Shama Dadlani

Anne Frank

Author of a diary that chronicled the fate of a Jewish family in Nazi
Germany, teenager Anne Frank died in a concentration camp; but,
decades later, her diary was published in more than sixty languages.
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Being a Jew in Nazi Germany was a horrific fate. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis took away
the Jews’ jobs, property, and rights, then began sending them to concentration camps
where they worked under horrible conditions and were beaten, starved, and often killed
en masse in gas ovens.

Anne Frank was just four years old when the Nazis came to power, and her family wisely
fled from Germany to Holland. But the Germans soon invaded Holland and began
rounding up all Jews to be sent to the death camps.

Her father took thirteen-year-old Anne and her mother and sister into hiding. He had a
secret apartment built in his office building, and some of his employees bravely brought
them food and supplies. Anne and her family hid in the cramped quarters for two years,
living in constant fear of being discovered.

Anne, who had been a very good student, began to keep a journal to help pass the long
days. She wrote about her family members’ daily lives, about the terrible fate of their
friends and others at the hands of the Nazis, and about her dreams of freedom. She still
had the courage to hope.

Their secret hiding place was so well constructed that they might have stayed hidden for
the entire war, but someone betrayed them and told the Nazis.

Anne’s father was sent to one death camp; the two girls and their mother were sent to another. Anne’s mother gave all her food to her two daughters to help keep them alive. ,and starved to death; the two girls, working like slaves, sick, and existing on tiny amountsof rotten food, also died a few months later.

The only survivor was Anne’s father. After the war, he went back to Holland and found
the loyal workers who had hidden his family. They had saved Anne’s diary, hoping to
return it to her.

When Anne’s father saw how well written his daughter’s journal was, and the powerful
tale it told of suffering under the Nazis, he determined to have it published. The Diary of
Anne Frank is considered one of the most important books of the twentieth century.

Today, Anne’s diary is often studied in schools to demonstrate the terrible human cost of
bigotry and hatred – as well as the power of hope. Click here for more….