Anne Frank
Annelies "Anne" Marie Frank is one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Her wartime diary The Diary of a Young Girl has been the basis for several plays and films. Born in the city of Frankfurt in Weimar Germany, she lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. Born a German national, Frank lost her citizenship in 1941. She gained international fame posthumously after her diary was published. It documents her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. More
The Frank family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933, the year the Nazis gained control over Germany. By May 1940, they were trapped in Amsterdam by the German occupation of the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in some concealed rooms in the building where Anne's father worked. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Anne Frank and her sister, Margot Frank, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died of typhus in March 1945.
Otto Frank, the only survivor of the family, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that Anne's diary had been saved, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It has since been translated into many languages. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl. The blank diary, which was given to Anne on her thirteenth birthday, chronicles her life from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944.
Anne Frank timeline
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Anne Frank is Born in Frankfurt
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was born on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany, the second daughter of Otto Frank (1889–1980) and Edith Frank-Holländer... Read more
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Heinrich Himmler Establishes a Concentration Camp at Auchwitz
Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of Nazi Germany's concentration camps and extermination camps, operational during World War II. The camp took... Read more
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Anne Frank and her Family Move into their Amsterdam Hiding Place to Evade the Nazis
On the morning of Monday, 6 July 1942, the family moved into the hiding place. Their apartment was left in a state of disarray to create the... Read more
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Anne Frank and her Family are Joined by the Pels Family at the Achterhuis
On 13 July, the Franks were joined by the van Pels family: Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter, and then in November by Fritz Pfeffer, a... Read more
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Anne Frank and her Family and the Pels Family are Joined by Fritz Pfeffer at the Achterhuis
On 13 July, the Franks were joined by the van Pels family: Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter, and then in November by Fritz Pfeffer, a... Read more
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Anne Frank Hears of a Plan to Create Public Record of German Occupation on Radio Broadcast and Begins Reworking Diary in Hopes of Publication
Anne's diary began as a private expression of her thoughts and she wrote several times that she would never allow anyone to read it. She candidly... Read more
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Anne Frank and her Family are Arrested by the Gestapo
On the morning of 4 August 1944, the Achterhuis was stormed by the German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who... Read more
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Anne Frank and her Family are Transported to Westerbork Concentration Camp
On the morning of 4 August 1944, the Achterhuis was stormed by the German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who... Read more
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Anne Frank is Transported from Westerbork to Auschwitz Concentration Camp
On September 3, the group was deported on what would be the last transport from Westerbork to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and arrived after a... Read more
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Anne Frank is Transported from Auschwitz Concentration Camp to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
On 28 October, selections began for women to be relocated to Bergen-Belsen. More than 8,000 women, including Anne and Margot Frank and Auguste van... Read more
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Bergen-Belsen, Once a Holding Camp for Prisoners, Becomes a Full-Fledged Concentration Camp
Bergen-Belsen (or Belsen) was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle.... Read more
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Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp Liberated by the 322nd Rifle Division of the Red Army
The last selection took place on October 30, 1944. The next month, Heinrich Himmler ordered the crematoria destroyed before the Red Army reached... Read more
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Anne Frank Dies of Typhus, Along with Her Sister, at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
Both sisters died of typhus in March 1945, just a few weeks before British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945. SS officials also... Read more
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Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp is Liberated by British Forces
On April 15, 1945, British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen. The British found around sixty thousand prisoners in the camp, most of them seriously... Read more
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Miep Gies Gives Otto Frank Anne's Diary and Notes
Miep Gies, née Hermine Santrouschitz (born 15 February 1909), is one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis during... Read more
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Anne Frank's Diary is First Published in the Netherlands as Het Achterhuis
Otto Frank gave the diary to the historian Annie Romein-Verschoor, who tried unsuccessfully to have it published. She then gave it to her husband... Read more
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The Diary of Anne Frank, a Play Based on the Book, Debuts in New York
A play based upon the diary, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, premiered in New York City on 5 October 1955, and later won a Pulitzer Prize... Read more
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The Film, 'The Diary of Anne Frank', Based on the Play, is Released
The Diary of Anne Frank is a 1959 motion picture based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name, which was based on the diary of Anne... Read more
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Anne Frank House Opens on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam
The Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is a museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank, who hid from... Read more
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Simon Wiesenthal Locates Karl Silberbauer, Anne Frank's Arresting Officer, In Response to Claims that Anne Frank was a Fictitious Person
Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal's search for the man who had arrested Anne Frank began in 1958 when he was challenged by Holocaust deniers to prove... Read more
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The Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation Publishes the "Critical Edition" of Anne Frank's Diary
In 1986, the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation published the "Critical Edition" of the diary. It includes comparisons from all... Read more
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Amsterdam District Court Imposes a Penalty on Denial of Authenticity of Anne Frank's Diary
In 1991, Holocaust deniers Robert Faurisson and Siegfried Verbeke produced a booklet titled The Diary of Anne Frank: A Critical Approach. They... Read more
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Dutch Government Retrieves Five Omitted Pages of Anne Frank's Diary
Cornelis Suijk—a former director of the Anne Frank Foundation and president of the U.S. Center for Holocaust Education Foundation—announced in 1999... Read more