Children in History: Anne Frank (1929-44)


Figure 1.--Here is Anne with friends in happier times with playmates during 1937 before the War. I think they are playing in a sand box. Herr Frank almost managed to save his family. He understood the NAZIs and prepared a careful plan to hide. Three of her friends here survived the War.

One of the great ironies of history is the diary written by this little German girl is one of the most widely read books ever published. Hitler and the NAZIs thought they could murder and destroy on traces of the Jews. Ironically it is Adolf Hitler's memoirs, Mein Kampf that today lies unread and largely forgotten--a distasteful footnote in history. The ideas expressed in it are now rejected and despised, while the book of the little girl they murdered continues to be read an inspire young people today--six decades after she was murdered by the NAZIs. The NAZIs in the Netherlands were more sucessful in killing Jews than in most other countries. This was in large measure because Dutch Jews were so law abiding. They did not full recognize the danger. Most obeyed instructions and reported for deportation as ordered. German refugees in the Netherlands had a higher survival rate because they understood the danger better. Ann was born in Germany (1929). Anne's father moved the family to the Netherlands after the NAZIs seized power (1933). There the family lived a comfortabled life until the NAZIs invaded and occupied the Netherlands (May 1940). Gradually NAZI restrictions on Jews became increasingly severe. And then deportations began. Herr Frank almost managed to save his family. The Frank family went into hiding after Anne's older sister Margot was ordered to report for war work in the Reich (July 1942). As Herr Frank suspected, this was a rise for deportation to the East. The Franks and another family successfully hid for 25 months in a carefully hidden annex of rooms above her father’s former office. The Franls learned of the D-Day landings and begin to hope thatvthe Allies would soon liberate them. They were, however, betrayed to the NAZIs only a months before the Allies reached Amsterdam (August 1944). Anne and Margot both died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen (Match 1945). She was 15 years old. Again she came so close to surving. The British liberated the camp only a month later. Family friends found her diary in tthe hideaway after the NAZIs ran sacked it. Her father survived the camps. He had it published after the War (1947). Editions have neen published in 67 languages and is one if the most widely read books ever published.







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Created: 5:23 AM 11/14/2006
Last updated: 5:23 AM 11/14/2006