FREE ESSAY ON ANNE FRANK

ANNE FRANK

Jennifer Horner
Prof. Barmann
10/29/00
The Franks were an old German- Jewish family. Anne, the youngest daughter, was born on
June 12, 1929, in the town of Frankfurt-on-Main in Germany. Anne Frank records her
feelings, emotions, and thoughts, as well as the events that happened while forced into
hiding, in her diary. Four years later, in the summer of 1933, the Frank family moved to
Holland because Hitler had come into power in Germany and had introduced strict laws
which discriminated against Jews. In addition, gangs of Nazi thugs would roam the
streets, beating up Jews for no reason except that they were Jews. Realizing how
dangerous the political situation was becoming, Mr. Frank prepared a refuge where his
family could go into hiding. Preferring this rather than submitting to arrest by the
Nazis and being dispatched to concentration camps and to almost certain death. At the
beginning of July, 1942, when it would have been foolish to delay not going into hiding,
the Franks, along with a family called the Van Daans moved into the "Secret Annexe." In
the building where Mr. Frank's offices and warehouse were situated, they simply vanished
from sight, overnight. 
When the Nazis occupied Holland in 1940, Anne was only eleven years old. Like many
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank tried to protect their children from the edicts issued by the
Nazis. Although the girls knew that they had to change schools and wear the "yellow star"
on their clothes, they did not have any direct contact with Nazis. In general, the Dutch
people were sympathetic to the plight of the Jews, and many helped them with a kind word
or little gifts. The grisly, wholesale murder of Jews in concentration camps did not
really get underway until 1942, therefore in 1940 no one could imagine that the
annihilation of an entire people was possible.
By the time Anne and the others went into hiding in June 1942, they knew that Jews were
being rounded up, beaten, stripped of their possessions, and sent east. They suspected
that the conditions out there were not good, but Nazi propaganda insisted that the
"resettlement" was to the Jews' benefit, and there was no clear information to be
obtained as to what really went on. In her diary Anne writes, " Our many Jewish friends
are being taken away by the dozen. These people are treated by the Gestapo without a
shred of decency, loaded into cattle trucks and sent to Westerbork... Most of people in
the camp are branded as inmates by their shaven heads...If it is as bad as this in
Holland, whatever will it be like in the distant and barbarous regions they are sent to?
We assume that most of them are murdered. The English radio speaks of their being
gassed." (October 9, 1942)
From this and other remarks in which, Anne writes we know that she and the other members
of the group in hiding knew what was happening to the Jews on the outside, to a greater
or lesser extent. Also there was a radio in the office, and they would creep downstairs
at night and listen to the BBC broadcasts, giving them a fairly good idea of what was
going on. 
The windows of the "Secret Annexe" allowed its inmates to see something of what was
happening in the streets outside. On December 13, 1942, Anne writes, " I saw two Jews
through the curtain yesterday; it was a horrible feeling, just as if I'd betrayed them
and was now watching them in their misery." The members of the group of "protectors"
those that helped the Franks, also brought eyewitness accounts of what was happening to
Jews outside. 
Every sudden, unexplained noise, every real or imagined break-in by burglars, and every
stranger who visited the office and the warehouse was a continuos source of fear and
concern for the people in the " Secret Annexe." There were several occasions when they
sat up all night, afraid to make a sound, fearing that they had heard someone moving
around downstairs.
The Allies' air raids on Amsterdam, the anti-air cannon fired by the Nazis and the aerial
dogfights between Nazi and allied aircraft in the sky also constituted a source of alarm
for the group in hiding. The building was old and could easily catch fire. For this
reason, they had each prepared a small bag of basic necessities to grab in case they had
to leave the building in a hurry. Of course, their greatest danger, as it involved their
worst fear of all, was discovery by the Nazis. " We had a short circuit last evening, and
on top of that the guns kept banging away all the time. I still haven't got over my fear
of everything connected with shooting and planes, and I creep into Daddy's bed nearly
every night for comfort." That is how Anne's entry for March 10, 1943, begins. This kind
of remark recurs at intervals through the diary, but it would seem that eventually the
inmates of the "Secret Annexe" did become accustomed to the situation. After all, two
years in hiding, they knew that the Allies were advancing and the situation of the Nazis
was deteriorating. 
By the time the diary ends, Anne had every reason to be optimistic, and she was even
thinking about going back to school. The occupants of the "Secret Annexe" no longer
seriously thought that they would be discovered. Although they were frightened in the
beginning, they had become used to their situation and hoped to continue in that way
until the war ended. However on August 4, 1944, the Gestapo apparently acting on
information provided by an informer, arrived at the building where the Franks were
hiding, entered the office and began to search the building. Behind the bookcase at the
end of the corridor, the Nazis pulled it away, and thus revealing the secret door to the
Franks' hiding place was exposed. No one acted hysterically or violently when they
realized what had happened. In numbered silence they simply put together a few basic
possessions, which they thought they might need and left with their captors. The news
from various war fronts was very good, and it was obvious that the Nazis would be
defeated. If the discovery had only come a little later, if the group had not been
included in the last shipment of people to leave Westerbork, if Anne had not been sent to
Auschwitz first, then onto Belsen, she might have survived.