97: Anne Frank

Today (June 12th) would have been Anne Frank’s 97th Birthday.

Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany.

(Anne Frank in December 1941.)

In 1934, when she was 4 years old, she moved with her Family to Amsterdam, the Netherlands to escape the Nazis.

In May 1940 the Germans invaded and occupied the Netherlands.

In 1941 the Germans forced all Jews to leave Non-Jewish Schools and so Anne and Margot left the 6th Montessori School and went to the Jewish Lyceum.

In 1941 she became Stateless when the Germans revoked her German Citizenship.

On her 13th Birthday on June 12, 1942 Anne received her non Famous Diary.

On July 6, 1942 Anne and her Family went into Hiding after the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung (Central Office for Jewish Emigration) ordered Margot to report for “Relocation” to a Work Camp in Germany.

On July 13, 1942 the Franks were joined by Hermann, Auguste and Peter Van Pels in their Hiding Place.

In November 1942 they were joined by Fritz Pfeffer in their Hiding Place.

On August 4, 1944 Anne Frank’s Hiding Place was raided by the German Uniformed Police (Grüne Polizei) led by SS-Oberscharführer Karl Silberbauer of the Sicherheitsdienst.

The Franks, Van Pelses, and Pfeffer were taken to RSHA headquarters, where they were interrogated and held overnight.

On August 5, 1944, they were transferred to the Huis van Bewaring (House of Detention), an overcrowded Prison in Amsterdam.

Two days later they were transported to the Westerbork Transit Camp in the northern part of German-Occupied the Netherlands, through which more than 100,000 Jews, mostly Dutch and German, had passed.

Having been arrested in hiding, they were considered Criminals and sent to the Punishment Barracks for Hard labor.

On August 7, 1944, Miep Gies attempted to facilitate the release of the Prisoners by confronting Silberbauer and offering him money to intervene, but he refused.

On September 3, 1944 Anne and everyone else from the Hiding Place was deported by Cattle Car on the last train to leave Westerbork for the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland where they arrived 3 days later.

Of the 1,019 Passengers, 549—including all Children younger than 15—were sent directly to the Gas Chambers and murdered. Anne, who had turned 15 three months earlier (the minimum age the Germans allowed Prisoners to do Hard Labor) entered Birkenau.

 The Men were separated from the Women. It was the last time Anne saw her Father.

Anne was forced to haul rocks and dig rolls of sod by day; by night, they were crammed into overcrowded barracks. Being outside all day she regularly saw People walking to their deaths in the Gas Chambers.

In October 1944 their Group was selected to leave Auschwitz and go to the Leibau Labor Camp, but Anne had contacted Scabies and so went to the Camp’s Hospital instead. Margot and their Mother volunteered to stay in Auschwitz to care for Anne.

On October 28, 1944, after recovering from Scabies, Anne, Margot and Mrs. Van Pels left Auschwitz and went to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany.

Around March 1945, Anne died from Typhus at 15 years old a few days after her Sister, Margot who was 18 years old.

They were both buried in an unknown Mass Grave.

In July 1945, after Otto Frank learned that his whole Family had died, Miep Gies gave him Anne’s Diary. It was first published (in Dutch) in 1947, in German and French in 1950 and in English in 1952. It is currently published in 70 Languages.