Anne Frank was born on the 12th of June1929 and she was the second child of Otto Frank and Edith Frank-Holländer. Her sister Margot was three years older. The Franks lived in Frankfurt am Main but they moved to the Netherlands as it was not easy for them in Germany because they were jewish.
In 1942 Otto and Edith Frank planed to hide because the living conditions for jews became worse. They found a place where they could hide. Behind the buildings of Otto Frank`s company there was a little rear house which was empty. Otto Frank asked some of his employees if they would help him. They said yes although it was dangerous for them because it was not allowed. The employees who helped Otto and his family were Victor Kugler, Johnnes Kleimann, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl.
On the 6th of July 1942 the Franks moved into the hiding place. The hiding place was not ready and everywhere stood boxes with things. At first they made curtains because the neighbours weren't allowed to see them.
One week later another family moved into the hiding place, the van Pelses. The family contained 3 members: Hermann van Pels, his wife and their son Peter.
In November 1942 Fritz Pfeffer came moved in with them. He shared a room with Anne. Everyone had to be very quiet because nobody was allowed to hear them. They had lived there for 2 years. It wasn't easy for them. They could never go out and they were scared all the time.
Friday, the 4th of August 1944 seemed to be a normal day. Suddenly an SS-Officer and 3 police men came in the hiding place. Somebody had betrayed them.
The police men arrested all of them and took them on a train to Westerbork. Westerbork used to be a concentration camp. They had to do very hard work. Every day trains with an unkwon destination were leaving. One month later all 8 persons from the hiding place had to leave the concentration camp. After 3 days on another train they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Men and women were seperated. Herman van Pels was the first who had to go into the gas chamber. On Ocotber Anne and Margot were taken to Bergen-Belsen. In March 1945 Anne and Margot died because of typhoid fever. The others also died. Either by exhaustion or in the gas chamber. Only Otto Frank survived. He came back to the Netherlands and hoped that some of his family members also had survived. But he got the bad news that all the ohers were dead.
He found Anne`s diary. He read it and didn't know what to do with it. But it was Anne's wish to release the book. Everyone should know what had happened to her and her father did what she wanted. The book was released in lots of languages and it was a great success. The book became really popular when they started a theatre with Anne's story. Later they also made a movie. Lots of people wanted to see where all of this had happened. In 1960 they opend a museum in the rear house. Otto Frank got lots of letters from readers of the book. He answered them and he often wrote at the end: I hope Anne's book will have an after-effect on your life will make you work for understanding and peace.
