THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
6 JULY 1942 > ANNE FRANK FORCED INTO HIDING
Annelies “Anne” Marie Frank and her Dutch-Jewish family went into hiding to avoid the Nazis on this day.
After coming into power in 1933, German leader Adolf Hitler introduced strict laws in Germany based on antisemitic ideas. Anti-Semitism is the hatred of Jewish people.
Anne’s parents, Otto and Edith Frank, were concerned about the future of their family and decided to flee to the Netherlands. Anne became famous for keeping a diary of her and her family’s experiences.
In July 1942, in World War 2, the German army started sending Jewish
families to concentration camps. That same month, the Frank family went into hiding. They stayed in a secret hideout next to Otto’s place of work in Amsterdam for two years.
During this time Anne kept a diary she named “Kitty” in which she wrote about her feelings and what life was like for the family.
On 4 August 1944, the family were discovered and arrested by the Gestapo, the German secret police. They were sent to concentration camps and in February 1945 Anne and her sister, Margot, died. It’s believed they contracted typhus fever which swept through the camp.
Anne was just 16 when she died but her journal and letters were later found and published in a book, The Diary of Anne Frank.