Kathleen Opanashuk
Anne Frank
Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who accomplished her dream of becoming a
famous author, yet her dream was fulfilled in a way she never expected. Anne’s father Otto
Frank gave her a diary as a thirteenth birthday gift. This diary sparked her desire and
dream to write, and it ultimately led Anne to become famous around the world. Her diary
has been translated into more than sixty different languages and has sold more than thirty
million copies (AnneFrank.org).
When Anne was thirteen years old, she and her family were forced to go into hiding
in order to escape persecution from the Nazis. She was living in Holland, which became a
Nazi-occupied country in May 1940 (Metzger 18). One of the items she chose to take with
her into hiding was her prized diary, in which she often wrote new diary entries. Her diary
was where she would share her deepest thoughts and feelings. Anne felt as if she couldn’t
confide anything in her mother Edith or her older sister Margot. While she treasured the
close relationship she had with her father, she was limited with what she could disclose to
him since he did not allow her to disparage her mother—with whom she often argued—in
their talks. Her diary became her cherished companion (Hackett and Goodrich 845).
The Frank family went into hiding in a secret annex of Otto Frank’s office building.
They invited their friends Mr. and Mrs. Van Pels and their son Peter to join them. Eventually
Fritz Pfeffer joined the group as well. The Franks, Van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer were able
successfully live in hiding for two years due to the help of their trusted friends Miep
Santrouschitz, Bep Voskuijl, Victor Kugler, and Johannes Kleiman who brought them food,
supplies, and news from the outside world (Frank).
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While Anne and the “family”—as the group was collectively called—were in hiding,
one of their favorite activities was to go down to Otto Frank’s office and listen to the radio.
They could only do this once they were certain all of the workers had left the building for the
day. Only then were they safe to move freely about the building. They would gather chairs
around the radio and eagerly listen to news about the war. Sometimes they chose to listen
to music instead, and it bothered them that the German stations played the best melodies.
They listened anyway (30).
One evening, a radio commentator announced that he would be interested in
reading and perhaps publishing diaries written during the war. Anne avidly listened to this
announcement, and she made an important decision that night. She decided she wanted to
become a journalist, and she wanted her diary to be published. She began writing more
entries than ever before, but in addition to this, she also went back and edited older entries.
She checked and rechecked spelling, grammar, and punctuation, hoping to make her diary
perfect (Frank ix).
Anne also made another important change to her diary—she gave her closest
friends aliases. If her diary truly became published, she worried that her friends might
become angry with her for some of the things she had written. Furthermore, she wanted to
protect their identities in case there were legal consequences, most notably as in the case
of the Van Pels. They, like the Franks, had broken a law when they chose to go into hiding.
Anne did not want them to be punished in any way (ix).
With Anne’s changes, Hermann Van Pels became “Putti” Van Daan; Auguste Van
Pels became Petronella Van Daan; the actions of Miep and Bep were combined into one
person, Miep Gies; and the actions of Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman were combined
into one person, Mr. Kraler. Similarly, Anne’s best friend Hanneli Goslar became Jopie de
Waals (Frank ix).
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The Franks, Van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer were arrested in their hiding place on August
4, 1944 (Metzger 82). An unknown informant revealed their hiding place to the Green
Police, but to this day, it has never been determined who turned them in or why. Once the
“family” was arrested, they were deported to Westerbork, a transit camp in Holland. From
there, they were deported to Auschwitz, the death camp in Poland (86-87).
Sadly, Otto Frank was the only one out of the “family” of eight to survive the war.
After the concentration camps were liberated, he returned to Holland where he lived and
worked with Miep and her husband Jan. While Anne had been away, Miep had held onto
Anne’s diary and intended to give it to her when she returned. She instead presented it to
Anne’s father (Hackett and Goodrich 779).
Otto knew of Anne’s intention to have her diary published, and he worked hard to
accomplish that goal. The first publication was released in 1947 (AnneFrank.org). Otto had
edited Anne’s diary and did not allow any entries that scorned Edith Frank or discussed
sexuality to be published. However, the public begged for more, and Otto released more
entries a few years later. Finally, upon Otto’s death in 1980, he willed the diary to the Anne
Frank Foundation and stated that the entire diary could be published. Today the definitive
edition exists and includes all previously omitted entries with explanations on how Anne
edited and revised her writing (Frank x).
Through the work and tireless effort of her father Otto Frank, Anne Frank was able to
achieve her dream of becoming a published writer. Today, school children around the world
read about and learn Anne’s story. She has become a beloved hero, yet she represents
only one person out of the six million Jewish people whose lives were taken during the
Holocaust.
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Work Cited
Feldman, Kevin, Kate Kinsella, and Sharon Vaughn. Prentice Hall Literature: New York,
Grade 8. Goodrich, Frances and Albert Hackett. The Diary of Anne Frank. New
York: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.
“Anne Frank.” www.annefrank.org. Web. 2 June 2015.
Frank. Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, the Definitive Edition. New York:
Bantam, 1993. Print.
Metzger, Lois. Yours, Anne: The Life of Anne Frank. New York: Scholastic, 2004. Print.
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