Anne Frank and her diary: writing for eternity

“I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.” This was the first entry Anne Frank made in her small, red-bound diary, made on 12 June 1942. It was her 13th birthday. This selfsame diary would go on to become a piece of the world’s literary heritage. It tells the story of a girl who would die in a German concentration camp. 

Anne Frank’s childhood in Frankfurt and Amsterdam

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main on 12 June 1929. Her family was Jewish, and as Nazism gained power and economic difficulties made it clear they would soon have no future in Germany, Anne would live in Amsterdam from February 1934 onwards. At first she and Margot, her sister three years older, enjoyed a normal childhood. On her 13th birthday, Anne’s parents gave her a diary in which she wrote regular letters in Dutch to Kitty, her imaginary friend. In her entries she described her daily life and wrote about her friends and family. But soon her life and her diary entries would take on a darker tone.

In hiding in the annex

Margot Frank received a letter on 5 July 1942 ordering her to return to Germany for “work service”. However, the meaning of the letter was clear: she was being deported to a concentration camp. Anne’s parents responded without delay. The following day, the family went into hiding in an annex in a building belonging to Otto Frank’s company. They had been preparing their refuge for months. Anne kept her imaginary friend Kitty informed about everything that happened in their new home. She wrote about family arguments, and described encounters with their fellow lodgers (some more pleasant than others) in the hiding place behind Prinsengracht 263. Along with the Frank family were Auguste and Herman von Pels, their son Peter and the dentists Fritz Pfeffer. 

Anne’s daily life in the annex

Anne wrote about the constant terror of being discovered and the restrictions of life in the annex. During the day, the inhabitants had to remain completely quiet to avoid being heard by the company workers. They could not even go to the lavatory until after the workers had gone home. On 28 September 1942 Anne wrote, “Not being able to go outside upsets me more than I can say, and I’m terrified our hiding place will be discovered and that we’ll be shot. That, of course, is a terrible thing to think of.”

The arrest of Anne and the Frank family

For just over two years the eight people remained concealed in the annex. Several times they feared they had been discovered in their hiding place whose entrance was concealed behind a bookcase. But on 4 August 1944, they and two of the helpers who had provided them with essentials such as food and medication during their concealment were all arrested. Anne’s last entry in her diary dates from 1 August 1944. To this day, no-one can be sure who betrayed Anne and the Frank family, the van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer or if they were discovered by chance. 

For most of them, arrest had fatal consequences. Only Anne’s father Otto survived. He was liberated on 27 January 1945 when the Soviet Army reached the Auschwitz concentration camp. He had already learned of his wife’s death, but he only found out later that both his daughters had died. Margot and Anne fell victim to a typhus epidemic in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. It is not known when exactly they died, but it is believed they died in late February or early March 1945, shortly before the capitulation of Nazi Germany.

The diary is published

After the arrest of the Frank family, one of their helpers kept Anne’s diary safe. She passed it on to Otto Frank, who had it published. It was hoped that the diary would be a memorial and a witness not only to what happened to Anne and Margot, but the pain and suffering which was inflicted on 1.5 million other Jewish children during the Holocaust. Extracts of Anne’s diary were published in 1947 in the Netherlands entitled “Het Achterhuis”, or “The Annex”. A German version was published in 1950. In 1991 an authoritative version was published containing all parts of Anne’s diary. 

Anne Frank had actually thought about publishing her diary herself. In early 1944 the exiled radio station Oranje broadcast a speech by the Dutch government minister Gerrit Bolkestein, in which he said that, after the war, evidence should be collected of the suffering under German occupation. In her diary, Anne thought about one day becoming a writer or journalist and began to revise her writing for possible publication. She wanted to publish her work as a novel entitled “Het Achterhuis”.

The Diary of Anne Frank: a witness to history which still shocks us today

Today, Anne Frank’s diary has been translated into over 70 languages and is one of the most widely read books in the world. Within a few years of its publication, a play based on the diary was performed on Broadway. The production toured internationally and was ultimately made into a film.  The Anne Frank House was established in 1957 to transform her former hiding place into a museum. Around 1 million people visit it every year. There are memorials to the 15-year-old girl around the world, and she has become the symbol of the millions of victims of Nazism. Her diary is one of the most well known documents which bear witness to the holocaust.

Where to follow in Anne Frank’s footsteps:

• The Anne Frank education centre in Frankfurt am Main
• The Anne Frank Centre in Berlin
• The Frank Family Centre at the Jewish Museum, Frankfurt am Main