A Legacy Unknown

Annelies Marie Frank was born on June 12th, 1929 to a Jewish family of three in Frankfurt, Germany. She went to a normal elementary school not knowing what was going on in the world around her. Anne loved to write. As she grew, so did her writing. Anne Frank was now becoming a sophisticated writer. When Anne went to middle school, she met the love of her life, Peter Schiff. As Anne and Peter grew closer, the world around them grew farther apart, leading Peter to go live with his grandmother. Around this time, Hitler had become a senator and was working his way up to dictator. Earlier in the year, the Frank family moved to the Netherlands. In June of that year, Otto Frank, Anne's father, fearful for his children's lives, moved his family to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam all Jews were singled out. Jews had to wear a yellow star on their clothing and all Jews had to go to the same school. On Anne's 13th birthday, Anne received an autograph book in which she used as a diary. Anne's first diary entry was later that day when she named her diary Kitty.

During that summer, Nazis called out Jews to go work at concentration camps around Germany. Many people thought they were just going to a work camp. More and more people experienced the camps and rumors began to spread. The truth emerged that the concentration camps were really extermination camps.

On July 5th, 1942 Anne's sister, Margot Frank, was one of the first 500 Jews to be called out. When Otto heard of this, he immediately moved his family to his office and into hiding the next day. He knew that carrying luggage with them would be too obvious, so each member of the family had to put on five shirts, five skirts, five jeans, five coats, and eight pairs of socks and walk out in 90 degree weather. Otto moved his family to an apartment at the back of his office. The apartment was a two story apartment hidden behind a bookcase. The Franks also invited a family of three, the VanPels. The Franks and VanPels were also joined by the family friend and dentist, Fritz Pfeffer. All eight of the Jews had too be very careful in what they were doing and when they did it. For example, when it was okay to flush or when they could turn a light on. Everything was timed and carefully watched. On some days in the Annex, no one could flush the toilet because the store would be very busy and customers would get very suspicious. One day the German Police walked in 3 days after Anne's last diary entry on August 1st, 1944. Someone had betrayed the members of the Secret Annex.