When Anne was born, she was relatively luckier than she would be later on. She learnt about the bitterness of death through war. The feeling of gratitude in a person changes by the things that he goes through. She spent the first 5 years of her 16-year life under a roof without realizing they were her best times. She was thankful for everything she found in the middle of the war. Probably the most valuable thing she ever got was a diary and a pen.
Even though she succeeded to keep her soul strong, her body got defeated to death. Still, her short life would be enough for her to become one of the symbols of the Holocaust. Anne was born in June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany as daughter of Edith and Otto and was named as Annelies Marie Frank. She was living in an apartment with her parents and sister Margot in Frankfurt. Her father, Otto, was working in a bank. After the Economic Depression in 1929, her father’s business went bad. It always goes worse at the moment that we say it cannot. And the bad would come successively…Nazis came to power in 1933. After his business started collapsing, Otto started searching for a job in Amsterdam, Holland by using his connections. First he, then the rest of the family moved to Amsterdam. However, soon Adolf Hitler occupied Holland and imposed restrictions on the Jews. Anne and her sister Margot enrolled in a school where only Jews were being educated. Their teacher, just like them, was also an illegal immigrant. Here, certainly everyone was sharing the same story. In the school, Anne met Nanette, her desk mate. Soon after, they became best friends. Anne loved her as a sister. Even though they were just kids, all students knew they were second class citizens. It was easier to hold on tight with people that shared the same story. They knew maybe they would never be able to go back home, or that they could even be killed. It was a tense wait. Anne would meet again later with Nanette. Life was getting harder and harder. Eventually, her heart got smaller and her sight wider. Whatever was changing and evolving around was accepted by a mature surrender. It was forbidden for the Jews to establish their own businesses and operate a place. Otto found the solution by putting a friend of his in charge. These were better days…
Defence squadron, with the original name `Schutzstaffel` (SS), had a headquarters. Firstly founded to protect Hitler privately, SS had armed party militants which were working as police forces. When concentration camps were founded, Heinrich Himmler made SS responsible for these camps and separated it into two divisions. First one was Waffen-SS, a military structure. The other was Allgemeine-SS, kind of a police force.
Anne’s sister, Margot, got a letter; she had been called up to SS Headquarters. Margot was marked as a Jew.
Now, danger was closer. Things had gone out of hand. Their family left a note behind saying that they immigrated to Switzerland and disappeared. But they were not that far. They started hiding in a secret annex in Otto’s Office in Prinsengrach. With 4 people who were their close friends, they started living a prisoner’s life. The only one making the connection between them and the outer world and providing their Essentials was Otto’s secretary, Miep Gies.
This was how Anne started writing in this small room. She started using an agenda as a diary that was gifted for her 13th birthday. Actually she had started writing as soon as she got it, but after some time started using it daily. The story of that agenda was specifically important for the meantime. In those days, it was forbidden to go out after 8 pm. On June 12, 1942, when Anne became 13, they wanted to organize a party for her. In fact, it was really hard for kids to see each other at late times. However, for that day, they found a way with the help of Anne’s teacher. They could finally organize a party for Anne. And they gifted her the agenda who turned into a diary. A diary which millions would read.
This life of prison would last for 2 years. Anne wrote each day to her diary in during the 2 years. The Secret Annex which she was mentioning was in the rooftop of the apartment with Number 263 in Prinsengracht Street. In this period, she wrote about her fears, what she lived and most importantly her hopes for living. Because in her short life, she could have gone crazy if she hasn’t written.
Someone reported Anne and her family on August 1944. The spy always remained a secret. Frank Family was captured by a police raid and was directly taken into police station. Each member was sent into different camps.
Anne met with her childhood friend Nanette in Auschwitz Camp in Poland. Since all her clothes were full of lice, Anne had only a blanket on herself. She became so thin. Nanette felt herself so miserable seeing her friend like this. This meeting was especially for Anne a miracle. Because in this kind of a situation, isn’t it a miracle to see someone that you know? Nanette was in the seventh, Anne was in the eighth camp. So that is why they could meet a couple of times. Anne was talking to Nanette about the difficulties of living in escape. She told Nanette about her diary. She also told Nanette how she believed that she would use this diary as a template for her book.
Anne had many dreams. She would turn all the things she had been through into that book. And she would never let the hope of seeing her family again fade away.
Unfortunately, her weakened body would not let this happen. She got typhus, and just 2 months before the war was over, she passed away on February 1945. Maybe by going through all that she has been through but not by feeling all she has felt.
She left her diary, written with her tiny fingers, in her small body. Anne’s life ended as her soul became mature.
Her father reached Anne’s diary, in which she dignified herself. Otto was saved as the Soviets went into his camp. He read his daughter’s diary again and again. Later he met with Nanette. He was thinking about publishing Anne’s diary. He also shared this idea with Nanette whom Anne spent her last lifespan with. Everyone agreed with Otto’s idea and the diary was made into a book titled ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ after the war, in 1947.
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