Otto Frank and his brothers are called up to fight on the Western Front for the German army. Their mother and sister volunteer to work in a Frankfurt military hospital. All survive this destructive conflict which ultimately results in another world war.
"I hope we can see each other at home when peace prevails. This cannot last much longer, surely?"
Otto Frank
"The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time."
Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary
“…It fell to Otto to manage the family bank in the period of chaos that marked the first year after Peace was signed…”
Milly Stanfield
"My father, the most precious father I’ve ever seen, didn’t marry my mother until he was thirty-six and she was twenty-five."
Anne Frank
"I don’t like it. I don’t know what’s going to happen, I’m scared of the right."
In a world on the brink of economic crisis Anne Frank is born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on 12 June 1929. Her sister Margot is 3 years old.
“Those years on Marbachweg were among our best times.”
Edith Frank
Hitler comes to power. Otto and Edith Frank are convinced that they will be safe in Amsterdam from the antisemitism in Nazi Germany. Otto establishes his business, the children go to school, life resumes a normality as Europe rumbles towards war.
"Because we're Jewish, my father emigrated to Holland in 1933."
"Even if settling in is difficult, our chief concern remains just getting by, and unfortunately, that is becoming more and more difficult in Holland."
May 1940, Germany invades The Netherlands, Belgium and France. Registration of the Jews is the first step taken in isolating them. As a Jew, Otto is no longer allowed to own a business, so he appoints Jo Kleiman as director.
"After May 1940 the good times were few and far between: first there was the war, then the capitulation and then the arrival of the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews."
Margot’s call up to report for work duty speeds up plans to go into hiding in Otto’s business premises. His employees are responsible for the family’s and their friends’ well being in the secret annex. Allied gains give those in hiding hope of liberation.
"Not being able to go outside upsets me more than I can say, and I'm terrified our hiding place will be discovered and that we'll be shot."
“The Carlton Hotel has been destroyed. Two British planes loaded with firebombs landed right on top of the German Officers’ Club.”
“…nothing's worse than being caught.”
“There is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible single crime ever committed in the whole history of the world.”
Winston Churchill
The people in hiding are all arrested and deported to extermination camps. Kleiman and Kugler are punished with imprisonment for their role as helpers while Miep and Bep remain behind and wait.
"When the Gestapo came in with their guns, that was the end of everything."
Germany surrenders, the war ends and Europe is free but in ruins. Otto Frank returns to Amsterdam, picks up the threads of his life and mourns for his family. He is not the only one, gradually the scale of the mass murder of the Jews becomes clear.
"They were good people. We did not care if they were communists or not. We were not concerned with politics; we were concerned about our liberation."
“We looked at each other. There were no words. He was thin, but he’d always been thin. He carried a little bundle. My eyes swam. My heart melted. Suddenly, I was afraid to know more. I didn’t want to know what had happened. I knew I would not ask.”
Miep Gies
"I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb... It is an awful responsibility... We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes."
US President Harry S. Truman
"I was overwhelmed by painful memories. It was a revelation for me. Before my eyes appeared a completely different Anne than the daughter I had lost."
Otto Frank fulfills Anne’s wish and publishes the diary. Translated into many languages and adapted for the stage her story reaches and touches people all over the world.
"If she had been here, Anne would have been so proud."
"The destiny of human rights is in the hands of all our citizens in all our communities."
Eleanor Roosevelt
"One of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read."
"This play is a part of my life … Therefore it is impossible for me to come and see it."
The secret annex is crumbling and deserted but the Anne Frank House is founded to save it from demolition. The film "Diary of Anne Frank" by George Stevens receives a number of Oscars and makes Anne Frank internationally better known. European cooperation leads to the formation of the EEC.
"The restoration of the house is now in full progress and we hope that the Secret Annex will be open for visitors this summer."
"To create Europe is to create peace."
Jean Monnet
"As a film, Anne Frank's diary has many fine moments. But for those who neither know the diary itself nor the play, they will find the film exceptionally moving."
Alex Burnham
The Secret Annex where Anne Frank wrote her diary becomes a museum. It attracts a huge amount of interest as Anne and her diary become known worldwide and the man responsible for the arrest of those in hiding is discovered.
"I believe that the Secret Annex should become a meeting place, and a place for reflection and inspiration as well as a museum."
"Young people especially always want to know how these terrible things could ever have happened. I answer them as well as I can."
"Killing is not the worst. I think he merited killing, but whether he should have been is another matter. I am not an adherent of killing."
"Anne Frank became a symbol of the million murdered children, and I tell it to the father of Anne Frank, the diary of his daughter had a bigger impact than the Nuremberg trial."
Simon Wiesenthal
"The spiritual value of the house is very great. (...) But more must be achieved. It is not enough that people are moved and come to think about all the terrible events. We must do more."
Growing visitor numbers result in the second but only major renovation to close the museum. This period sees the first international Anne Frank exhibition and is marked by Otto Frank’s death.
"The Anne Frank House must remain open. As a warning against dictatorship, discrimination, terror."
Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp
"I think it is not only important that people go to the Anne Frank House to see the secret annex, but also that they are helped to realise that people are also persecuted today because of their race, religion or political convictions."
A critical edition of the diary puts to rest allegations of forgery. The museum undergoes more renovation to serve ever growing public interest.
"Attacks on the authenticity of the diary ‘unfortunately’ make publication necessary."
Sietse van der Hoek - Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant
"The restored entries, constituting, according to the publisher, 30 percent more material, do not alter our basic sense of Anne Frank, but they do give greater texture and nuance -- and punch -- to some of the hallmark concerns of the diary."
Patricia Hampl - The New York Times
A lengthy project completely renews the Anne Frank House and the museum is officially opened by Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands.
"We almost expect to see the people in hiding wandering through the house on Sundays and outside of weekly working hours!"
Professor Temminck Groll, Ph.D
"It will be impossible to reconstruct the actual events. Of course that is regrettable, because we would naturally have liked to unmask the culprit(s) in order to complete this part of the Anne Frank story."
From the report of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation
The Anne Frank House celebrates its 50th anniversary. A new virtual museum allows people from all over the world to ‘visit’ online. Miep Gies dies aged 100. The Anne Frank tree falls during a summer storm.
“For half a century now, the memory of Anne Frank is as solid as the house that bears her name.”
Professor Abram de Swaan
Impressive! I went to visit the house in September last year, and this 3D visit brought the house back to mind, exactly how it was.
A visitor of The Secret Annex Online
Resulting from economic, colonial and military power struggles between European empires it becomes known as the Great War.
The most destructive war in history involving every continent and where more civilians than soldiers lose their lives.
The United Nations is founded but political rivalry still divides the world. Europe loses its colonies but becomes united.
Visual timeline Anne Frank
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Available in 7 languages
Beschikbaar in 7 talen
In 7 Sprachen verfügbar
Proposée en 7 langues
Disponible en 7 idiomas
Pubblicata in 7 lingue
Disponível em 7 línguas
