The Diary of an 11-Year-Old Girl Who Uncovered the Secrets of the Jewish Genocide

An 11 year old innocent girl started writing diary. She never even dreamed that this diary would later become the world’s most famous book. The name of this girl was Annelies Marie Frank, also known by the people as Anne Frank. Ann was born on 12 June 1929 in a Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany. Ann lived here with her parents and a sister.

Everything was going well. But, in 1933, the government of Hitler i.e. Nazi Party came in the country and the situation here changed completely. The mayor of Frankfurt also had ties to the Nazi Party, which was anti-Jewish. Ann’s father, Otto Frank, understood that living in Germany was no longer free from danger. Therefore, as soon as possible, he left Germany with his family and shifted to the Netherlands. Now the family started living in the capital Amsterdam. Ann was only 4 years old at that time.

After some time both the sisters started going to school. Otto Frank got a new job here. Everything started going fine as before. Yes, the only difference was that earlier the family lived in a very luxurious house in Germany. Here they had to live in a rented house. Still the family was happy. Some years passed like this. Then the time came on 1 September 1939. Second world war started in the world. The Frank family had come to know that even living in the Netherlands was no longer free from danger. From here the family wanted to shift to Britain, but by then it was too late.

German troops had occupied the Netherlands

German troops completely occupied the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. Now, like Germany, anti-Semitic laws began to apply there. Despite the fear, the Frank family was spending its life there anyway. Now Ann was also 11 years old. Parents gifted her a diary on her birthday. In this, Ann would write every single thing of her every day.

Both sisters left school,

Meanwhile the situation of Jews in Amsterdam had also become very bad. First both the sisters left school. It was then learned that Ann’s sister Margot would be sent to a labor camp in Germany. The parents were completely scared. But where would they had gone? That day Ann wrote in her diary, ‘Hide? where will you hide in the village or in the city? In a house or in a cottage? These are the questions which I am not allowed to ask. But, still these questions are running in my mind.’

The day when the family found a hiding place,

came on 6 July 1942. The family finally found a place to hide. Where father Otto Frank worked, a small flat was prepared. The family shifted to that hiding place. A book rack was made outside the door so that no one could see, and also no one would know that there is a flat here too. In these circumstances, only some people of the company helped the Frank family. From time to time, they would covertly deliver food and drink and essential items to the Frank family. Also, kept telling the family about what was going on outside.

For 8 years, two families lived together,

another family had also came to hide at this place. For a total of 8 years, both the families lived together there secretly. They had to remain silent throughout the day, so that no one would notice that they were hiding there. Even for the whole day, both of the families could not use the flush of the toilets they used so that no one can hear its voice. The toilet was cleaned only during the night.

Ann kept writing diary to spend time.

In her diary, Ann had written the name of this flat as ‘Secret Annex’ i.e. secret cell. Well, everything was needed here. There was simply no freedom to live freely. She had to spend the whole day there without speaking. To pass the time, she kept on writing a diary. Many times, she kept on writing many things herself, that she could erase them. Then again write something else in its place. Once upon a quarrel with her mother, Ann wrote, “She does not treat me like a mother.” Later when she regretted it, she wrote, “Ann, how can you write such hateful things? ”

In this diary of Ann, not only her personal life was mentioned, but we have come to know a lot through this diary about the atrocities committed on the Jews at that time. From what Ann wrote in the diary, we can feel how the Jews must have felt at that time. Ann also wrote at one place that what happened cannot be changed, but it can be stopped.

The German police sent the family to the concentration camp,

then on 4 August 1944, the German police raided this flat and caught 8 people. Actually, someone got a clue of their stay there and informed the Nazis about it. Then a month later, these 8 people were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp along with other Jews in a train. There were more than 1000 Jews in this train. Men and women were brought here separately. Ann and her sister stayed with their mother. Whereas, her father was sent to another place.

They were treated like Animals in the camp

People brought to the camp were treated like animals. A tattoo was made on their body, of certain number. Now they were identified by that certain number, and not name. If older people were made to work, then some science experiments would be done on the children. Those who did not seem to be of any use were taken to the gas chamber and killed. After a day’s work, people would be sent to sleep in cramped rooms. Ann would also work with sister Margot to break stones at the camp. A few days later both the girls were sent to another camp. In the cold weather, typhoid disease spread there, due to which 17 thousand prisoners died.

This is how Anne Frank died,

Then in April 1945, the British Army rescued people from the concentration camp. But, by then it was too late. Ann and Margot also had got infested with typhoid. Margot had died of typhoid two to three weeks prior to the arrival of the British army, while Ann died of same later. On the other hand, her mother had also died meanwhile. Only her father was left alive in the family. But, he was also unaware that his wife and daughters had died. After 6 months he came to know that his wife and both daughters were no longer in this world.

The diary was given the form of a book by her Father

The house in which Ann had hidden with her family, still exists in Amsterdam. This house is famous as Anne Frank House. People from all over the world still come to see this house. Even today, everything is kept there as it was then. Ann’s original diary is also present there. It is said that at the time when the police were taking Anne Frank’s family out of the flat, then a friend of Otto Frank had kept Ann’s diary with him safely.

Then he handed over that diary of Ann to Otto Frank on his return from the concentration camp. Otto Frank cried a lot after reading his daughter’s diary. He knew that Ann wanted to be a writer. So he gave the diary a form of a book. Today this book has been translated into more than 70 languages. The book has been named as ‘The Diary of a Young Girl‘. It has become the best-selling book on the Holocaust.

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