Search This Blog

Sunday 1 March 2015

Anne Frank

The Jewish Frank family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933, only to find themselves trapped there by the German occupation of the Netherlands seven years later.

Her father was an officer in the German army during World War I.

Anne Frank began keeping a diary on June 12, 1942. It was a present that she'd been given for her thirteenth birthday.

Anne Frank pictured in 1940

The diary chronicles her life from June 12, 1942  to 1 August 1, 1944, a period when the Frank family were forced into hiding in some concealed rooms behind a bookcase in the building where Anne's father worked.

Anne owned an aggressive warehouse cat called “Boche”, who was occupying the attic when the Franks arrived; the moggy's name was derogatory slang for "German.”

A tip from a Dutch informer led the Gestapo to Anne Frank and her family's hiding place on August 4, 1944 and they were transported to to the Dutch Westerbork concentration camp. Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on October 30, 1944, where they died (probably of typhus) in March 1945.

On his return home from the concentration camp, Anne Frank’s father found her diary had been saved by one of the helpers. He had it published on June 25, 1947 and it was an immediate success, with millions of readers were touched by the teenager's indomitable spirit.

Het Achterhuis, the first Dutch edition of Anne Frank's diary, published in 1947

Anne's Diary was translated from its original Dutch version and first published in English on April 30, 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl.

The Gestapo officer who arrested Anne Frank and her family bought her diary when it was published to see if she had mentioned him.

Anne Frank is the youngest person ever to reach number one on the New York Times' Best-Seller List, for her diary.

The story of Anne Frank has been told many times, but rarely so powerfully as in 1959 Oscar-winner The Diary of Anne Frank. Millie Perkins is the teenager hiding out from the Nazis in Amsterdam.

Shelley Winters won best supporting actress for her role as Petronella van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank. She donated her Oscar to the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam, where it is still on display.

 The Diary of a Young Girl was banned by the Alabama State Textbook Committee in 1983 for being "a real downer."

The only existing film footage of Anne Frank is posted on YouTube by the Amsterdam museum The Anne Frank House. The girl next door to Anne is getting married and the footage shows a 13-year-old Anne leaning out of a window to get a good look at the bride and groom.


Anne Frank's sister, Margot, also kept a diary. Unfortunately, it was never found.

No comments:

Post a Comment