Anne Frank: Hitler's Hatred Of Jews

During 1933 to 1944, Anne Frank's life was tortured because of Hitler’s Hatred of Jews. Until Hitler, everybody including Jews, were pretty much equal, but then it all changed. Adolf Hitler hated Jews and this was called anti-Semitism. A dictionary definition of anti-Semitism is hostility to or prejudice against Jews. Hitler’s group of followers were called the Nazis. The Nazis came to power less than four years after Anne Frank was born. The Nazis were also taking over many places. In January of 1933, Nazis took power in Germany where the Frank family was living. When Hitler invaded these places, he would capture all of the Jews and many other types of people he did not like. He was an eradicator. Because the Franks were Jewish, Otto Frank
decided that it would be safer for them to move to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Amsterdam made them safe for a few years. As a result of Hitler, the Frank Family had to protect themselves by going into hiding. After, the Franks moved to Holland in Amsterdam. Anne Frank liked Amsterdam a lot. Energetic and Popular, Anne Frank was liked by the students at her school in Amsterdam. Then, they were once again under Nazi control in 1940. Otto Frank made plans to hide his family for the whole war. In 1942, Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in a secret apartment behind her dad’s business in German-occupied Amsterdam. To hide, the Franks had to be very secretive. Margot Frank received a letter ordering her to report to a work camp in Germany. This was another reason they went into hiding in the secret apartment on Prisengracht 263 in Amsterdam. They did not want people and Nazis to find them. Otto Frank left a fallacy saying that they had fled to Switzerland. Many people believed that they truly had left. They know this because Otto Frank’s employee, Miep Gies, went to their old house and asked where they were. A person said that they fled to Switzerland. The Franks were happy that this worked. A week after hiding by themselve, the Franks were joined by Otto Frank’s business associate, Hermann Van Pels, with his wife and son. They were also Jewish and all got along. The families got food from Otto Frank’s employees, who risked their lives, to smuggle them food, news, and supplies into the secret apartment. Two of the most helpful employees were Miep Gies and her husband Jun. The entrance to the secret apartment was covered by a huge moveable bookcase. This helped so people did not know that there was a door behind it. Anne Frank called the secret apartment, the secret annex. The secret annex was also above an office.
She was always afraid of being found in the secret annex. Once again, they were joined by more people. In November 1942, the Franks and Van Pels were joined by Fritz Pfeffer. Now, there were eight people in the small secret annex. All eight people had to live in fear and never go outside. They had to remain quiet during the day and also all had a schedule that they followed every day. It started with everybody getting up at 6:45am, so they could do what they had to before workers got to work. Then, when the workers came, they had to be perfectly silent until the workers lunch break. During this time, Otto Frank made Anne Frank, Margot Frank, and Peter Van Pels study. They would study languages, algebra, geometry, geography, and history. Anne Frank liked everything, except the math topics. Around 12:45pm in the secret annex, the workers downstairs left for lunch and the Franks, Van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer walked around, talked, and got their own lunch. The eight resumed silence around 1:45pm, when the afternoon shift began downstairs. Later, around 5:30p, Miep Gies would come and confirm that everybody has left downstairs. The evenings in the secret apartment were more relaxing than the days because they do not have to worry about people hearing
them.
Everybody was usually settled in for bed around 10:00pm. This is what Anne Frank and the seven other people did everyday while in hiding. Anne Frank would pass her time by writing in a diary she got for her thirteenth birthday, before they went into hiding. She would write entries each day and she would address them to an imaginary friend that she called Kitty. Anne Frank would write about her life in hiding, her impressions of the other occupants of the secret annex, her feelings of loneliness, and her frustration over the lack of privacy. She still wrote about typical teenage issues like crushes on boys, arguments with her Mom, and her fights with her sister. When she wrote about boys, she would usually write about Peter Van Pels because he was the only other boy in the apartment that was her age. She started to have feelings toward him. Nobody knows if he ever liked Anne Frank back. Anne Frank would also always have fights with Edith Frank because she was always a daddy’s girl. Even though she expressed this type of information, Anne Frank wrote with maturity. She especially showed maturity when writing about the war. When Anne Frank wrote and read, her diary there was no
light. This caused Anne Frank to have really poor eyesight. Miep Gies once offered to bring Anne Frank to an eye doctor she trusted, but Otto Frank did not let her go. So, Anne Frank lived the rest of her life with poor eyesight and headaches. Once, on the night of April 9, 1944, the eight occupants of the secret annex were almost found by the Gestapo. They were not found because of the bookcase in front of the entrance. Eventually, the Frank Family got caught from hiding. The eight Jewish Germans were finally found on August 25, 1944, after twenty-five months of hiding. They were discovered by the Gestapo, the German secret state police. The Gestapo found out from an anonymous tipster, who was never discovered. The Gestapo police was discovered by Simon Wiesenthal, a Nazi hunter. Simon Wiesenthal put him on trial and he said, “Yes I am the one who arrested Anne Frank and her family”. After their arrest, the Franks, Van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer were sent by the Gestapo to Westerbork, a holding camp in northern Netherlands. In September 1944, Anne Frank and the group were transported by freight trains to Auschwitz - Birkenau, a concentration camp under Nazi control. Anne and Margot Frank were sent to Auschwitz only for a little. Dr. Mengele said that they were able to still work ,so they were sent to the better side and not straight to the gas showers. They were later sent to Bergen-Belsen, another concentration camp under Nazi control. In March 1945, the Frank sisters both died of Typhus at Bergen-Belsen. Their bodies were thrown into a massive grave. Typhus is an infectious disease caused by ricketts. On April 15, 1945, British forces liberated the camp. They might have been able to survive if they had not become sick. Everybody else from the secret Annex died, except Anne Frank’s Dad, Otto Frank. Edith Frank died of starvation at Auschwitz in January 27, 1945. Hermann Van Pels died in Auschwitz gas chambers right when he arrived. Hermann Van Pels wife likely died at Theresienstadt concentration camp in spring 1944. Peter Van Pels died at Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria in May 1945. Fritz Pfeffer died from illness in late December 1944 at an concentration camp in Germany. Otto Frank was liberated from Auschwitz by Soviet Troops on January 27, 1945. Anne died, but later something will be discovered that will make people remember her.