2. The Diary
3. The Frank Family
4. An Interview with Miep Gies
5. Anne Frank Timeline
6. Restored Diary Entries
7. Historical Context of the Diary of Anne Frank
8. Timeline of Events in Germany and Europe
9. Study Questions for Teachers and Classroom Use
10. Questions for Group Discussion (Adult Readers)
11. Glossary for Students
12. Selected Bibliography
13. For Further Information
This Reader's Companion has been published by Doubleday in cooperation with the
Anne Frank Center USA to commemorate the life and spirit of Anne Frank and also
to celebrate those brave Dutch citizens who risked their lives to protect Jews
from the Nazis during World War II. We hope this guide, published more than
fifty years after Anne's death and the end of World War II, will encourage the
discussion of their legacy as well as the principles of democracy and
Excerpts from the Diary: Copyright © 1991 by the Anne Frank-Fonds,
Basel, Switzerland. English translation copyright © 1995 by Doubleday, a
division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Wednesday, April 5, 1944
I finally realized that I must do my schoolwork to keep from being ignorant,
to get on in life, to become a journalist, because that's what I want! I know
I can write...it remains to be seen whether I really have talent...I need to
have something besides a husband and children to devote myself to!... I want
to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I
want to go on living even after my death! And that's why I'm so grateful to
God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to
express all that's inside me!
When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my
spirits are revived! But, and that's a big question, will I ever be able to
write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?
The Legacy of Anne Frank
Anne Frank's story succeeds because it is a personal story that enables
individuals to understand one of the watershed events of our time, and because
it communicates what can happen when hate and intolerance prevail. The
essence of Anne Frank's message has become a universal symbol of tolerance,
strength, and hope in the face of adversity--a symbol transcending all cultures
and ages and conveying the idea that discrimination and intolerance are wrong and
Anne Frank's diary has enduring significance. Her perspective resonates with
the feelings and attitudes of teenagers in the post-Holocaust generation. Like
so many of today's youth, Anne aspired to be independent and respected for who
she was, not what others wanted her to be. Anne's reflections on personal,
social, and political themes have as much relevance today as they did in the
era of the Third Reich and the Holocaust.
Organization of the Study Guide
This guide is organized to help readers understand and reflect on Anne Frank's
diary. Background information, time lines, and the glossary provide historical
context for the years of Anne's life and are designed to place her diary within
the framework of the events taking place during World War II and the Holocaust.
Special details have been included to highlight the twenty-five month period
during which Anne and her family hid in the Secret Annex, as well as the
The study questions for students are arranged in three parts. The first set of
questions relates to facets contributing to Anne's personal identity. The
second set of questions examines the relationship of Anne to the world outside
the Annex. The final set of questions considers the ongoing issues that Anne
raised in her diary over fifty years ago. For additional educational
materials, including teacher's notes and activities, please contact the Anne
Frank Center USA, 584 Broadway, Suite 408, New York, NY, 10012.
There is an additional set of questions for adults, designed for community
groups, reading circles, and individuals.
On June 12, 1942, Anne Frank's parents gave her a small red-and-white-plaid
diary for her thirteenth birthday. More than fifty years later, this diary has
become one of the best-known memoirs of the Holocaust.
When Anne received her diary, she and her family were living in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands, which was occupied by the German Army. By Anne's thirteenth
birthday she, like every other European Jew, was living in fear of the Nazis
and their anti-Jewish decrees. On July 6, 1942, her family was forced to go
into hiding. Although they could take very few things with them, Anne brought
her diary to her new home, which she called the "Secret Annex." For the two
years that Anne lived in the Annex, she wrote down her thoughts and feelings.
She wrote about her life with the seven other people in hiding--her parents,
her sister, the van Pels family (called van Daan by Anne), and Fritz Pfeffer
(called Alfred Dussel by Anne), as well as the war going on around her and her
hopes for the future.
As a result of a radio broadcast made by the Dutch government in exile asking
people to save their wartime diaries for publication after the war, Anne
decided to rewrite her diary entries.
On August 4, 1944, the Nazis raided the Secret Annex and arrested the
residents. Anne's entire diary--including the plaid book, notebooks, and loose
sheets of paper--remained behind in the Annex. Tragically, Anne Frank did not
survive the Holocaust. Her father, Otto Frank, returned to Amsterdam after
the war ended, the sole survivor among those who had hid in the Secret Annex.
When he found out that Anne had died in one of the concentration camps, Miep
Gies, a woman who had risked her life to hide the Franks, gave him Anne's
diary, which she had hidden for almost a year. As he read the entries, he was
deeply moved by his daughter's descriptions of life in the Annex and her
feelings about her family and the other residents. He decided to publish the
diary so that readers would learn about the effects of the Nazi dictatorship
and its process of dehumanization.
In the immediate aftermath of the war it was not easy for Otto to find a
publisher for Anne's work. He was told that no one wanted to read about the
Holocaust. Finally a newspaper called Het Parool printed a story about
Anne's diary that captured the interest of Contact Publishers, a Dutch firm.
In June 1947 Contact published 1,500 copies of the first Dutch edition of the
diary. Within years the Contact edition was translated into German, French,
and English. Today this version is available in fifty-five languages, and over
24 million copies have been sold.
The first edition omitted almost 30 percent of Anne's original diary. Otto
Frank quite deliberately excluded sections where Anne expressed negative
feelings about her mother and others in the Annex, believing that Anne would
not have wanted such views made public. In addition, Contact was a
conservative publishing house and was uncomfortable printing Anne's entries
concerning her burgeoning sexuality.
Otto Frank bequeathed the diary to the Netherlands Institute for War
Documentation (Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie [RIOD]), which received
it after his death in 1980. Scholars associated with RIOD were particularly
interested in refuting the accusations by neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers that the
diary was a hoax. To establish its validity, RIOD performed tests on the
paper, ink, and glue used in the diary, proving that it was written during the
1940s. Also, tests were performed on Anne's handwriting, comparing samples
from the diary with her other writings, which included letters with dated stamp
In 1986 RIOD published The Critical Edition of Anne's diary. This
edition is often used as the scholarly, research-oriented version of the diary
and contains all of the entries that Otto Frank and the Contact Publishers had
removed from the original 1947 edition. Entries that Anne rewrote after March
1944 are placed next to the original entries to show her development as a
writer. The 1986 edition also includes transcripts of the tests verifying the
authenticity of the diary, as well as some of the short stories and sketches
written in the annex.
In 1995 Doubleday published The Definitive Edition, on the fiftieth
anniversary of Anne Frank's death. This edition, based on a new English
translation of the original Dutch text, contains entries that both Otto Frank
and Contact Publishers omitted from the 1947 edition. By restoring sections
from the original diary, the 1995 edition makes readers aware of the complexity
and sensitivity of Anne Frank, an adolescent struggling to find her own
identity amid turbulent and uncertain times.
The Frank Family
Anne Frank, born on June 12, 1929, was the second daughter of Otto and Edith
Frank, both from respected German Jewish families engaged in commerce for many
generations. Otto Frank could trace his heritage in Frankfurt back to the
seventeenth century, and Edith Holländer Frank came from a prominent
Aachen family. Anne and her older sister, Margot, were raised in Germany in an
atmosphere of tolerance; the Franks had friends of many faiths and
nationalities. Otto Frank served honorably as an officer in the German Army
during World War I.
However, the circumstances of the early 1930s dramatically altered the
situation for the Frank family. The National Socialist German Workers' Party,
the Nazis, ascended to power in 1933 and launched a campaign to rid Germany of
its Jewish citizens. The Nazis blamed the Jews for the economic, political,
and social hardships that had befallen Germany, though less than 1 percent of
the German population was Jewish. Many German Jews felt this to be a passing
phenomenon, while others, including the Frank family, decided to leave Germany
altogether. The Franks decided to move to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which
had been known for centuries as a safe haven for religious minorities.
In the summer of 1933 Otto Frank left Frankfurt for Amsterdam to set up a
branch of his brother's company called the Dutch Opekta Company, which produced
pectin, an ingredient used in making jam. Edith, with her daughters Margot
and Anne, went to Aachen to stay with her family, the Holländers, until
Otto Frank established the business and found a new home for his family.
By the mid-1930s the Franks were settling into a normal routine in their
apartment at 37 Merwedeplein: the girls were attending school; the family took
vacations at the beach; and their circle of Jewish and non-Jewish friends grew.
In 1938 Otto expanded his business, going into partnership with the spice
merchant Hermann van Pels, also a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany.
Unfortunately, the Frank's belief that Amsterdam offered them a safe haven from
Nazism was shattered when, in May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands and the
Franks were once again forced to live under Nazi rule. In the first years of
the occupation, Anne and Margot continued to socialize with their friends and
attend school. But the Nazi administration, in conjunction with the Dutch Nazi
Party and civil service, began issuing anti-Jewish decrees. As Anne wrote on
June 20, 1942:
Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees: Jews
were required to wear a yellow star; Jews were required to turn in their
bicycles; Jews were forbidden to use streetcars; Jews were forbidden to ride in
cars, even their own; Jews were required to do their shopping between 3 and 5
p.m.; Jews were required to frequent only Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty
parlors; Jews were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8 p.m. and 6
a.m.;...Jews were forbidden to visit Christians in their homes; Jews were
required to attend Jewish schools, etc.
All Jews had to register their businesses and, later, surrender them to
non-Jews. Fortunately, Otto Frank, in anticipation of this decree, had already
turned his business over to his non-Jewish colleagues Victor Kugler and
By 1942 mass arrests of Jews and mandatory service in German work camps were
becoming routine. Fearful for their lives, the Frank family began to prepare
to go into hiding. They already had a place in mind--an annex of rooms above
Otto Frank's office at 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. In addition, people on
the office staff at the Dutch Opekta Company had agreed to help them. Besides
Kugler and Kleiman, there were Miep and Jan Gies, Bep Voskuijl, and Bep's
father--all considered to be trustworthy. These friends and employees not only
agreed to keep the business operating in their employer's absence; they agreed
to risk their lives to help the Frank family survive. Mr. Frank also made
arrangements for his business partner, Hermann van Pels, along with his wife,
Auguste, and their son, Peter, to share the Prinsengracht hideaway.
While these preparations were secretly under way, Anne celebrated her
thirteenth birthday on June 12, 1942. On July 5, 1942, her sister, Margot,
received a call-up notice to be deported to a "work camp." Three days later
Margot told me that the call-up was not for Father, but for her. At this
second shock, I began to cry. Margot is sixteen--apparently they want to send
girls her age away on their own. But thank goodness she won't be going;
Mother had said so herself, which must be what Father had meant when he talked
to me about our going into hiding. Hiding...where would we hide? In the
city? In the country? In a house? In a shack? When, where, how...? These
were questions I wasn't allowed to ask...
Even though the hiding place was not yet ready, the Frank family realized that
they had to move right away. They hurriedly packed their belongings and left
notes implying that they had left the country. On the evening of July 6, they
moved into their hiding place. A week later, on July 13, the van Pels family
joined the Franks. On November 16, 1942, the seven residents of the Secret
Annex were joined by its eighth and final resident, Fritz Pfeffer. For two
years the Franks were part of an extended family in the Annex, sharing a
confined space and living under constant dread of detection and arrest by the
Nazis and their Dutch sympathizers.
Since the Annex was above a business, and buildings on either side were
occupied, the eight residents had to be extremely quiet so they wouldn't be
discovered. They also lived in fear of break-ins, which became common during
the occupation. Their only link to the outside world was through their helpers
and radio broadcasts from the BBC. For Anne, the normal stresses of changing
from a child to a teenager to a young woman were heightened by the confined
space. She recorded all of this in her diary. Part of her entry for Friday,
December 24, 1943, reads:
Whenever someone comes in from outside, with the wind in their clothes and
the cold on their cheeks, I feel like burying my head under the blankets to
keep from thinking, "When will we be allowed to breathe fresh air again?"... I
long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know
that I'm free, and yet I can't let it show.
At approximately 10 a.m., August 4, 1944, the Frank family's greatest fear was
realized. A Nazi policeman and several Dutch collaborators appeared at 263
Prinsengracht, having received an anonymous phone call about Jews hiding there,
and charged straight for the bookcase leading to the Secret Annex. Karl Josef
Silberbauer, an Austrian Nazi, forced the residents to turn over all valuables.
When he found out that Otto Frank had been a lieutenant in the German Army
during World War I, he treated the family with a little more respect. The
residents were taken from the house, forced onto a covered truck, taken to the
Central Office for Jewish Emigration, and then to Weteringschans Prison. Two
of the helpers, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman, were also imprisoned, for
their role in hiding the prisoners. Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl were not
arrested, although Miep was brought in for questioning by the police.
The Nazi and Dutch police left the Secret Annex a mess. They had emptied Otto
Frank's briefcase, which held Anne's diary, onto the floor to fill it with
valuables. The floor was strewn with clothing, paperwork, and other belongings
of those who had been hiding there. Miep and Bep returned to the Annex and
found Anne's diary and family photo album in the clutter. Miep brought the
diary downstairs, where she kept it hidden in her desk. About a week later the
Nazis emptied out the entire Annex.
On August 8, 1944, after a brief stay in Weteringschans Prison, the residents
of the Secret Annex were moved to Westerbork transit camp. They remained
there for nearly a month, until September 3, when they were transported to the
Auschwitz death camp in Poland. Ironically, it was the last Auschwitz-bound
transport ever to leave Westerbork.
Upon arrival at Auschwitz, the men were separated from the women. Hermann van
Pels was the first to die. He was soon murdered in the gas chambers. Fritz
Pfeffer was moved to Neuengamme concentration camp in Germany (probably via
Sachsenhausen or Buchenwald), where he died on December 20, 1944.
In October 1944 Anne, Margot, and Mrs. van Pels were transported to the
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Edith Frank remained in the
women's subcamp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she died on January 6, 1945.
Thousands died from planned starvation and epidemics at Bergen-Belsen, which
was without food, heat, medicine, or elementary sanitary conditions. Anne and
Margot, already debilitated, contracted typhus and grew ever sicker. Both
Anne, fifteen years old, and Margot, nineteen years old, died in March,
Mrs. van Pels was transported to Buchenwald and finally to the Theresienstadt
camp in Czechoslovakia, where she died in the Spring of 1945. Her son Peter
was sent from Auschwitz on a death march. He survived the march but died in
Mauthausen in Austria, on May 5, 1945, a few days before the camp was
Otto Frank, the only resident of the annex to survive the Holocaust, returned
to Amsterdam after the war. He was totally unaware of the deaths of his
daughters. He searched all possible leads to locate them before learning from
a woman who had been with the sisters in the barracks at Bergen-Belsen that
they had died. Otto also discovered that his wife, the van Pels family, and
Fritz Pfeffer had all died in the Holocaust.
Fortunately, all of the helpers managed to survive the war. Johannes Kleiman
and Victor Kugler had been sent to the Amersfoort police transit camp, and
sentenced, without trial, to forced labor. Kleiman fell ill during this time
and was sent home; he lived in Amsterdam until his death in 1959. Kugler
escaped during an air raid and made his way back to Amsterdam; he emigrated to
Canada in 1955 and died there in 1989. Bep Voskuijl died in Amsterdam on May
6, 1983. Miep and Jan Gies remained in Amsterdam, raising a son. Jan died on
January 26, 1993. Miep continues to live in Amsterdam, where she is active in
educating people about the Holocaust and its lessons for today's society.
Otto Frank found it difficult to settle permanently in Amsterdam with its
constant reminders of his lost family. He and his second wife, Elfriede
Geiringer, also an Auschwitz survivor, moved to Basel, Switzerland, in 1953.
Otto Frank died on August 19, 1980, at the age of ninety-one.
An Interview with Miep Gies
Cornelis Suijk, a longtime friend of Otto Frank and Miep Gies, works with the
Anne Frank Center USA to educate students around the country about Anne Frank.
On November 22, 1994, he sat down with Miep Gies in her home in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands. Cornelis asked Miep some of the common questions people have
about the diary.
Cornelis: Why did you save the diary after the Nazis took the Frank family from
Miep: In the first place, I did not want it to be found by the Nazis. After
Jews were arrested, the Nazis would return to take their furniture and other
belongings. The second reason was that I wanted to surprise Anne if she would
return. The war was going to end. Everybody felt that the Nazis would be
defeated. So I had high hopes that Anne would come back. I wanted to hear her
say, "Oh Miep, my diary!"
Cornelis: When did Otto find out that his daughters, Anne and Margot, had
Miep: After his return from Auschwitz, Otto Frank contacted Jewish survivors
from Bergen-Belsen, the camp where Margot and Anne had stayed, to find out if
they could inform him about his two daughters. On October 24, 1945, he
received a letter from Mrs. C.R. Rebling-Brilleslijper, saying that according
to her sister, Mrs. Brandes, who was also a prisoner of Bergen-Belsen, his two
daughters had died in that camp
On November 11, 1945, Mrs. C.R. Rebling-Brilleslijper issued a formal statement
that she had been imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen, where Margot and Anne had died
at the end of February or at the beginning of March 1945. On January 13,
1946, Mrs. Brandes, who still lives in Amsterdam, restated that she had served
as a nurse in Block 1 of Bergen-Belsen, where Margot and Anne were kept, and
that both girls had died. I still have the original three letters.
Cornelis: How did Otto Frank react to Anne's diary?
Miep: He was surprised and shocked at his daughter's profound thoughts. He
felt embarrassed that she had never shared these ideas with him, although they
lived for two years in one small place. He once said that he had looked at her
as an immature person, like many parents look at their children, and that
therefore she might not have felt encouraged to open her mind to him.
In 1946 Otto was typing a transcript from Anne's diary at my home in Amsterdam.
I distinctly remember him calling me while I was busy in the kitchen. "Oh,
Miep come please and look at what that girl wrote here!" To tell you the truth,
I never had the courage to go and have a look. I was just afraid to read
something that would make me grieve.
Cornelis: After the Franks were arrested, were you worried about your own
Miep: Of course I felt concern, but not that much about my own safety. Twice I
went back to the German police to see whether I could buy the Franks freedom.
This was risky, because bribing the police could have landed me in prison.
Cornelis: What can you tell me about Anne's mother, Edith Frank?
Miep: Edith was a quiet and friendly person--in every respect a modest
personality. My feeling was that she had received a strict education. She
would never raise her voice in the company of other people. She made a very
distinguished impression. In public she would never put a question to me or
express her concerns about the situation. She only did this in private.
Cornelis: Why did Otto Frank move to Basel, Switzerland, after the war?
Miep: On one hand, Otto loved to live in Amsterdam. But he also shared the
feelings of his second wife, Elfriede Markovits Geiringer. Elfriede could
never forget that she lost her husband and son, who were most probably betrayed
by Dutch people. Both families were victims of the Holocaust. They moved to
Switzerland to begin their new lives.
Anne Frank Timeline
May 12, 1925: Otto Frank and Edith Holländer are married in Aachen,
February 16, 1926: The Franks' first daughter, Margot, is born in Frankfurt,
June 12, 1929: The Franks' second daughter, Anneliese Marie or Anne, is born
in Frankfurt, Germany.
Summer 1933: The Franks decide that the family must move to the Netherlands
because of increasing tensions in Germany.
June 12, 1942: Anne receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
July 5, 1942: Margot receives a call-up notice to report for deportation to a
labor camp. The family goes into hiding the next day.
July 13, 1942: The van Pels family, another Jewish family originally from
Germany, joins the Frank family in hiding.
November 16, 1942: Fritz Pfeffer, the eighth and final resident of the Secret
Annex, joins the Frank and van Pels families.
August 4, 1944: The residents of the Secret Annex are betrayed and arrested.
They are taken to a police station in Amsterdam and eventually to the
Westerbork transit camp.
September 3, 1944: The eight prisoners are transported in a sealed cattle car
to Auschwitz, on the last transport ever to leave Westerbork.
January 6, 1945: Edith Frank dies at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
January 27, 1945: Otto Frank is liberated from Auschwitz by the Russian Army.
He is taken first to Odessa and then to France before he is allowed to make his
way back to Amsterdam.
February or March 1945: Anne and Margot Frank die at the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp within days of each other.
June 3, 1945: Otto Frank arrives in Amsterdam, where he is reunited with Miep
and Jan Gies. He concentrates on finding the whereabouts of Anne and Margot.
October 24, 1945: Otto Frank receives a letter telling him that his daughters
died at Bergen-Belsen.
April 3, 1946: An article in Het Parool discusses Anne's diary.
Summer 1947: 1,500 copies of Anne's diary are published by Contact Publishers
1951: The diary is translated into English.
1954: The Dutch Red Cross officially declares that Anne and Margot died at
Bergen-Belsen in 1945.
August 19, 1980: Otto Frank dies in Switzerland.
Restored Diary Entries
Entries with restored material in the Definitive Edition of Anne Frank: The
Diary of a Young Girl include:
Sunday, June 14, 1942
Monday, June 15, 1942
Wednesday, July 1, 1942
Sunday, July 12, 1942
Friday, August 21, 1942
Wednesday, September 2, 1942
Thursday, October 1, 1942
Saturday, October 3, 1942
Wednesday, October 7, 1942
Wednesday, October 14, 1942
Monday, November 2, 1942
Thursday, November 5, 1942
Thursday, March 4, 1943
Thursday, March 25, 1943
Saturday, May 1, 1943
Sunday, May 2, 1943
Saturday, August 7, 1943
Tuesday, August 10, 1943
Thursday, December 30, 1943
Wednesday, January 19, 1944
Sunday, January 30, 1944
Tuesday, February 8, 1944
Tuesday, February 15, 1944
Thursday, February 17, 1944
Sunday, February 20, 1944
Thursday, March 2, 1944
Wednesday, March 8, 1944
Friday, March 10, 1944
Saturday, March 11, 1944
Sunday, March 12, 1944
Saturday, March 18, 1944
Friday, March 24, 1944
Saturday, March 25, 1944
Tuesday, April 18, 1944
Wednesday, April 19, 1944
Thursday, April 27, 1944
Tuesday, May 9, 1944
Thursday, May 11, 1944
Thursday, May 25, 1944
Friday, June 2, 1944
Tuesday, June 6, 1944
Friday, June 30, 1944
Historical Context of the Diary of Anne Frank
Anne Frank's life (1929-45) spanned the most critical years in the
history of the Third Reich and the Holocaust. Born in the waning years of the
democratic Weimar Republic, Anne Frank was only four years old when Hitler and
the Nazi Party ascended to power. The Weimar Republic, established after
Germany's defeat in World War I, had failed to garner widespread support.
Unemployment, inflation, labor unrest, and rising violence in the streets were
all associated in the popular mind with the inablility and inefficiency of the
Weimar politicians. Extremist parties, which put forth promises of a better
future, gained popularity
The National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party, founded in 1919, was among
those benefiting from the unsettled political and economic times. Its programs
promised to restore honor and greatness to Germany. To accomplish these goals,
the Nazis advocated a Germany free of Jews and other groups who endangered the
destiny of the Third Reich. In 1933 Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi
Party, was appointed Chancellor of Germany. As soon as the Nazis were in
power, Jews, a very small minority in Germany, were subjected to arbitrary
arrests and attacks in the streets. Humiliation of Jews in their synagogues,
an economic boycott of Jewish businesses in April 1933, and the firing of
Jewish civil servants further demonstrated the hostile environment.
Jews who stayed in Germany witnessed a gradual progression of anti-Semitic
measures. While there was sporadic terror against Jews in 1933, by 1935 the
Nuremberg Laws determined who the Jews were, legalizing their inferiority and
their stateless status. Hundreds of pieces of anti-Semitic legislation became
law in the middle and late 1930s, segregating Jews from all aspects of German
In 1938, as the Third Reich expanded to incorporate Austria and parts of
Czechoslovakia, the Nazis escalated their campaign against the Jews. A world
conference at Evian, France, with representatives from thirty-two nations,
failed to offer any help or haven for the Jews of Germany and Austria. On
November 9 and 10, 1938, a nationwide pogrom, later known as Kristallnacht
(Night of the Broken Glass) resulted in massive destruction of Jewish property
and synagogues. Thirty thousand Jewish men and boys were arrested and deported
to concentration camps.
On the eve of the war Hitler ordered the killing of institutionalized
handicapped patients, calling them "useless eaters." The program, named T-4,
transferred the victims to six institutions in Germany and Austria, some
equipped with special gas chambers.
World War II
The German surprise invasion of Poland in September 1939 began World War II and
greatly expanded the Third Reich. Countries in Eastern and Western Europe were
rapidly invaded. By 1940 Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France were
controlled by the Nazis, who established ghettos, transit camps, and
forced-labor camps, in addition to the concentration camps. The Nazis rounded
up and deported massive numbers of prisoners, putting them into hundreds of new
camps filled with political opponents, resistance fighters, Jews, Gypsies,
homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other victims of the Nazi policies.
The German invasion and conquest of the Netherlands began on May 10, 1940, and
ended on May 14, after the destruction of Rotterdam. Throughout most of
Nazi-occupied Europe the Nazis now expanded their program to make Europe
judenrein, or "Jew-free," an idea that had been introduced in the 1930s.
However, during the war years anti-Semitic legislation and physical violence
against Jews intensified. In the Netherlands, they were registered, isolated,
and removed from public life; their businesses were Aryanized within eighteen
The year 1941 marked a turning point in the course of the war. The German Army
invaded the Soviet Union, thereby increasing by 3 million the number of Jews
under their domination. Mobile killing squads called Einsatzgruppen followed
the German army throughout the conquered territories, where they rounded up
people, forced them to undress in front of mass graves, and shot them en masse.
In the summer and fall of 1941, the Nazi hierarchy decided to move to the next
stage of their policy regarding Jews. This led to the period of systematic mass
murder in death camps, beginning in late 1941, which the Nazis referred to in
their code words "The Final Solution of the Jewish Question." The six killing
sites, close to rail lines in various areas of Poland, were at Belzec, Sobibor,
Treblinka, Chelmo, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The purpose of the death camps was mainly to kill Jews, but there were many
other victims as well. Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau were special cases,
having both labor facilities and killing centers. Other camps such as
Bergen-Belsen became places of death for thousands of victims through
starvation and disease. In addition to these camps, the Nazis continued to
expand the slave-labor-camp system to thousands throughout the Third Reich.
Here prisoners were literally worked until they were no long useful to the
Nazis, then put to death.
There were, however, people throughout the Third Reich who found the courage to
help others. Like the Franks' helpers, many risked their lives to hide Jews and
others from the Nazis. Organized resistance to the Nazis was punishable by
death, but despite this, there were armed revolts by Jews in the death camps of
Treblinka, Sobibor, and Auschwitz. The uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto held off
German soldiers from April to May 1943.
The Holocaust in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands the first mass arrests of Jews began in February 1941. The
Nazis began Razzen, or roundups: Jewish men and boys were grabbed from their
homes, beaten, and deported. In June 1941 the Dutch people of Amsterdam
protested in a two-day strike which Nazi troops quickly put down.
In the first months that the Frank family lived in the Secret Annex, the death
camps in Poland were operating at full capacity. Anne sensed the danger for
Jews, although she was not aware of the full magnitude of mass murder occurring
hundreds of miles to the east. As she remarked in her diary on November 19,
In the evenings when it's dark, I often see long lines of good, innocent people
accompanied by crying children, walking on and on, ordered about by a handful
of men who bully and beat them until they nearly drop. No one is spared. The
sick, the elderly, children, babies, and pregnant women--all are marched to
Listening to the news of the war on the radio was extremely important to the
inhabitants of the Annex. Only Germany's defeat would end the mass killing of
Jews and other innocent victims. During 1943 and 1944, reports of Germany's
military reversals provided the Annex residents with hope for the future. News
of events such as the halting of German troops in the Soviet Union in February
1943, as well as the Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy beginning the
following July, prompted Anne to write optimistically about the approaching end
of the war. Nevertheless, she was saddened to realize that the declining
military situation for Germany did not mitigate the war against the Jews. She
especially despaired over the massive arrests and deportation of Hungarian Jews
in May and June 1944. Although D Day operations elated Anne and the others in
the Annex, the war still dragged on, leaving them wondering when it would ever
On July 15, 1944, Anne expressed her sense of foreboding:
It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos,
suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a
wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too,
I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow
feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall
end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must
hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize
The End of the War
The arrests of the residents of the Secret Annex on August 4, 1944, and their
subsequent deportation from Westerbork to Auschwitz took place during the
months that the Germans were facing defeat. Soviet troops had already entered
the Majdanek death camp in Lublin and publicized the horrors they found.
As the Allies reached the occupied countries, the Nazis began to cover up the
evidence of genocide and forced prisoners to march on foot toward central
Germany to prevent their liberation. Many inmates died or were killed if they
could not walk. During the final days, in the spring of 1945, conditions at the
remaining camps were so inhumane that many more died. Concentration camps such
as Bergen-Belsen became a death trap for thousands, including Anne and Margot
Frank. On November 24, 1944, SS leader Heinrich Himmler ordered the destruction
of Auschwitz's crematoria and the removal of as many prisoners as possible as
the Russians approached the camp.
The loss of Jewish lives in the Netherlands alone illustrates the magnitude of
mass murder that occurred during the Holocaust. By July 1944 the country was
virtually judenrein. In 1940 approximately 140,000 Jews had lived in the
Netherlands during the Nazi occupation; 106,000 Jews there, three out of every
By May 1945 Nazi Germany collapsed and the war was over in Europe. The SS
guards fled the concentration, forced-labor, and death camps. The camps were
liberated and the world saw the evidence of the Holocaust.
After the war the world tried to grapple with what had happened and to work to
prevent its recurrence. As Otto Frank prepared Anne's diary for publication,
the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg sought to prosecute some of
the Nazi leaders and to document their crimes as a warning for the future.
Judges from the Allied Powers, including Great Britain, France, the United
States, and the Soviet Union, heard evidence against twenty-two Nazi criminals
for "crimes against peace" and "war crimes," which violated the laws and
customs of warfare, and "crimes against humanity." Fourteen high-ranking Nazis
were sentenced to death; others were sent to prison. Most of those prosecuted
admitted that they were guilty of the crimes of which they were accused. Their
defense? That they were simply following orders of a higher established power.
The Nazis' leader, Adolf Hitler, was not present at the Nuremberg Trials. He
and several of his top aides had committed suicide in the final days of the
Subsequent trials have continued to this day. In the United States, where many
war criminals escaped, the government deports those who participated in the
persecution during the Nazi regime and came to this country illegally. The
Nuremberg trials revealed fully what can happen when a state decides to
dehumanize its citizens. The hope was to seek justice against those who
participated in the murder of millions, including Anne Frank, simply because
they were Jewish.
Timeline of Events in Germany and Europe
November 11, 1918: End of World War I.
January 1923: The National Socialist German Workers' Party
(Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), known as the Nazi Party,
holds its first rally in Munich.
Autumn 1925: Mein Kampf, Hitler's autobiography and anti-Semitic plan, is
July 31, 1932: The Nazis receive 37.4 percent of the vote and are asked to form
a coalition government.
January 30, 1933: Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany.
February 1933: Freedom of speech and assembly is suspended by the Nazi
Spring 1933: The Gestapo, or Secret State Police, is established. Dachau, the
main concentration camp for political prisoners, is built.
April 1933: The Nazis declare a boycott of Jewish businesses and medical and
legal practices. A law excluding non-Aryans removes Jews from government and
May 10 1933: Books by Jews, political enemies of the Nazi state, and other
"undesirables" are burned in huge rallies throughout Germany.
July 1933: Hitler bans all political parties except for the Nazi Party.
January 1934: Forced sterilization of the racially "inferior," primarily
Gypsies and African-Germans, and the "unfit," the mentally and physically
Fall 1935: The Nuremberg Laws are passed defining Jews as noncitizens and
making mixed Aryan and Jewish marriage illegal.
March 7, 1936: Germans march into the Rhineland, violating the Versailles
Summer 1936: Olympic games are held in Berlin, Germany. The United States
March 12, 1938: Germany annexes Austria.
November 9-10, 1938: Kristallnacht. State-sponsored pogrom in Germany and
Austria, looting and destroying synagogues and Jewish owned-businesses.
March 15, 1939: Germany occupies Czechoslovakia.
September 1, 1939: Germany invades Poland; World War II begins.
September, 1939: "Tiergarten 4." Hitler implements the T-4 Program, killing
the institutionalized, physically disabled, and mentally handicapped.
April and May 1940: Germany invades Denmark and Norway, the Netherlands,
France, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
September 29-30, 1941: More than 33,000 Jews are executed at Babi Yar, near
Kiev in the Ukraine, by the Einsatzgruppen special forces.
December 11, 1941: Germany declares war on the United States.
March 1942: Sobibor, Belzec, and Auschwitz-Birkenau all become fully
operational death camps, followed by Treblinka in July.
June 1943: SS leader Himmler orders the "liquidation" of all the ghettos in
Poland and the Soviet Union to death camps.
June 6, 1944: D Day. Allies invade Western Europe.
November 26, 1944: Himmler orders troops to destroy the crematoria at
Auschwitz to hide the Nazi war crimes.
May 7, 1945: Germany surrenders, and the war ends in Europe.
November 1945: The Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals begin.
Study Questions for Teachers and Classroom Use
1. Who Was Anne Frank?
a) About one week after Anne received her diary she wrote in it the saying,
"Paper has more patience than people." (June 20, 1942.) Why did Anne think she
could confide more in her diary than in people?
Almost two years later Anne wrote: "Will I ever be able to write something
great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer? I hope so, oh, I hope so
very much, because writing allows me to record everything, all my thoughts,
ideals and fantasies." (April 5, 1944.) Did Anne's diary mean something
different to her after she had been in hiding?
b) On March 7, 1944, Anne wrote a long entry about how she had changed during
her life in the Annex: "When I think back to my life in 1942, it all seems so
unreal. The Anne Frank who enjoyed that heavenly existence was completely
different from the one who has grown wise within these walls . . . I look back
at that Anne Frank as a pleasant, amusing, but superficial girl, who has
nothing to do with me."
In what ways did Anne show that she was becoming a young woman by the age of
fourteen? How did Anne envision herself as a grown woman? How was this
different from her image of her mother? What did Anne read that influenced her
perspective on becoming a woman? Whom did Anne talk to about her new feelings,
c) Anne lived in the Annex with her family and four other people for over two
years. At times the confinement overwhelmed her: "All the bickering, tears,
and nervous tension have become such a stress and strain that I fall into my
bed at night crying and thanking my lucky stars that I have half an hour to
myself." (October 29, 1943.)
How did Anne cope with all of the "stress and strain" of living in the Annex?
One of Anne's struggles focused on a writing table in the room she shared with
Mr. Pfeffer. Why was this table so important to Anne? Do you agree with how
Anne handled the disagreement? What would you have done? What do you consider
2. Anne Frank in the World
a) What were the ways the residents of the annex got information about the
outside world? How did their sources of information reflect their view of
events? Compare Anne's description of an event during World War II with an
"outside" (newspaper, history book) description.
b) Anne often worried about her Jewish friends. On November 27, 1943, Anne
described her dream about her friend Hanneli Goslar. What do you think this
dream was about? Why was the dream so disturbing for Anne? Compare this dream
to Anne's original description of Hanneli (June 15, 1942).
Hanneli Goslar was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp with her
family. During the winter of 1944-45 Hanneli and Anne met at the camp, on
either side of a fence, three times. The last time Hanneli managed to get a
small Red Cross package over the fence to Anne. Hanneli survived the Holocaust
and moved to Israel, where she still lives in 1995, often speaking about Anne
Frank and the Holocaust.
Imagine you are writing a magazine article about Anne Frank's childhood
friends. Construct an interview of Hanneli Goslar. Base the first set of
questions on Anne's diary, and the second set on Hanneli's life during the
Holocaust. What other information would you include in your article?
c) The Frank family relied on the support of a number of non-Jewish helpers.
These helpers were always in danger of being found out and severely punished.
"This morning Mr. van Hoeven was arrested. He was hiding two Jews in his house.
It's a heavy blow for us, not only because those poor Jews are once again
balancing on the edge of an abyss, but also because it's terrible for Mr. van
Hoeven . . . Mr. van Hoeven is a great loss for us too. Bep can't possibly lug
such huge amounts of potatoes all the way here." (May 25, 1944.)
What did Anne think about the helpers? Did she think that they were heroes?
Find Anne's descriptions of each of the helpers to back up your view. What is
your definition of a hero?
d) On June 20, 1942, Anne listed many of the restrictions the Nazis placed on
Jews during the Third Reich. Make a list, based on the diary, of what Anne
could no longer do. How would your day be different if you had to follow these
laws? Describe a typical day for you under these restrictions.
3. Beyond the Diary
a) When Anne wrote about the growing anti-Semitism in the Netherlands, she
said: "Oh, it's sad, very sad that the old adage has been confirmed for the
umpteenth time: `What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one
Jew does reflects on all Jews.'" (May 22, 1944.)
What is a stereotype? Create your own definition. How did stereotypes
contribute to the dehumanization process that happened in Anne's world? Do any
of the stereotypes that Anne wrote about still exist? What other stereotypes
b) Anne was very concerned about the world around her. After her fifteenth
birthday she wrote: "One of the many questions that have often bothered me is
why women have been, and still are thought to be, so inferior to men. It's easy
to say it's unfair, but that's not enough for me; I'd really like to know the
reason for this great injustice!" (June 13, 1944.)
Study the attitudes of the early 1940s and today. Why did Anne believe that
women were considered inferior? Was Anne a feminist ahead of her time?
c) Anne wrote: "I don't believe the war is simply the work of politicians and
capitalists. Oh no, the common man is every bit as guilty; otherwise, people
and nations would have rebelled long ago!" (May 3, 1944.)
Otto Frank was the only survivor of the Secret Annex. Anne Frank and the other
inhabitants died. Who was responsible? Was it the leaders? Was it those who
enforced the legislation? Was it those who transported them on cattle cars? Was
it those who administered the concentration and death camps? Was it the
townspeople near the camps?
Questions for Group Discussion (Adult Readers)
a) After the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, the Dutch people
were immediately faced with the question of choice: how to respond to the Nazi
occupation. Tens of thousands of Dutch people followed Hitler, and millions
more looked the other way. Eventually, a resistance movement began to grow.
The Nazis needed Dutch collaborators to carry out their fascist decrees. What
would have influenced someone to become a collaborator? What factors would
have encouraged someone to join the resistance? Do you think these factors
were based on personal characteristics or political beliefs? What was the
price of resistance during the war? What was the price of collaboration?
b) Anne Frank and her family were German refugees who resettled and tried to
build their lives in the Netherlands. Although the Franks were proud of their
German heritage, their feelings toward Germany became very complicated during
the war. Anne wrote: "Fine specimens of humanity, those Germans, and to think
I'm actually one of them! No. that's not true, Hitler took away our
nationality long ago. And besides, there are no greater enemies on earth than
the Germans and Jews." (October 9, 1942.)
Although Anne had lived in the Netherlands since 1934, she did not become a
Dutch citizen. Did Anne have a nationality? If not, were Anne's civil rights
protected by any nation? By 1939 some 250,000 Jews, half of Germany's Jewish
population, had fled their homeland. Did these refugees have any guaranteed
After the war Otto Frank responded to references to "the Germans" by asking
"which German?" He believed strongly that blaming all Germans was another form
What constitutes a stereotype? How is a stereotype different from
c) In The New York Times the writer Anna Quindlen asked, "Would our
understanding of the Holocaust be quite the same if Anne Frank had not taken a
small plaid diary into hiding with her?"
What has most shaped your understanding of World War II: personal experience,
Anne's diary, popular films such as Schindler's List, newsreel footage,
academic or historical texts?
d) Otto Frank chose to edit out some of the negative comments Anne made about
her mother and a number of the other residents of the Secret Annex--comments
that have been restored in the new translation by Susan Massotty. He believed
that Anne would have wanted him to do so. Do you think he was correct?
e) In her diary Anne opined: "...if you're wondering if it's harder for the
adults here than for the children, the answer is no...Older people have an
opinion about everything and are sure of themselves and their actions. It's
twice as hard for us young people to hold on to our opinions at a time when
ideals are being shattered..." (July 15, 1944.) When was the last time as an
adult that you experienced the "shattering" of an ideal? Is the media a
neutral force, or do you think it plays a role in supporting or destroying
f) Are there certain characteristics common among those few individuals who
risked their own lives to rescue Jews during World War II? Why do so many of
them deny their own heroism?
g) A disturbing number of neo-Nazi groups have taken hold in all parts of the
world. What social conditions would be necessary for them to grow? What do
you believe would be the most likely basis of another world war: pride,
nationalism, fear, racism, economic interests, or religious intolerance?
h) Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was asked how he could explain the killing of 6
million Jews. He answered, "One hundred dead are a catastrophe, a million dead
are a statistic." Have we become more or less tolerant of murder since he made
i) Anne Frank wrote: "I don't believe the war is simply the work of politicians
and capitalists. Oh no, the common man is every bit as guilty; otherwise,
people and nations would have rebelled long ago!" (May 3, 1944.) How should
accountability be assigned? So many say they never understood what was
happening. How likely could that have been?
j) Hitler published Mein Kampf in 1925, describing his plan for the
elimination of Jews. At that time, what steps might have been taken to stop
Hitler's rise to power?
Glossary for Students
Allies: Twenty-six Nations led by Britain, the United States, and the Soviet
Union, opponents of Nazi Germany and its allies known as the Axis powers
(Germany, Italy, Japan)--in World War II.
Anti-Semitism: Irrational prejudice, discrimination against Jews, dislike,
fear, and persecution of Jews.
Aryan: The Nazi term for what they considered the German race. It is not a
racial term and has no biological validity. Aryan was made up by the Nazis to
refer to a racial ideal that they claimed was "superior"--that is, the "master
race." Originally the name of a family of languages of peoples of Europe and
Auschwitz-Birkenau: Largest of the Nazi concentration camps, located in
Southwestern Poland, with a killing center at Birkenau. Included gas chambers.
More than one million Jews were murdered there. Also Auschwitz III, or
Monowitz, was a huge slave labor camp complex which serviced I.G. Farben
company and manufactured Buna, synthetic rubber. All the inhabitants of the
Secret Annex were sent from Westerbork to Auschwitz in September, 1944.
Bergen-Belsen: A concentration camp in northern Germany, plagued by epidemics,
overcrowding, and planned starvation. These conditions led to the deaths of
more than 34,168 people, including Anne and Margot Frank.
Concentration camps: Prison camps that held Jews, Gypsies, political and
religious opponents of the Nazis, resistance fighters, homosexual men and
women, and others considered enemies of the state. People died of starvation,
slave labor, and disease.
Death camps: Six major death camps whose primary purpose was killing in an
assembly-line fashion by gassing. Chelmo, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek,
and Auschwitz-Birkenau were located in Poland.
Deportation: Forced removal of Jews in Nazi-occupied countries from their homes
under the pretense of resettlement in the East. Most were shipped to death
Dutch Opekta Company: Otto Frank's business, which made pectin, a powdered
fruit extract used to make jams and jellies.
Einsatzgruppen: SS mobile killing squads responsible for massacres in Eastern
Europe of Jews, communist leaders, and Gypsies.
Final Solution: A phrase used by the Nazis for their plan for the physical
destruction of all of Europe's Jewish population.
Forced-labor camps: Camps where prisoners were used as slave labor. On July 5,
1942, Margot Frank received a notice to report for forced labor in Germany.
Genocide: Deliberate, systematic murder of an entire political, cultural,
racial, or religious group.
Gestapo: The Secret State Police of the Third Reich, which used terror, arrest,
and torture to eliminate political opposition and round up Jews and others.
Ghettos: Areas of cities and towns in Eastern Europe in which Jews were forced
to live in extreme, overcrowded conditions that included starvation, cold, and
disease. Beginning in 1941, ghetto inhabitants were sent to concentration and
death camps or massacred.
Gypsies: A term for Roma and Sinti groups persecuted by the Nazis.
Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass): The state-sponsored pogrom unleashed
on the Jewish communities of Germany and Austria on November 9 and 10, 1938.
Mein Kampf (My Struggle): Adolf Hitler's autobiography, written during
his imprisonment (1924). Mein Kampf details his plan to make Europe
National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei [NSDAP]: The Nazi radical, right-wing, anti-Semitic
political party headed by Adolf Hitler from 1921 to 1945.
Nuremberg Laws: Laws passed in the fall of 1935, stripping Jews of their
political rights by making them stateless.
Occupation: Control of a country by a foreign military power. The Netherlands
was occupied by the Nazi government of Germany.
Pogrom: Organized violence against Jews, often with the support of the
Razzia: A forced round-up of Jews in the Netherlands.
SS: Schutzstaffel, black-shirted elite guard of Hitler, later the
political police in charge of the concentration and death camps.
Swastika: An ancient religious symbol (hooked cross), that became the official
symbol of the Nazi Party. Now banned in Germany, the swastika is still used by
neo-Nazis around the world.
Third Reich: The Nazi term for Germany and the occupied territories from
January 1933 to April 1945.
Underground: A group acting in secrecy to oppose the government and resist the
occupying enemy forces.
Weimar Republic: German republic from 1919 to 1933, a parliamentary democracy
established after World War I, with Weimar as its capital city.
Westerbork: Jewish transit camp in northeastern Holland where almost 100,000
Jews were deported between 1942 and 1944 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor,
Theresienstadt, and Bergen-Belsen concentration and death camps.
Yellow star: This six-pointed Star of David was a Jewish symbol that the Nazis
forced Jews above the age of six to wear as a mark of shame and to make Jews
visible. In the Netherlands the star carried the Dutch word Jood, meaning
"Jew," in the middle. From May 1942 until she went into hiding, Anne Frank wore
the yellow star, separating her from the rest of the Dutch population.
Background Reading on the Holocaust for Adults
Bauer, Yehudah, and Niki Keren. A History of the Holocaust: New York:
Fanklin Watts, 1982.
Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know: A History of the Holocaust as Told
in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Boston: Little, Brown,
Burleigh, Michael, and Wolfgang Wippermann. The Racial State: Germany
1933-1945. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Dawidowicz, Lucy. War Against the Jews: 1933-1945. New York: Bantam,
Dwork, Deborah. Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991.
Fogelman, Eva. Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the
Holocaust. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.
Hilberg, Raoul. Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders: The Jewish
Catastrophe, 1933-1945. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Leitner, Isabella. Isabella: From Auschwitz to Freedom. New York:
Anchor Books, 1994.
Lifton, Robert. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killings and the Psychology of
Genocide. New York: Basic Books, 1988.
Yahil, Leni. The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Memoirs and Diaries for Young Readers by Contemporaries of Anne Frank
Auerbacher, Inge. I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust. New York:
Prentice Hall, 1987.
Isaacman, Clara, and Joan A. Grossman. Clara's Story. Philadelphia:
Jewish Publication Society, 1984.
Sender, Ruth M. The Cage. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
Weitz, Sonia. I Promised I Would Tell. Brookline, Mass.: Facing History
and Ourselves, 1993.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982.
Historical Background for Young Readers
Bachrach, Susan. Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the
Holocaust. Boston: Little, Brown: 1994.
Chaiken, Miriam. A Nightmare in History: The Holocaust 1933-1945.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
Meltzer, Milton. Rescue: The Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the
Holocaust. New York: HarperCollins Children's Books, 1991.
Rossell, Seymour. The Holocaust: The Fire That Raged. New York:
Franklin Watts, 1990.
Rittner, Carol, and Sondra Meyers. The Courage to Care: Rescuers of Jews
During the Holocaust. New York: New York University Press, 1986.
Rogasky, Barbara. Smoke and Ashes: The Story of the Holocaust. New York:
Holiday House, 1988.
Other Readings About Anne Frank
Barnouw, David, Ed. The Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical
Edition. New York: Doubleday, 1989.
Frank, Anne. Tales from the Secret Annex. New York: Pocket Books,
Gies, Miep, and Alison Leslie Gold. Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the
Woman Who Hid the Frank Family. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988.
Hurwitz, Johanna. Anne Frank: Life in Hiding. New York: Jewish
Publication Society, 1988.
Lindwer, Willy. The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank. New York: Anchor
Mooyaart, B. M. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Bantam,
Steenmeijer, Anne G. A Tribute to Anne Frank. New York: Doubleday,
van der Rol, Ruud, and Rian Verhoeven. Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary. New
York: Viking, 1993.
Camera of My Family: Four Generations in Germany, 1845-1945.
Courage to Care. Anti-Defamation League.
Daniel's Story. U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Dear Kitty and Just a Diary. Anne Frank Center USA.
They Risked Their Lives: Rescuers in the Holocaust. Ergo Media.
For Further Information:
Anne Frank Center USA
584 Broadway, Suite 408
New York, NY 10012
The Anne Frank Center USA, a
not-for-profit, educational organization based in New York City, offers
exhibitions and programs that enable it to be effective in engaging people to
examine and challenge discrimination. These exhibitions and programs serve as
an especially effective introduction to the difficult issues of discrimination
and tolerance. Because the exhibits stress to children that Anne Frank was just
like them--a normal thirteen-year-old who had attended school and had liked to
play with friends--children strongly identify with her story. The exhibits and
the educational activities available through the Center have a tremendous
impact on young viewers.
Special thanks to: Megan Boothby, Grayson
Covil, Robert Daniels, Miep Gies, Mary Johnson, Shelly Shapiro, Sandee Yuen,
Renée Zuckerbrot. Copyright ©1995 Doubleday, 1540 Broadway, New
York, New York 10036
Anne Frank: A Life Remembered
A feature-length documentary biography depicting the life and death of
Anne Frank has been created by British Academy Award-winning director Jon
Blair. Produced in association with the BBC and the Disney Channel, and in
collaboration with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, this film contains
fascinating information about Anne's father's lifelong effort to keep the diary
alive, and also provides a powerful assessment of Anne's legacy to the world.
For information, contact: The Jon Blair Film Company, Limited, 10 Newburgh
Street, London WIV ILII, phone: (44) 171 287 1254, fax: (44) 171 439 1220.