Anne was born in Frankfurt, Germany on June 12, 1929. The Frank family didn't live in Germany for long after Anne was born because they wanted to escape the brunt of the coming persecution. In 1933, they moved to Amsterdam, Holland, where Anne could live as a normal child with a normal life for a time.
When she first gets her diary, Anne talks mostly about her school, friends, and boys. However, Otto and Edith Frank start talking about going into hiding to ensure their safety before it becomes too late to hide. Their plans quickly change though because on July 5, 1942, Margot receives a call up from the Gestapo. A call up is an official letter demanding that the individual in question is sent to a labor camp in Nazi Germany. If they didn't respond to the letter, the whole family would be arrested. Instead of leaving on July 16 like they planned, Otto and Edith decided to make haste and moved into the annex ten days earlier.
There were eight people living in the Secret Annex: the Frank family (Otto, Edith, Margot, and Anne), the Van Pels family (Hermann, Auguste, and Peter), and Dr. Fritz Pfeffer. However, just by reading Anne's diary, one would not know who the Van Pels family or Dr. Pfeffer is due to the fact that she uses pseudonyms for them. In her book, Anne changes the name of Van Pels to Van Daan, Auguste to Petronella, Dr. Fritz Pfeffer to Dr. Albert Dussel. Also, all the names of the people who acquired necessities for them have been changed as well.
The Secret Annex is a building owned by Otto Frank's company, Opetka. They hid in an empty section of the building towards the back, while everywhere else business was run as usual. Concealing them from the outside world, was a bookcase, transformed into a door. For the most part, only six other people knew of their existence in the Secret Annex.
Little did they know, but the Frank family would hide in the Secret Annex for over two years before being betrayed. Both the Franks and Van Pels arrive at the spot in July 1942 and Dr. Pfeffer joined them in November of the same year. Their conditions here would deteriorate as time went on. Soon, the eight were close to starving, full of fear, and forced into silence.
Growing up with your family is hard enough, but Anne had to be with them constantly. It seems like a no brainer that they would argue all the time. Throughout her diary, she writes about fights between just about everyone and they seem to occur every other page or so. Anxiety, emotions, tension, and being shut in, combined to make horrible conditions that made everyone run a little cranky every now and then.
Life in the Secret Annex was obviously not easy especially for a young, teenage girl. A great deal of her time was spent studying, writing stories, and doing misc. tasks around the house. Additionally, they had to be quiet for a majority of the day as the business was still running and they didn't want to be discovered. Bep, one of the helpers, announced when they could start making noise again, after everybody was gone, so most of their freedom occurred during the night. One of their nightly traditions was to sit and listen to the radio broadcast to keep up on the news of the war.
Since Anne was still learning in the Annex, she had countless books and other materials to keep her occupied. Her interests included Greek and Roman mythology, royal family trees, history, and movie star posters. Algebra was definitely her least favorite subject as she always had a tough time with math. Most of her books were gifts or contributed by the helpers.
Although she was forced into hiding, Anne was certainly a charmer before and during the war. One of the first things she writes about is in fact that boys have always been taken with her, but they are never up to her standards. Eventually, Peter Van Pels "falls in love" with her towards the end of the book, after she reaches out to him out of loneliness. They are even honored by being each other's first kiss.
On August 4, 1944, all eight of the Secret Annex members and two of their helpers, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleimann (known as Mr. Kraler and Mr. Koophius respectively), were arrested. Kugler and Kleimann were taken to a prison called Amstelveenseweg. The others were first sent to a detention center, then the concentration camp, Westerbork, and then finally Auschwitz. Here, the men and the women were separated, never to see each other again. Later, Margot and Anne were deported to Bergen-Belson, without their mother, where they died of typhus just a few weeks before the camp was liberated.
When she first gets her diary, Anne talks mostly about her school, friends, and boys. However, Otto and Edith Frank start talking about going into hiding to ensure their safety before it becomes too late to hide. Their plans quickly change though because on July 5, 1942, Margot receives a call up from the Gestapo. A call up is an official letter demanding that the individual in question is sent to a labor camp in Nazi Germany. If they didn't respond to the letter, the whole family would be arrested. Instead of leaving on July 16 like they planned, Otto and Edith decided to make haste and moved into the annex ten days earlier.
There were eight people living in the Secret Annex: the Frank family (Otto, Edith, Margot, and Anne), the Van Pels family (Hermann, Auguste, and Peter), and Dr. Fritz Pfeffer. However, just by reading Anne's diary, one would not know who the Van Pels family or Dr. Pfeffer is due to the fact that she uses pseudonyms for them. In her book, Anne changes the name of Van Pels to Van Daan, Auguste to Petronella, Dr. Fritz Pfeffer to Dr. Albert Dussel. Also, all the names of the people who acquired necessities for them have been changed as well.
The Secret Annex is a building owned by Otto Frank's company, Opetka. They hid in an empty section of the building towards the back, while everywhere else business was run as usual. Concealing them from the outside world, was a bookcase, transformed into a door. For the most part, only six other people knew of their existence in the Secret Annex.
Little did they know, but the Frank family would hide in the Secret Annex for over two years before being betrayed. Both the Franks and Van Pels arrive at the spot in July 1942 and Dr. Pfeffer joined them in November of the same year. Their conditions here would deteriorate as time went on. Soon, the eight were close to starving, full of fear, and forced into silence.
Growing up with your family is hard enough, but Anne had to be with them constantly. It seems like a no brainer that they would argue all the time. Throughout her diary, she writes about fights between just about everyone and they seem to occur every other page or so. Anxiety, emotions, tension, and being shut in, combined to make horrible conditions that made everyone run a little cranky every now and then.
Life in the Secret Annex was obviously not easy especially for a young, teenage girl. A great deal of her time was spent studying, writing stories, and doing misc. tasks around the house. Additionally, they had to be quiet for a majority of the day as the business was still running and they didn't want to be discovered. Bep, one of the helpers, announced when they could start making noise again, after everybody was gone, so most of their freedom occurred during the night. One of their nightly traditions was to sit and listen to the radio broadcast to keep up on the news of the war.
Since Anne was still learning in the Annex, she had countless books and other materials to keep her occupied. Her interests included Greek and Roman mythology, royal family trees, history, and movie star posters. Algebra was definitely her least favorite subject as she always had a tough time with math. Most of her books were gifts or contributed by the helpers.
Although she was forced into hiding, Anne was certainly a charmer before and during the war. One of the first things she writes about is in fact that boys have always been taken with her, but they are never up to her standards. Eventually, Peter Van Pels "falls in love" with her towards the end of the book, after she reaches out to him out of loneliness. They are even honored by being each other's first kiss.
On August 4, 1944, all eight of the Secret Annex members and two of their helpers, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleimann (known as Mr. Kraler and Mr. Koophius respectively), were arrested. Kugler and Kleimann were taken to a prison called Amstelveenseweg. The others were first sent to a detention center, then the concentration camp, Westerbork, and then finally Auschwitz. Here, the men and the women were separated, never to see each other again. Later, Margot and Anne were deported to Bergen-Belson, without their mother, where they died of typhus just a few weeks before the camp was liberated.