The hiding place

Anne Frank

Anne Frank is three years younger than Margot. Their personalities are very different. Anne is lively, a joker, and has lots of friends before she goes into hiding. But she has a serious side to her too, and reveals that aspect of her personality much more while she's in hiding.

Describing Anne’s development while in hiding, Jo Kleiman says: 'Anne was thirteen when she came here and fifteen when she was taken away. In those two years she went from being a child to being a young woman.'

Anne and her father

Before going into hiding, Anne Frank is simply crazy about her father; she idolizes him. This continues into the early part of the hiding period, but as Anne gets older she begins to distance herself from him. She thinks her father does not see her as an individual, and she feels she cannot trust him because he reveals so little about himself.

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Anne and her mother

An entire book could be written about Anne and her mother's relationship during the hiding period. The mutual irritations are extensive. In her diary, Anne concludes: “I need my mother to set a good example and be a person I can respect, but in most matters she's an example of what not to do.” Of course Anne realizes their quarrels are also fueled by the unsusual situation they find themselves in: "Those violent outbursts on paper are simply expressions of anger which, in normal life, I could have worked off by locking myself in my room and stamping my foot a few times or calling Mother names behind her back."

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In love with Peter

Anne Frank is not so taken with Peter van Pels when they first meet: “Peter's going on sixteen, a shy, awkward boy whose company won't amount to much...” Yet, a year-and-a-half later, Anne has fallen in love with Peter and he is the first boy to give her a kiss.

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June 12, 1929

Born in Frankfurt am Main (Germany).

1933

The Frank family emigrates to Amsterdam.

1935

Anne starts school at the Montessori School in Amsterdam.

1939

Grandmother Holländer moves from Aachen in Germany to Amsterdam and moves in with the Frank family.

1941

Jews are forced to go to separate schools. Anne and Margot have to go to the Joods Lyceum (‘Jewish High School’).

January 29, 1942

Grandmother Holländer dies of cancer in Amsterdam.

June 12, 1942

Anne is given a diary as a present on her thirteenth birthday.

July 5, 1942

Margot receives her call-up papers to report for a ‘work camp’ in Germany.

July 6, 1942

The Frank family goes into hiding in the secret annex.

August 4, 1944

The people in hiding are arrested.

August 8, 1944

The people in hiding are sent to the Westerbork transit camp (the Netherlands).

September 3, 1944

Deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp (occupied Poland).

September 6, 1944

Arrival at Auschwitz. Anne survives the selection.

October 1944

Anne and Margot are deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (Germany).

March 1945

Anne and Margot die in Bergen-Belsen.

July 1945

Otto Frank hears that Anne and Margot have died in Bergen-Belsen. After this, Miep Gies gives him Anne’s diary.

June 25, 1947

Otto Frank gets the diary published in the Netherlands.

Edith Frank

Edith has trouble settling down in the Netherlands.

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Otto Frank

Otto sets up a business in the Netherlands. After that, his family can come over too.

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Margot Frank

Otto and Edith’s daughter, Anne’s sister Margot is a quiet, serious girl who enjoys studying.

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Anne writes:

I'm used to not being taken seriously, but only the "lighthearted" Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the "deeper" Anne is too weak.