Anne Frank timeline:                                  

    

  Anne Frank was born in Germany in 1929.  
She was Jewish. 

  Here is Anne and her sister Margot.

Hitler became the leader of Germany in 1933.  He hated the Jewish people.  Hitler blamed the Jews for everything that had gone wrong in Germany. He started making terrible laws to hurt the Jews.  Anne's family was frightened.  So, in the summer of that same year, Anne's father, Otto, went to Amsterdam to start a branch of his family's company, the Dutch Opekta Company. Less than a year later, Anne, Margot, and their mother, Edith, joined Otto in Amsterdam. 

The Dutch Opekta company sold pectin.
Pectin is a powder that is made from fruits and used to make jelly.

The family thought that they would be safe in Holland.  Holland was known for being very accepting and open 
to all people.

From 1933 through 1942, the Franks lived in this bright new apartment building in Amsterdam.

The Frank family was able to live a fairly normal life in their apartment for a while. The girls went to school; the family took vacations at the beach; and their circle of Jewish and non-Jewish friends grew.

In 1938 Otto Frank became a business partner with a man named Hermann van Pels.  
He, too, had escaped from Nazi Germany.

But Holland was invaded in 1940. 
Within 2 years, Jews were being arrested and forced to go into work camps. 
Jews were forced to wear yellow stars on their clothing 
so it would be easy to tell them apart from non-Jews.

Then Anne's sister Margot was told by the Nazis that she was to be sent to one of these camps. 
The Frank family feared for their lives and began to prepare to go into hiding.

This is one of the last photographs 
taken of Anne and her sister Margot 
before they went into hiding.

They were truly risking their own lives.  

  On her thirteenth birthday in 1942, 
just before they went into hiding, 
Anne received a red and white plaid diary 
and immediately started using it.

She called it Kitty.

This photo of Anne 
was taken October 10, 1942, 
just a few months  after 
she went into hiding with her family. 
Anne was 13 years old at the time.

And here are some picture of the secret rooms and the movable bookcase that hid 
the stairs up to the annex. Anne decorated her narrow bedroom with pictures of movie stars.

Click "refresh" on the toolbar 
to see the bookcase open and close.

Thick curtains protected the families from being seen by the neighbors during the day. 
Before they would put lights on at night, the windows were darkened with black-out paper. 
During office hours in the daytime, they had to keep very quiet.

At first it seemed like an adventure to Anne.  
We know this because of what she wrote in her diary--
that it was like being on vacation in a very peculiar boarding house.  
But it became very tiring...and boring...and they all often argued.  

They stayed like that for over 2 years.  
All of them were living in such a small space, and in constant fear of being discovered!

After 8 months Anne wrote that she couldn't bear the sight of them anymore!
She wrote often, speaking of her feelings, her fears, and her longings.
She so wanted to have friends, to talk, to cry, and to be alone!

And yet, she knew she was lucky, because many other Jews 
had already been caught by the Nazis and sent to work camps and death camps.

However, Anne did not stay lucky.  Shortly before World War II ended, the families were discovered.
They were sent to Nazi camps.  All except Mr. Frank died.

 Anne Frank’s diary not only describes how war affected a nation, but how it affected a family.
And Anne's  words show what can happen when people hate for no reason.
Her story should teach us all to be accepting of others and to have hope.

For those who want to know more, click here to learn the answers to
Frequently Asked Questions about Anne Frank and her times.