Anne Frank Fact Sheet: Who was Anne Frank? The following short biography and fact sheet provides interesting facts about the life, times and history of Anne Frank. Anne Frank Fact File: Lifespan: 1929 – 1945 *** Full Name: Annelies Marie Frank *** Nickname: Anne *** Occupation: German born Diarist and Writer *** Date of Birth: Anne Frank was born on June 12th 1929 *** Place of Birth: Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany *** Family background: Her father was Otto frank and her mother was Edith Hollander. Although the family were Jewish they were liberal Jews and did not observe many of the traditions and customs of Judaism *** Early life and childhood: She grew up with her parents and older sister Margot *** Education: Anne Frank would have been taught to read and write and all the basic educational topics, in particular Anne’s father was a very keen scholar and encouraged his daughters to read from his extensive library. Both Anne and her sister Margot were enrolled in school in Amsterdam *** Anne Frank Fact 1: Anne Frank was born on June 12th 1929 and during the 20th century period in history when there were world changing events happening including the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War.
Anne Frank Fact 2: Anne and her family initially living in Germany where she was born, but when the elections of 1933 were held in Frankfurt and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party won, Anne’s father began to fear for the safety of his family.
Anne Frank Fact 3: Later on that year, Edith together with both Margot and Anne went to stay with Edith’s mother, Rosa, who lived in Aachen while her husband stayed in Frankfurt.
Anne Frank Fact 4: Alonzo Church was an American mathematician and logician.
Anne Frank Fact 5: By 1938 Anne’s father had begun another company, both of which were in the food industry, this one was as a wholesaler in pickling salts, mixed spices and herbs where the previous business was in selling pectin, a fruit extract. One of his employees, like himself, had bought his family out of Germany, Hermann van Pels was a Jewish butcher and advisor on spices.
Anne Frank Fact 6: Anne’s grandmother, also left Germany to go and live the family in 1939.
Anne Frank Fact 7: The following year in May of 1940, the Netherlands were invaded by Germany and in no time the Jewish communities were being persecuted and discriminative and restrictive laws were being implemented. Both of the girls were taken out of their school and forced to attend the Jewish Lyceum.
Anne Frank Fact 8: In an effort to secure his businesses from being confiscated Otto Frank resigned as director and transferred all of his shares to Johannes Kleiman, a Netherlander whom he trusted implicitly. Similarly he did the same for his other company only to another, Jan Gies, who was a Dutch Resistance member and again someone Otto trusted. Anne Frank Fact 9: The 12th June 1942 was Anne’s thirteenth birthday and her gift from her father was a book, an autograph album in fact, that she had shown him in a shop window only days before. She had wanted to start a journal.
Anne Frank Fact 10: Since she could read and write she had begun to develop a desire to document what was happening to her, around her and write about her feelings and events. So with her new book she immediately began writing about what was happening around her.
Anne Frank Fact 11: One of her earliest entries detailed the death of her beloved grandmother who had passed away earlier in the year.
Anne Frank Fact 12: By July of 1942 her mother received a call up notice which had come from the Central Office for Jewish Emigration which ordered her to report as she was to be relocated to a work camp. It was at that point that Anne’s father had decided they would go into hiding.
Anne Frank Fact 13: His second business, Opekta, had premises that had enough space that several rooms behind and above the working space would be suitable to conceal the family, several living spaces with a bathroom and toilet were the entrance was concealed behind a bookcase so as to remain undetected.
Anne Frank Fact 14: The family had already planned there concealment but the timetable was moved forward. They left their apartment in a state of disarray to give the impression they had left in a hurry and a note that intimated they were heading for Switzerland.
Anne Frank Fact 15: The family would be joined by several others including Hermann, Auguste and sixteen year old Peter, their son. Later they were joined by Fritz Pfeffer. As the new members joined them the cramped conditions became even more so and things were not always so harmonious when living conditions with so fraught with danger.
Anne Frank Fact 16: On the outside only a few trusted people knew of the hidden domain, Victor Kugler, Miep Gies and her husband Jan, Bep Voskuijl’s and his father Johannes and Johannes Kleiman. These trusted few kept their dangerous secret and provided food and information of what was happening on the outside. Anne Frank Fact 17: Although there was never any definitive proof of who had betrayed them, there were a couple of suspects. On the morning of August the 4th 1944 a group of German police, uniformed and accompanied by SS-Oberscharfuhrer Karl Silberbauer entered the property and arrested all of the occupants.
Anne Frank Fact 18: They were all interrogated before being transported to the House of Detention. From there they would be sent on to Punishment Camps. On September the 3rd 1944 they were the last to be transported to Auschwitz Concentration camp. Upon arrival the men were separated from the women and children and Anne believed her father, already in his fifties would be classified unfit and sent to the gas chamber.
Anne Frank Fact 19: Any classified as unfit or under fifteen years of age were sent to the gas chamber. Anne had turned fifteen just three months prior and would be one of the youngest spared the gas chamber at that time.
Anne Frank Fact 20: Stripped, disinfected, they had their heads shaved and the arms tattooed with an identification number the women were sent to haul rocks and dig rolls of sod. Their sleeping quarters were more than cramped and living on top of one another meant disease was rife coupled with poor diet, many died. Anne Frank Fact 21: Anne had developed scabies and was sent to the infirmary and her mother and sister were able to stay with her. Her mother sharing her meager rations between her two daughters and she became emaciated as a result. In October Anne and Margot were selected to be relocated to Bergen-Belsen but without their mother. Edith Frank died of starvation shortly after their departure. Anne Frank Fact 22: The two girls, Anne and Margot would be reunited with Auguste van Pels during transportation. Margot became ill and both Anne and Auguste cared for her as best they could but she was very weak. Anne Frank Fact 23: Early in 1945 the camp was overrun with typhus as well as other diseases such as typhoid fever were all raging in the camps. Anne died in the camp but of what was unclear and undocumented. Margot in her weakened state was said to have fallen from her bunk and died from shock several days before her sister died.
Influence & Legacy: When the family had been arrested, detained and eventually sent to camps, Anne’s journal and some loose papers had been left strewn across the floor of what had been their home. Collected by Miep Gies and Bep Voskiujl, who had also been arrested and questioned but later released, they intended to return them back to Anne and some point in the future, not knowing that she had died. Her father, Otto, had survived. He read her private thoughts, fears and feelings noting "For me it was a revelation ... I had no idea of the depth of her thoughts and feelings ... She had kept all these feelings to herself" He strongly began considering have the journal printed knowing her passion for wanting to become a writer. The diary would finally be published in the Netherlands in 1947 – Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. |
