Anne Frank and Her Family Forced Into Hiding
Today in History - July 6, 1942
Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in Amsterdam on this day in 1942 and lived in the “Secret Annex,” of a warehouse and documented in her diary, which became a classic of war literature—until their capture on August 4, 1944.
On July 6, 1942, 13-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family were forced to hide in a hidden, closed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse in Nazi-occupied Holland.
The previous day, Anne’s sister received a notice she was to be deported to a Nazi “work camp.”
Anne Frank was born in Germany on June 12, 1929, and she and her family fled in 1933 to escape Nazi persecution. In the summer of 1942, the thirteen-year-old began to keep a journal about her daily experiences, her relationships with friends and family, and the increasing danger surrounding her and her family.
Afraid his family would be deported to a Nazi concentration camp, on July 6, Otto Frank, Anne’s father, asked his Austrian-born bookkeeper, Miep Gies, and his employees Johannes Kleinman, Victor Kuler en Bep Voskuijl if they would help hide Otto’s family.
They agreed and risked their lives hiding them in the “Secret Annex,” smuggling supplies, food, and reports from the outside world. The entrance to the “Secret Annex” was hidden behind a movable bookcase.
She and her family experienced daily terror for two years their hiding spot would be found by the Nazis patrolling outside the warehouse, Anne keeping a diary record of everything, described as “marked by poignancy, humor and insight.”
Two months after the Allied landing at Normandy, on August 4, 1944, the Frank’s family “Secret Annex” was discovered, and the family was sent, along with two of the Christians who helped protect them, to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam when he was liberated from Auschwitz.
When Mie Gies heard about Anne’s death, she gave Otto Frank around 300 loose papers and five notebooks: Anne’s diaries and diary entries. She collected them from the “Secret Annex” soon after the Franks were discovered, and hid them in her desk.
The Diary of Anne Frank was first published in Dutch in 1947 and in English in 1952. It immediately became a bestseller, translated into more than 70 languages.
Anne’s words serve as a voice for the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.