Annelies Marie Frank (12 June 1929 – c. February 1945) was a German-Dutch diarist of Jewish heritage. One of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, she gained fame posthumously with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl (originally Het Achterhuis in Dutch; English: The Secret Annex), in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. It is one of the world’s best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.
Born in Frankfurt, Germany, she lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, Netherlands, having moved there in 1934 with her family at the age of four and a half when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party gained control over Germany. Born a German national, she lost her citizenship in 1941 and thus became stateless. By May 1940, the Franks were trapped in Amsterdam by the German occupation of the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, they went into hiding in some concealed rooms behind a bookcase in the building where Anne’s father, Otto Frank, worked. From then until the family’s arrest by the Gestapo in August 1944, Anne kept a diary she had received as a birthday present, and wrote in it regularly. Following their arrest, the Franks were transported to concentration camps. On 1 November 1944, Anne and her sister, Margot, were transferred from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died (probably of typhus) a few months later. They were originally estimated by the Red Cross to have died in March, with Dutch authorities setting 31 March as their official date of death. In 1986 the historians David Barnouw and Gerrald van der Stroom wrote in The Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition that they probably died at the end of February or beginning of March 1945, basing this estimate on the written statement of eyewitness Lien Brilleslijper in November 1945. Research by the Anne Frank House in 2015 suggests that they died in February.
Otto, the only survivor of the Frank family, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that Anne’s diary had been saved by his secretary, Miep Gies. He decided to fulfill Anne’s greatest wish to become a writer and publish her diary in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch version and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl, and has since been translated into over 70 languages. (Wikipedia)
We take a look at her life through pictures.
Anne Frank 12 years old – May 1942.Anne Frank with three friends. Beekbergen, summer 1941. Left to right: Anne, Tineke Gatsonides, Sanne and Barbara Ledermann.A photograph of the Frank family taken on the Merwedeplein in Amsterdam, May 1941. Left to right: Margot, Otto, Anne and Edith.Anne Frank, 11 years old – May 1941.Anne Frank writing at her desk in her room in the Merwedeplein apartment, Amsterdam.Anne Frank with her teacher and two fellow pupils at the 6th Montessori School in Amsterdam. From left to right: Martha v.d Berg, Miss Godron, Anne and Rela Salomon.Anne Frank (left) and her friend Hanneli Goslar on the Merwedeplein in Amsterdam. May 1940.Anne Frank with Isa’s dog Dopy in Laren, The Netherlands.Margot (left) and Anne Frank on the beach at Zandvoort in the Netherlands, August 1940.Anne Frank, 10 years old – May 1940.Anne with Inge Kurpershoek at Isa Cauvern-Monas home in Laren.Anne’s 10th birthday on 12 June 1940. Anne Frank and friends on the Merwedeplein Amsterdam. From left to right: Lucie van Dijk – Anne – Sanne Ledermann – Hanneli Goslar – Juultje Ketellapper – Käthe Egyedi (Kitty Gokkel-Egyedi) – Mary Bos – Ietje Swillens – Martha v.d. BergMargot and Anne (near left) on the beach at Zandvoort with their grandmother Ida, 1939.Anne Frank, 9 years old – May 1939.Anne Frank, 8 years old – May 1938.Anne Frank with a rabbit in Amsterdam.Anne (2nd from left) with friends in the sandbox in July 1937.Margot (3rd from right) and Anne Frank (2nd from right) with a group of children on the beach in Belgium.Margot Frank and her friend Hetty Ludel at the skating rink in Amsterdam.Anne Frank, 7 years old – May 1937.A school photo of Anne Frank at the 6th Montessori School in Amsterdam, which she attends from 1933 to 1941.Anne (right) with friends on the MerwedepleinAnne Frank, 6 years old – May 1936.Anne Frank during a holiday in Sils-Maria in Switzerland.Anne Frank (right) and her friend Sanne Ledermann in front of Anne’s home on the Merwedeplein in Amsterdam.Left to right: Sanne Ledermann, Hanneli Goslar, two unknown girls, Anne and Margot Frank, two unknown girls in Amsterdam.Anne Frank, 5 years old – May 1935.Anne (left) and Margot (2nd from right) play with German Jewish friends during a visit to Gabrielle Kahn (right).Margot, Anne and Edith with Mrs Schneider (behind) on the beach.Anne Frank (in the middle at the back wearing a white dress) with her class at the 6th Montessori School in Amsterdam.Anne and Margot Frank wearing their summer vests in Aachen.Anne Frank, 4 years old – May 1933.Anne, Edith and Margot on the Hauptwache square in the center of Frankfurt am Main in March 1933.Anne, Edith and Margot Frank, Frankfurt am Main, 10 March 1933.Grace with Margot and Anne Frank in the Spring of 1932 in Frankfurt am Main.Anne Frank, 2 or 3 years old – 1932.Otto Frank with daughters Margot and Anne on his knee. Frankfurt am Main, 1931.Edith with Anne in the garden of their house on the Ganghoferstrasse. Frankfurt am Main, 1931.Margot Frank with neighbourhood children in fancy dress in Frankfurt am Main, 1931.Anne Frank. Frankfurt am Main, 1931.Anne Frank, 2 years old – 1931.Margot and Anne with children from the neighbourhood. Frankfurt am Main, september 1930.Anne Frank, 1 year old – 1930.Käthi Stilgenbauer, Margot Frank, Ilse Angrick, Mrs Dassing, Anne Frank, Edith Frank, Rosemarie Angrick and Gertrud Naumann, 1929.Margot Frank with her new baby sister Anne.Anne Frank, 1930
