Anne Frank (June 12, 1929 - c. March 12, 1945) was a German-born Jewish girl who wrote a diary while in hiding with her family and four friends in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Her family had moved to Amsterdam after the Nazis gained power in Germany but were trapped when the Nazi occupation extended into The Netherlands. As persecutions against the Jewish population increased, the family went into hiding in July 1942 in hidden rooms in Otto Frank's office building. After two years in hiding, the group was betrayed and transported to the concentration camp system where Anne died of typhus (in Bergen-Belsen) within days of her sister, Margot, in February or March 1945. Her father, Otto, the only survivor of the group, returned to Amsterdam after the war ended, to find that her diary had been saved. Convinced that it was a unique record, he took action to have it published. It is published in English under the name The Diary of a Young Girl.
The diary was given to Anne Frank for her thirteenth birthday and chronicles the events of her life from June 12, 1942 until its final entry of August 1, 1944. It was eventually translated from its original Dutch into many languages and became one of the world's most widely read books. There have also been theatrical productions, and an opera, based on the diary. Described as the work of a mature and insightful mind, it provides an intimate examination of daily life under Nazi occupation; through her writing, Anne Frank has become one of the most renowned and discussed of the Holocaust victims.
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
