camp in 1945 and other diseases like typhoid fever were also widespread. Though it is not known what exactly afflicted the Frank sisters, it is believed that both Margot and Anne became ill and died sometime in February or March 1945.

Otto Frank was the lone survivor in the family. Miep Gies, who had retrieved Anne Frank's diary after the family was arrested, gave it to Otto when he returned to Amsterdam from the camp.

On reading the diary, her father realized that Anne had maintained such an accurate and well-written record of their time in hiding and decided to get it published.

The diary was first published in Dutch as ‘Het Achterhuis. Dagboekbrieven 14 Juni 1942 – 1 Augustus 1944’ (The Annex: Diary Notes 14 June 1942 – 1 August 1944), in 1947. It was soon translated into English and published as ‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl’ in 1952.

The English translation became very popular and was soon adapted into plays and movies. Over the years the diary was translated into several other languages and is considered one of the most widely-read works of the 20th century.

Major Works

Anne Frank became one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust due to the enormous popularity of the English translation of her diary, ‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.’ The diary, which has since been published in more than 60 different languages, contains a poignant account of the Frank family’s life in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Facts About Anne Frank

Anne Frank had a pet cat named Moortje, which brought her comfort and companionship during her time in hiding.

Anne Frank had a love for writing and dreamed of becoming a famous author or journalist one day.

Anne Frank was known for her optimism and positive outlook on life, despite the hardships she faced.

Anne Frank had a talent for storytelling and often entertained her fellow hiding companions with her imaginative tales.

Anne Frank had a strong bond with her father, Otto Frank, and looked up to him as a role model and source of strength during their time in hiding.

See the events in life of Anne Frank in Chronological Order

How To Cite

Article Title
- Anne Frank Biography
Author
- Editors, TheFamousPeople.com
Website
- TheFamousPeople.com
URL
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/anne-frank-182.php

People Also Viewed

Otto Frank Biography
Otto Frank
(Dutch, German, Swiss)
 
Michelle McNamara Biography
Michelle McNamara
(American)
 
Popcorn Sutton Biography
Popcorn Sutton
(American)
 
Claudia Lars Biography
Claudia Lars
(Salvadoran)
 
Yang Jiang Biography
Yang Jiang
(Chinese)
 
Lauren Graham Biography
Lauren Graham
(American)
 
Barbara Kingsolver Biography
Barbara Kingsolver
(American)
 
James Joyce Biography
James Joyce
(Irish)