More about The Diary of Anne Frank

More about The Diary of Anne Frank

BLOG SESSION

August 19th, 2017

Welcome back to another fascinating Blog Session!

We are going to be discussing more about The Diary of Anne Frank.  If you were here for our last Blog Session, then you have plenty of Journal notes about Anne Frank's Diary.

If you would, please pull out your Journal and get ready to jot down more information about a young girl's experience that started off as a simple Diary at the age of 13 years old, and turned into a famous literary work entitled, "The Diary of Anne Frank".

Journal Notes

Anne Frank died at the young age of 15.  She was one of more than 1 million Jewish children who died in the Holocaust.  It is such a horrific thought that it is hard to comprehend a child being killed at such a young age.  And to think that more than 1 million Jewish children were murdered is wickedness in action at the hands of demonic minded people who carried out horrifying acts.

Anne Frank & her mother, Edith Frank

Anne Frank was born Annelies Marie Frank on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany.  Anne's mother was Edith Frank.  Anne also had a sister named Margot, who was three years her senior.

Anne Frank ~ Mother Edith Frank ~ Sister Margot Frank

Anne's father, Otto Frank, was a lieutenant in the German army during World War I, later becoming a businessman in Germany and the netherlands.  He was the only member of his immediate family to survive the concentration camps.  At the end of the war, he returned home to Amsterdam.  He searched desperately for news about his family.  On July 18, 1945, he met two sisters who had been with his daughters Anne and Margot at Bergen-Belsen and delivered the tragic news of their deaths.

Otto Frank with his two daughters,

Margot Frank and Anne Frank

When Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam, he found Anne's Diary, which had been saved by Miep Gies.  He eventually gathered the strength to read it.  He was awestruck by what he discovered and later had it published as a book.  "There was revealed a completely different Anne to the child that I had Lost,"  Otto wrote in a letter to his mother.  "I had no idea of the depths of her thoughts and feelings."

The Frank Family

(Margot Frank, Otto Frank, Anne Frank and Edith Frank)

About Anne Frank's Family

The Franks were a typical upper middle-class German-Jewish family living in a quiet, religiously diverse neighborhood near the outskirts of Frankfurt.  However, Anne Frank was born on the eve of dramatic changes in German society that would soon disrupt her family's happy and tranquil life, as well as the lives of all other German Jews.

The German economy struggled terribly in the 1920's due in large part to the harsh sanctions imposed on Germany by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I.  During the late 1920s and early 1930s, the virulently anti-Semitic National German Socialist Workers Party (Nazi Party) led by Adolph Hitler became Germany's leading political force, winning control of the government in 1933.

Otto Frank

  

In the words of Otto Frank . . .

"I can remember that as early 1932, groups of Storm Troopers came marching by, singing, 'When Jewish blood splatters from the knife',"  Otto Frank later recalled.  When Hitler became chancellor of Germany on January 20, 1933, the Frank family immediately realized that it was  time to flee.  Otto later said, "Though this did hurt me deeply, I realized that Germany was not the world, and I left my country forever."

The Franks moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands in the Fall of 1933.  Anne Frank described the circumstances of her family's immigration years later in her Diary:  "Because we're Jewish, my father immigrated to Holland in 1933, where he became the managing director of the Dutch Opekta Company, which manufactures products used in making jam."  After years of enduring anti-Semitism in Germany, the Franks were relieved to once again enjoy freedom in their new hometown of Amsterdam.  "In those days, it was possible for us to start over and to feel free,"  Otto recalled.

Anne Frank's schooling . . .

Anne Frank began attending Amsterdam's Sixth Montessori School in 1934, and throughout the rest of the 1930s, she lived a relatively happy and normal childhood.  Anne had many friends, Dutch and German, Jewish and Christian.  She was a bright and inquisitive student.

What brought about the change in Anne's life?

Anne's life changed on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, igniting a global conflict that would grow to become World War II.  On May 10, 1940, the German army invaded the Netherlands, defeating Dutch forces after just a few days of fighting.  The Dutch surrendered on May 15, 1940, marking the beginning of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.  As Anne Frank later wrote in her Diary, "After May 1940, the good times were few and far between; first there was the war, then the capitulation and then the arrival of the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews."

Yellow Star of David Badge

Beginning in October 1940, the Nazi occupiers imposed anti-Jewish measures on the Netherlands, Jews were required to wear a yellow Star of David at all times and observe a strict curfew; they were also forbidden from owning businesses.

Anne Frank and her sister Margot were forced to transfer to a segregated Jewish school.  Otto Frank managed to keep control of his company by officially signing ownership over to two of his Christian associates, Jo Kleiman and Victor Kugler, while continuing to run the company from behind the scenes.

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

The Diary of Anne Frank

SECRET ANNEX

Until we meet again for our next Blog Session ~

Peace, Love & Light,

By René Allen

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