Saturday 23 February 2013

Finding Anne Frank

The Frank family prepared to go into hiding in 1941. With the help of his staff (Victor Kugler, Jo Kleiman, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl), Otto could prepare the secret place in the two upper back floors of the building that his firm occupied. He did this for his own family and that of Hermann van Pels, another employee.

Margot Frank recieves the call to report to a 'labour camp' on the 5th July 1942. The Franks then move into the Secret Annexe, which was concealed behind a moveable bookcase, the following day. The address is 263 Prisengracht. A week later Mr and Mrs van Pels and Peter, their son, arrived. In November they were joined by Fritz Pfeffer who was a dentist.

Anne Frank

Anne Frank wrote in her diary, that was given to her for her 13th birthday by her father, about the experiences of everyday life in hiding. After she hears a radio broadcast saying that any letters and diaries about life under German occupation might be published when the war ended she decided to to edit her diary. She changed the names of her 'characters' and made it more like a novel.

On the 4th August 1044 the Secret Annexe was raided by SS Sargeant Karl Josef Silberbauer with some Dutch Nazi's. Everyone was arrested, then sent to Westerbork transit camp and then on the final train to Aushwitz. They left on the 3rd September 1944.
The helpers: Jo Kleiman, Miep Gies, Bep Voskuijl and Victor Kugler (left to right)

Only Otto Frank survived through the camps out of all the people who went to the Annexe. He was freed by Russian troops in January 1945. Mr van Pels died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in November or October of 1944. Edith Frank died of exhaustion and hunger in Auschwitz on the 6th January 1945. When the Russian army approached Auschwitz was abandoned and Peter van Pels was sent to Mauthausen camp in Austria. He died on the 5th May 1945. Fritz Pfeffer died in Neneungamme concentration camp on the 20th December 1944.

The eight people that lived in the Secret Annexe
Margot and Anne Frank were taken back to Germany at the end of October 1944. They were transported tpo disease-ridden Bergen-Belson. They both contracted typhoid and died in March 1945. The camp was liberateed a few weeks later in April 1945. Mrs van Pels was also moved to Bergen-Belsoon and from there she went to Theresienstadt, where she died in April 1945.

The World of Anne Frank, compiled by the Anne Frank House

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