The Life and Times of Anne Frank - Term Paper Example

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date The Life and Times of Anne Frank Introduction It was on 12th June, 1929 when Anne Frank was born in Germany. Her father was called Otto Frank who lived between 1889 and 1980 and her mother was known as Edith Frank-Hollander who lived in the middle of 1900 - 1945. Anne was the second born in her family. Her elder daughter was known as Margot Frank (1926-45). Anne’s grandparents were manufacturers and bankers. During Anne’s birth, the father of Otto had died a long time ago thus; Otto in cooperation with Erich Elias, his brother-in-law, and Herbert, his younger brother, ran the remaining family bank’s assets after the stunning inflation that hit Germany in the 1920s. The partners scattered the following years due to the Immense Depression. Eliases went to Basel whereas Herbet rolled out to Paris. After Nazis seizure of power in 1933, Otto decided to shut down the family bank. Frank’s family were Jewish descendants and thus had a liberal outlook. As such, they never followed the Judaism conservative traditions and customs. Anne was brought up in combined community of non-Jewish and Jewish people of different religions. Anne’s mother was loving and hardworking while her father loved learning much, a trait which he strived to instil to his children. As a matter of fact, Anne’s father had several books of various kinds in his library. Interestingly, both parents shared one common thing; they offered encouragement to their kids to read more. At the fall of March 1933, Hitler’s anti-Jewish National Socialist Party clinched to power. Since Frank’s family was Jewish and Hitler’s party was against the Jews, Frank and his family developed fear of being attacked if they continued to live in Germany. Considering her children’s future hopes in that year, Edith decided to move to Aachen with her children, to live with her dear mother for better safety and security of her family. Edith’s mother was known as Rose Hollander. On the contrary, Anne’s father resolved to remain in Frankfurt when he received an offer of beginning an organization in Amsterdam. Between 1933 and 1939 about 300,000 Jewish families fled Germany and Frank’s family was one of them. In 1940, Netherland was attacked by Germany, thus making Frank family more insecure. During that time, Otto Frank was in Amsterdam working in Opekta Works and staying in an igloo in Amsterdam. At the fall of February 1934, Edith together with her children resolved to go back to Amsterdam where Margot was taken to public school. Later, Anne was enrolled to Montessori school. Interestingly, Margot displayed a lot of knowledge in Arithmetic whereas Anne showed great concentration to literature. In terms of characters, Margot was studious, reserved and well-mannered while Anne was extrovert, energetic and outspoken person. In 1940, during the German’s invasion to Netherlands, people of Jewish origin started to be seriously discriminated by the laws that were passed. The laws imposed restraint to all the Jewish children that they were only required to study in Jewish schools. Despite the fact that the two sisters were excelling well in academics, the rule did not even a pounce favour on them. Anne and Margot were later admitted to Jewish Lyceum. Otto Frank in the month of April 1941 shifted Pectacon shares to Kleiman Johannes and resigned his role as a director in a move to hide his Jewish identity. The corporation with its assets got liquidated and relocated to Gies and Company that was led by Jan Gies. In December, 1941, he followed similar steps for the purposes of saving his company Opekta. In that case, he could receive steady fair income flow for feeding his family. As a matter of fact, Anne Frank’s timeline has a lot to be told which is narrated in this paper. Anne Frank’s Evacuation to Amsterdam During her first five years on earth, Anne stayed with her elder sister and parents in a certain apartment in the suburbs of Frankfurt. Immediately after Nazi clinched to power back in 1933, her father went to Amsterdam Netherlands, the place he possessed business ties (Holocaust Encyclopaedia). His family followed him, where Anne was the last to arrive there in 1934 after having stayed in Aachen with her grandparents. In May 1940, the Germans captured Amsterdam. In the month of July 1942, the Dutch collaborators and German authorities started bringing together all the Jews in Netherlands to Westerbork (Holocaust Encyclopaedia). Westerbork was a transit camp that was close to Assen Dutch town near the German boundary (Holocaust Encyclopaedia). The Jews were deported to Soibor and Auschwitz-Birkenau murdering centres within German-occupied Poland by the German officials from Westerbork. Anne Frank’s Family Hiding When Frank went into hiding, Anne was only 13 years old then. In the month of July 1942, Anne’s family was compelled to hide in an apartment that ultimately hid four Netherlands Jews including Peter van Pels, Auguste, Fritz Pfeffer and Herman. Shockingly, they stayed in the hiding apartment that was at the back of the family-owned business’s office at 263 Prinsengracht Street for two years (Holocaust Encyclopaedia). In Anne’s diary, she referred to the apartment as the surreptitious Annex. Interestingly, Otto Frank’s colleagues and friends, Miep Gies, Jan Gies, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman had ealier assisted in preparation for the hiding place. In this regard, they had smuggled clothing and food to the Frank family thus greatly jeopardising their individual lives (Holocaust Encyclopaedia). Unfortunately, in 1944 August 4th, the Gestapo (German Secret State Police) found their hiding place when they were given information by an unknown Dutch caller. Frank Anne’s Writing Experience Little did Anne or her parents know that she had a very unique and great talent of writing works which would later arouse world interest and dwell on her work. It was on 12th June 1942, when Anne was celebrating her thirteenth birthday that she received a cherished red-and white-checkered autograph album as her present (Enzer, 25). Anne decided to use the album as her diary. Instead of just keeping it as her future remembrance, like her age mates would do, Anne resolved to be writing her fears and other things that were taking place in her life time. Her diary’s first page, as cited by Enzer, unwraps with her individual picture and covers the time from 12th June till 1942 December 5th (26). The first pages of Anne’s diary tell her experiences as an enthusiastic teenager, narrating her ping pong club and thirteenth birthday, and centring on her admires and girlfriends, as well as the school events. Between 15th and 16th of June Anne offers an account of her each and every classmate (Enzer, 26). Abruptly, she came to terms that she could better narrate her personal life story that she concisely did in the subsequent pages in order to set her diary’s foundation. In her story she pointed out that the moment the Frank’s family went into hiding, her life altered considerably. From the day they left their home and went into the concealed back quarters, as asserted by Enzer, Anne seemed rather overcame by the fresh experiences (26). Quite comprehendible, she found it hard to manage her combined sentiments such that she left some gaps in her diary that were to be filled afterwards. In about ten weeks in their hiding, she changed her approach of writing. As pointed out by Enzer, Anne resolved to pen her entries on September 21 in letter forms, lecturing them to different girls, mainly participants from her best sequences of juvenile books written by Cissy Van Marxveldt (26). One of those characters in her writing was Kitty. One week afterwards, Anne started filling the empty spaces that she had left with her own little annotated photographs, and her nearest relative, and her beloved father’s very huge image led by a fascinating correspondence from him. Importantly, Anne mirrors her earlier entries and her looks got discontented with her previous writing, and she elucidated a bit apologetically: “I view things in a different way now, but I am unable to pluck some pages in my diary. But my hope is that nobody would admonish me afterwards for poor writing in those moments, because the writing was not done like that. Preferably, it was not my aim to write in my diary as I found it very difficult to write in it” (Enzer 26). Consequent entries tackling life in the rear quarters include tensions between Anne’s mother and her and infrequent wrangles among the hiding families. Anne talks of her schoolwork, which she fully concentrates on so as not to be left behind and pays huge gratitude for the helpers for the help they gave to the hiders, plus enormous sympathies about their acquaintances and friends who were incapable of hiding and were transported to Poland (Ezner, 26). Interestingly, Anne involved herself in a nosy daydream. She dreamt having made it to Switzerland with her father where they were sharing a room at one of their relative’s residence. Amusingly, her relative gave her some cash to go and purchase a new wardrobe for herself, which she abruptly did with her cousin, Bernd. In addition to the wardrobe and the money, attached was the shopping list. Moreover, she dreamt a week of being admitted to Switzerland’s eighth grade a week afterwards. In that school, she fast picks up German and French which popularize her (Ezner, 26). Kitty turns to be one of Anne’s new friends. Her cousin Bernd taught her skating where they both turn to be skilful skaters such that they ultimately got filmed. She draws the movie scenes that include her dear father. At the fall of 1944, Anne went through her diary again with an intention of publishing it. In her revision, as Ezner puts forward, she left out most of what she had written before and refined the remainder as she now penned them on loose paper sheets (26). Anne’s first entry dates back to June 20th 1942. In her first entry, she described her mindset a head of going to the hiding where she felt so lonely that she needed an ally to share her feelings. In that case, she resolved to refer to the friend as Kitty. After drawing her biographical sketch, Anne went on writing her initial “Dear Kitty” letter. In Anne’s four letters, she was capable of summarizing her social and school life of the 1942 spring that concludes with a pretty transition: one beautiful evening made her father to reveal the reasons of hiding plus the considerable changes that such move would involve (Ezner, 27). After admission in the 3rd July exercises that were inside Jewish Theatre that was to be the gathering place of all the Amsterdam Jews, she offered a touching elucidation of her anxiety when Margot informed her to go to the labour encampment and take her family’s instant resolution to set out into hiding at that particular juncture (Ezner, 27). Anne’s Family Capture and Deportation When Frank went into hiding, Anne was only 13 years old then. It was that very day in the morning between ten and ten thirty when the Gestapo officer SS Sergeant Karl Silberbauer, with two Dutch police traitors apprehended Frank. They rolled out straight to the bookcase which concealed the Secret Annex door and flung it wide open (Rosenberg). All eight people who were living in that undisclosed annex got arrested (Rosenberg). The Franks were sent to Westerbork on 8th August. A month later, in the month of September 1944, police authorities and SS placed the Frank family together with others whom they were hiding with in a train where they were taken from Westerbork to Auschwitz (Holocaust Encyclopaedia). They were put in a concentration camp compound in German-engaged Poland. As Anne and her elder sister Margot were young, they were chosen for labour - a factor that made them to be relocated to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp close to Celle in the Northern Germany back in the last days of October 1944 (Holocaust Encyclopaedia). Sadly, Herman Van Pels got killed inside the gas chambers and Auguste died of being thrown at the front of a moving train during transport. When Otto Frank was in Auschwitz he had the idea that his wife could have succumbed due to exhaustion in her notorious fatal camp - a thought which was true (Ezner, 23). On his return through Marseille and Odessa to Amsterdam in the beginning of June 1945, Otto was expecting to rejoin his two lovely daughters. His two daughters were with other youthful ladies who had been transferred from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen in the northwest of Germany. Since Auschwitz was not a killing camp, as Ezner points out, Otto had significant hopes of getting his daughters a live (23). Unfortunately, the moment the young girls reached there in the beginning of November 1944, the camp had more than required occupants and food supplies and hygiene were in minute amounts such that typhoid and fever spread like wildfire in a blink of an eye killing thousands of people (Enzer, 23). When survivors were returning from Bergen-Belsen, Otto kept enquiring from women he knew recognised his daughters about their condition. Otto later came to learn from the women that after agonising weeks in the month of March 1945, his two daughters had died. Margot died first them Anne followed afterwards. Ultimately as, cited by Enzer, Otto was so angered by the pungent fact that out of the eight extradited hiders, he survived alone (23). Actually, his nice memories with his family, friends and relatives kept on haunting him but he was slowly compelled to accept the reality. It did not take long before Miep and her husband, went to give Otto his lovely daughter’s diaries together with notepaper’s loose sheets. Miep had kept them with the anticipation of giving them back to Anne. In the beginning, Otto did not desire to publish Anne’s dairies, but later, he got touched so much by his daughter’s entries such that he resolved to reproduce what he thought were “imperative” passages for the purposes of sharing them with friends and relatives. For the advantage of his mother together with close relatives who hailed in Basel and were unable to read Dutch, Otto decided to translate his passages in German (Enzer, 23). Afterwards, he continued typing fuller transcript whose language errors were corrected by a number of Dutch friends. The transcript was soon permitted to circulate wider areas including to Dr. Kurt Bascwitz, who was a German national refugee, and was serving as a lecturer who later became professor of journalism and psychology of mass media at the University of Amsterdam City (Ezner, 23). Dr. Kurt got so deeply enthralled by Anne’s typescript that he commented that it was the most captivating work of that time. Importantly, in 1957, Anne Frank Foundation was launched (Ezner, 23). In each and every year, more than half a million curious visitors land their feet in the premises. Moreover, streets and schools in the entire world are named after her. Anne Frank’s Tattoo ID Number It was on September, 3rd 1944 when Anne with her dear sister Margot, loving mother Edith, and passionate father Otto, embarked their final transport from Westerbork all the way to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The train reached Auschwitz in 1944 September, 5th carrying 1019 Jews (Holocaust Encyclopaedia). Women and men were isolated. Ladies chosen from that transport including Margot, Anne and Edith were labelled with numbers that ranged between A-25060 to A-25271. As a matter of fact, no records up to date have been preserved denoting the accuracy of the numbers. After the elapse of roughly eight weeks, in the last days of October in 1944, Margot and Anne were relocated from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Bergen- Beslen. They later went back to Bergen- Belsen in the fall of March of 1945. Despite the fact that Anne’s death certificate permited her motion between various camps, it does not consist of her tattoo ID number (Holocaust Encyclopaedia). Conclusion Anne Frank was born in a middle class family in Germany back in 1929. During her early years of development the Hitler’s Nazi clung to power. Jews who lived in Germany began to be discriminated by the Germans for no apparent reason. In that case, the Jews who were capable of escaping did so while the others looked for hiding places. As such Anne’s family got a hiding place only to be revealed to the police by an unidentified traitor. As a matter of fact, the war against the Jews made several of them to lose their lives. As Anne was born with a talent of writing, she never gave up when they were in their surreptitious annex. She did her writing on a diary. Sorrowfully, her talent came to be realised moments after her untimely death in her tender age. However, her work did not get lost as it is read all over the world and several streets and schools are named after her. Anne Frank has been as an embodiment of more than half million Jews who were brutally murdered during the reign of merciless Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Works Cited Enzer, H. A. Anne Frank: Reflections on her Life and Legacy. Erbana [u.a.]: Univ. of Illinois Press, 2000. Print. Rosenberg, J. Anne Frank. 2013. Web. Holocaust Encyclopaedia. Anne Frank. 2013. Web. Read More