Anne Frank Remembered
Enrichment and Notes
For hundreds of years Christian Europe had regarded the Jews as the
Christ -killers. At one time or another Jews had been driven out of
almost every European country. The way they were treated in
England in the thirteenth century is a typical example.
In 1275 they were made to wear a yellow badge.
o
o
In 1287 269 Jews were hanged in the Tower of London.
This deep prejudice against Jews was still strong in the twentieth
century, especially in Germany, Poland, and Eastern Europe, where
the Jewish population was very large.
After the First World War, hundreds of Jews were blamed for the
defeat in the War. Prejudice against the Jews grew during the
economic depression which followed. Many Germans were poor
and unemployed and wanted someone to blame. They turned on the
Jews, many of whom were rich and successful in business.
Anti -Semitism
This is the term given to
political, social and
economic agitation against
Jews. In simple terms it
means ‘Hatred of Jews.’
Aryan Race
This was the name of what Hitler
believed was the perfect race. These
were people with full German blood,
blonde hair and blue eyes.
Holocaust
[hol-uh-kawst]
–noun
1. a great or complete devastation or destruction,
esp. by fire.
2. a sacrifice completely consumed by fire; burnt
offering.
3. (with the initial capital letter ) the systematic
mass slaughter of European Jews and others they
considered “inferior” in Nazi concentration camps
during World War II (usually preceded by the).
4. any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.
Between
1939 and
1945 six
million
Jews were
murdered,
along with
hundreds of
thousands of
others, such
as Gypsies,
Jehovah’s
Witnesses,
the disabled,
homosexuals,
and the
mentally ill.
16 of the 44 children
taken from a French
orphanage.
They were sent to a
concentration camp
and later to
Auschwitz.
ONLY 1 SURVIVED
A group of
children at a
concentration
camp in Poland.
Bales of hair shaven
from women at
Auschwitz, used to
make felt-yarn.
After liberation, an Allied
soldier displays a stash of
gold wedding rings taken
from victims at Buchenwald.
“Until September 14, 1939, my
life was typical of a young Jewish
boy in that part of the world in that
period of time.
I lived in a Jewish community
surrounded by gentiles. Aside
from my immediate family, I had
many relatives and knew all the
town people, both Jews and
gentiles. Almost two weeks after
the outbreak of the war and shortly
after my Bar Mitzvah, my world
exploded.
WHY?
In the course of the next five and a
half years, I lost my entire family
and almost everyone I ever knew.
Death, violence, and brutality
became a daily occurrence in my
life while I was still a young
teenager.”
Leonard Lerer, 1991
The Diary of Anne Frank
The infant Anne with her
mother Edith
Margot and Anne
The People
Anne, Mrs.
Frank, and
Margot
Anne Frank
June 12, 1929—March 1945
Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in Germany
within days of her sister, Margot, in February or March 1945.
Excerpt from Anne
Frank's diary,
October 10, 1942:
"This is a
photograph of me
as I wish I looked
all the time. Then I
might still have a
chance of getting
to Hollywood. But
now I am afraid I
usually look quite
different."
Amsterdam, the
Netherlands.
Edith Frank
January 16, 1900—January 6, 1945
She was left behind in Auschwitz when
her daughters and Auguste van Pels were
transferred to Bergen Belsen, as her
health had started to deteriorate.
Witnesses reported that her despair at
being separated from her family led to an
emotional breakdown. They described her
searching for her daughters endlessly and
said that she seemed to not understand
that they had gone, although she had seen
them board the train that took them out of
the camp. They also said that she began to
hoard what little food she could obtain,
hiding it under her bunk to give to Anne
and Margot when she saw them. They
said that Edith Frank told them Anne and
Margot needed the food more than she
did, and therefore she refused to eat it.
She died January 6, 1945, from starvation.
Margot Frank
February 16, 1926—March 1945
Margot and Anne were transferred to Bergen-Belsen on October
30, where Margot contracted typhus and died at either the end of
February or the beginning of March 1945 at the age of 19.
Anne Frank at age 11, two years before she will go into hiding.
The Frank
House
Where the Frank family lived
before going into hiding.
The Opekta factory
This is the front view of the
factory Otto Frank owned.
The secret annex was in
the rear part of the
building.
The bookcase
Inside the
Annex
Layout of the Secret Annex
Another View
of the layout
Anne’s Decorations
August van Pels
(Mrs. Van Daan)
Sept. 29, 1900—May 8, 1945
Both her date and place of death are
unknown, but witnesses testified that
she was with the Anne and Margot
Frank during part of their time in
Bergen-Belsen, but that she was not
present when they died. She was
probably transferred around March
1945, to Buchenwald, then to the
Theresienstadt ghetto, where she is
believed to have died.
Hermann Van Pels
(Mr. Van Daan )
March 31, 1898—Sept. 1944
Mr. Van Daan died September 6, 1944, in Auschwitz. He was the
only member of the group to be gassed. This occurred about three
weeks after his arrival at Auschwitz, and his selection was
witnessed by his son Peter and by Otto Frank.
Peter Van Pels
(Peter van Daan)
Nov. 8, 1926—May 5, 1945
Peter died in Mauthausen during a death
march. Otto Frank had protected him
during their period of imprisonment
together, as they had been assigned to the
same work group. Frank later said that he
had urged Peter to hide in Auschwitz and
remain behind with him, rather than set
out on the march. Peter decided that he
would have a better chance of survival if
he joined the march. He survived the
march, but died soon after, in the camp.
His death at the age of eighteen occurred
three days before the liberation of
Mauthausen.
Fritz Pfeffer
(Albert Dussel)
April 30, 1889—Dec. 20, 1944
Mr. Dussel died
December 20, 1944, in
Neuengamme
concentration camp. His
wife was terribly upset
with his portrayal in the
diary as well as the
movie, as was Miep,
who described him as
very kind.
Anne’s point of view
Dr. Dussel’s wife was
very upset at the unkind
way Anne portrayed him.
Anne and the others were
in a high pressure
situation, and Miep didn’t
live there.
Under intense emotional
pressure, perhaps none
of them were at their
best.
Otto Frank
May 12, 1889—August 19, 1980
He remained in Auschwitz with other sick prisoners and
survived.
Miep Gies
Feb. 15, 1909 -present
• Miep Gies, white-haired, gentle
and courageous, is now 100 years
old and an inspiring evidence of
human nobility.
Anne's Diary
“I hope I will be able to confide
everything to you, as I have never been
able to confide in anyone, and I hope
you will be a great source of comfort
and support.”
“…it’s not easy being the badly brought-up center of
attention of a family of nitpickers.”
Anne and Margot Frank
in 1932
“…sometime I’ll treat others with the same
contempt as they treated me…sounds childish,
but wait till it happens to you!”
“I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at
the world,
feel young, and know that I’m free.”
“I…feel like a songbird
whose wings have been
ripped off and who keeps
hurling itself against the
bars of its dark cage.”
“It’s twice as hard for us young people to hold on
to our opinions at a time when ideals are being
shattered and destroyed, when the worst side of
human nature predominates, when everyone has
come to doubt truth, justice, and God.”
“Leave me alone, let me have
at least one night when I
don’t cry myself to sleep with
my eyes burning…all day long
I hear nothing but what an
exasperating child I am.”
“…many are waiting for death.”
“Oh, it’s hard to be strong and brave in every way.”
The helpers, from left to right:
Mr. Kleiman, Miep Gies, Bep
Voskuijl, and Mr. Kugler.
“Enough for today… Yours, Anne M. Frank”
August 4, 1944, between 10:00 and 10:30, they arrested
the 8 people hiding in the Annex.
Margo and Anne Frank were transported from Auschwitz
at the end of October and brought to Bergen-Belsen
Concentration camp near Hanover.
The Typhus epidemic that broke out in the concentration
camp in the winter of 1944-1945 killed Margo and then a
few days later, Anne.
Her approximate date of death is between late February
and early March.
The bodies of both girls were probably dumped in the
Bergen-Belsen’s mass graves.
The camp was liberated by British troops on April 12,
1945.