ANNELIES “ANNE” MARIE FRANK

Annelies “Anne” Marie Frank

My choice for extending the celebration of women in history is Anne Frank. A vibrant young lady whose thoughts and ideas are still thought of today by many scholars and activist alike. 

Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929 to Otto and Edith Frank of Frankfurt, Germany. She was blessed with an older sister, Margot Frank. She grew up like any young Jewish girl in a nice neighborhood.

Time moved along but things were changing. It started many years before Anne was born and percolated over time.  One instance was a book written by Heinrich Class called, Wenn ich der Kaiser war (If I were the Kaiser). In it, he argued the point for the Aryan community to consider outright discrimination sighting that all German Jews be stripped of their German citizenship, reduced to alien status, forbidden to own land, hold public office, participate in journalism, banking, and any life sustaining professions… basically to be excluded from life altogether.     

In 1933, Adolf Hitler, a politician and leader of the Nazi Party, was very open about his hatred of the Jews. The similarity to the very book I just discussed is uncanny.  

After the Nazis seized power in 1933, the Jewish people, among others, were bombarded by sanctions, evictions, and other atrocities which ultimately lead to the largest genocide atrocity in the world known today.

Knowing the propensities of the Nazi Party, Otto Frank decided to flee Frankfurt, Germany with the intent on getting him and his family to safety. While in route to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, they stopped off in Aachen, Germany where, his wife, Edith Frank’s family lived.

After reaching Aachen, Germany, Otto Frank thought it would be safer to continue on alone.

Gradually the family joined him in Amsterdam with Anne being the last to arrive in February 1934.

While in Amsterdam, Otto Frank opened a branch of his brother’s company called the Dutch Opekta Company, a company which produced pectin used in the manufacturing of jams. Eventually he partnered up with Hermann Van Pels, the spice merchant. The company building was located on the Prince’s Canal, the Prinsengratcht. 

In May of 1940 the Germans began occupation of the Netherlands. Persecutions of the Jewish population increased as the days went by. Meanwhile, Otto Frank fought tirelessly to get visa’s for his family but was unable to attain the much sought after authorization. 

In the meantime, with the help of friends and colleagues, they readied a hiding place by sealing off rooms above Otto Franks office in the Dutch Opekta Company building. In addition, he transferred control of his business, which included the building, to his non-Jewish colleagues Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman. 

On July 6, 1942 the family went into hiding. A week later they were joined by Hermann Van Pels, his wife Auguste, and their son, Peter, they too were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. A few months later one more refugee would appeared, Fritz Pfeffer. Eight people alone, yet not, trying to survive.

While in hiding, Anne Frank continued writing in her diary. She used an autograph book she received as a birthday gift from her father, a few weeks before. She was now 13 years old.

The diary of Anne Frank is a collection of her most intimate thoughts. It records moments, regrets, and fears. It tells the features of her life, the changes that took place, and her thoughts about those changes which led her and her family into the Secret Annex, the name she used to describe their hiding place.  

She addresses the closeness of her and her father and offsets that with the explanation of how she and her mother had nothing in common which, in turn, related to the lack of daughterly love she felt toward her. 

You must remember these were very trying times and this is a young lady who saw horror, was forced out of her home not once, twice, but three times and then evidently forced into living in rooms sealed off from the outside world. Yes, you could say she was safe for the moment, but the constant fear that grabbed hold of them, the reports of others in hiding being seized by the Gestapo. Not knowing when your next meal will arrive… if you’ll have a next meal… Is that the Gestapo coming down the street? Are they coming here? What’s happened to the world?...the decency?...  These are not the usual circumstances we live through on a daily basis.

All the bickering, tears, and nervous tension have become such a stress and strain that I fall into my

bed at night crying and thanking my lucky stars that I have half an hour to myself.” ~ Anne Frank, October 29, 1943

Imagine, not having much privacy, having to be quiet, quarantined, so to speak. No one could leave the Secret Annex. You couldn’t play outside, go to the movies, use the phone, or watch TV. The only connection with the outside world was through their friends who delivered food and clothing whenever possible and a radio they used to listen for reports for anything resembling rescue… they had cause to rejoice listening to the reports of the Allied invasions. Still, the here and now was apparent… and a rescuer had not come.

These are the impressions of a very real young lady in the face of adversity and, all the while, trying to survive. She speaks of her sister’s intelligence and sweet nature. She describes those who live there with such verve… from the romance with Peter van Pels to the ending questions concerning her infatuation and whether her feelings were genuine or a result of forced selection.

"I've reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die. The world will keep on turning without me, and I can't do anything to change events anyway. I'll just let matters take their course and concentrate on studying and hope that everything will be all right in the end." ~Anne Frank, February 3, 1944

"It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more" ~ Anne Frank, July 15, 1944

You can see the desperation and feeling of isolation that this type of imprisonment causes. Yet, she was so real… sorrow, pain, joy, despair all rolled up in one beautiful young woman… 

How terrible that ability of a human thought gathering and inciting others to inflict pain and injustice on another human being or group of people is beyond my understanding …  What injustice and a total waste of humanity!  

Three days later an unidentified Dutch informant disclosed the location of the Secret Annex to the Gestapo resulting in their arrest and deportation.

They were sent to Auschwitz, and then in October 1944, Anne, her sister Margot, and Mrs. Van Pels were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Celle, Germany. Upon arrival Anne Frank was stripped, disinfected, head shaved, arm tattooed with an identification number, and forced into manual labor.

Both Anne and Margot died there in March 1945 of typhus. A few weeks later the camp was liberated by British troops. 

Anne Frank’s diaries were found after the family was forced out of the Secret Annex . Miep Gies kept it in hopes that one day it would return to its rightful owner.

Otto Frank was the only member of the family to survive the Holocaust. In 1947 He arranged for the publication of Anne’s diaries and oversaw its transformation onto the stage and screen.

The diary has been published in over 60 different languages. If you have not read it, you should.

The last letter Bernhard “Buddy” Elias, a first cousin, received from Anne was around his 17^th birthday in June 1942. After reading Anne’s diary he said, 

“Every girl needs a girlfriend to talk to… that book was her friend.”

I wonder… How we would fare in the same situation… May we never find out! 

I read this book when I was very young… While doing this research, I realized I’d forgotten a lot of what Anne Frank wrote… Scary, isn’t it, how the mind works… the world today can wash over the past so we almost forget what happened before. 

Well... this is one instance where the past should not be forgotten and so, I leave you now with a famous writer’s quote: 

“Will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer? I hope so, oh, I hope so very much, because writing allows me to record everything, all my thoughts, ideals and fantasies." ~ Anne Frank, April 5, 1944

© 2013 Laveda D. Rockford