The Diary of a Young Girl: Background

Following Hitler’s rise to power in the years after the First World War, Anne and her family left Germany to avoid being persecuted by the Nazis. For many years, the family lived there in relative peace, with Mr. Frank running a food and spice business. However, in 1940, the Germans occupied the Netherlands and enforced anti-Jewish laws there as well. These new measures prohibited Jews from riding streetcars, forced them to attend separate schools, banned Jewish-owned businesses, and required Jews to wear yellow stars to identify themselves as Jewish. By 1942, many Jews were deported to concentration camps, where they were systematically killed or died of illness and starvation. It is around this time that the Franks went into hiding in an annex behind the family’s office. With the help of his two business partners as well as several members of his office staff, Otto was able to send supplies to this secret annex. They were later joined by a family of three and one other man, making a total of eight residents in the annex.