15 Interesting Anne Frank Facts: Details On Anne Frank's Diary Revealed

Annelies Marie Frank was born in Frankfurt in Germany on Jun 12, 1929.

Otto and Edith Frank were Anne's parents. Anne spent her first five years of life in a little apartment on the outskirts of Frankfurt with her parents and older sister, Margot Frank.

Otto Frank went to the Netherlands - where he had business connections - after the Nazis took control in 1933. After residing with her grandparents in Aachen, the rest of the Frank family arrived in Amsterdam soon after, with Anne being the last one to arrive in February 1934.

Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl from Germany who became famous for maintaining a journal of her experiences during the Holocaust. To evade Nazi persecution, Anne and her family went into hiding for two years. 'The Diary Of A Young Girl', a collection of her writings from the time is taught all over the world.

If you like reading about Anne Frank, you should read further to know about her in detail. There is a lot of information available on Anne Frank, and lots of curious questions have been answered for you.

Keep reading to discover what did Anne Frank study, or what did Anne Frank enjoy. Also, you can definitely check out our other fact articles including Abdul Kalam facts and Amish facts.

Find Out About Anne Frank And Her Family

Annelies Marie Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany on Jun 12, 1929, to Anne's mother Edith Frank (1900-45) and Anne's father Otto Frank (1889-1980), a successful businessman.

Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany less than four years after Anne's birth, in January 1933, and he and his Nazi government launched a series of laws targeted at persecuting Germany's Jewish inhabitants.

Otto Frank relocated to Amsterdam in the fall of 1933, where he founded a modest but profitable company that produced a gelling ingredient used in making jam. Anne joined her sister Margot (1926-45) and her parents in the Dutch capital in February 1934 after vacationing with her grandmother in Aachen, Germany.

Anne began school in Amsterdam in 1935 and quickly gained a reputation as a lively and popular student.

In May 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands, having entered World War II in September of the previous year, and swiftly made life in the Netherlands exceedingly restrictive and dangerous for the Jewish people living there.

During this phase of the Holocaust, the Nazis and their Dutch accomplices deported almost 100,000 Jewish people in Holland to extermination camps between the summer of 1942 and September 1944.

Anne Frank's Major Life Events

Following Hitler's ascension to power in 1933, Anne's family opted to travel to Amsterdam, the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, in order to escape Germany's quickly rising antisemitism.

On Jul 6, 1942, Anne and her family went into hiding in Amsterdam, the day after Anne's older sister, Margot, was called up for a German work camp. Otto and Edith, Anne's parents, had already intended to go into hiding with their daughters on July 16 and had been securing a secret hiding spot.

Following Margot's call-up, they fled into hiding sooner than intended, taking refuge in the house behind Otto's office on Prinsengracht 263 and leaving Anne's pet cat Moortje behind.

With the German occupation of Amsterdam, which began in May 1940, the destiny of the Frank family and other Jews in the city was decided.

She couldn't see the sky, feel the rain or sun, walk on grass, or even walk for any length of time throughout that hiding period, merely being able to breathe was a luxury.

Anne concentrated on studying European history and literature and reading books on the subject. She took care of her looks as well, curling her dark hair and painting her nails. "Lipstick, eyebrow pencil, bath salts, bath powder, eau-de-cologne, soap, powder puff", she wrote on a list of toiletries she hoped to purchase one day (Wednesday, Oct 7, 1942).

What did Anne Frank write in her diary?

Anne used her diary to describe her anxiety, boredom, and the hardships she had growing up because she had no companions to confide in.

"The loveliest part is being able to write down all my thoughts and feelings; else I'd totally suffocate" she wrote on Mar 16, 1944. Anne wrote short stories and kept a notebook of her favorite sentences from other writers in addition to her diary.

Miep Gies was a Holocaust survivor who helped hide Anne Frank's family from the Nazis and afterward saved her diary.

Anne wrote about herself, and when her family went into hiding, Hermann and Auguste van Pels, their son Peter, and dentist Fritz Pfeffer, who joined them in the 'hidden annex,' as she dubbed it. She wrote about their bodyguards' perilous attempts to smuggle in the necessities of life.

Frank regularly wrote about her tumultuous connection with her mother, as well as her mixed feelings for her. "She's not a mother to me", she concluded on Nov 7, 1942, after describing her contempt for her mother and her reluctance to "confront her with her carelessness, her sarcasm, and her hard-heartedness".

Frank felt guilty of her harsh attitude later as she revised her diary, adding, "Anne, is it really you who mentioned hate, oh Anne, how could you?". Anne had realized that their disagreements sprang from misconceptions that were equally her and her mother's faults and that she had unnecessarily added to her mother's misery.

Each of the Frank sisters planned to return to school as soon as they were able, and they continued to study while in hiding. Margot completed a correspondence course in elementary Latin in Bep Voskuijl's name (one of the people who had helped conceal them) and obtained excellent grades.

Anne spent the majority of her time reading and studying, and she wrote and revised her journal entries on a regular basis (after Mar 1944).

She wrote about her beliefs, feelings, dreams, and ambitions, issues she felt she couldn't share with anyone, in addition to offering a narrative of events as they transpired. As her confidence in her writing developed, and she matured, she began to write about more abstract topics like her trust in God and how she characterized human nativity.

Anne Frank's Last Words

There is talk about how others perceive her in Anne's diary entries or diary letters. In Anne's diary, she characterized herself as "a bundle of contradictions".

Anne Frank said, "I'm split in two. One side contains my exuberant cheerfulness... my joy in life, above all, the ability to appreciate the lighter side of things... Not finding anything wrong with flirtations... an off-color joke. This side of me is usually lying in wait to ambush the other one, which is much purer, deeper, and finer".

She went on to note that what she says is not always what she feels, which is why she acquired a reputation for being "boy-crazy, as well as a flirt, a sharp aleck, and a romance reader".

Anne Frank said, "If I'm being honest, I'll have to admit that it does matter to me, that I'm trying hard to change myself, but that I'm always up against a more powerful enemy".

Her last entry was on Tuesday, Aug 1, 1944, shortly before her arrest. As Anne died in a concentration camp months after her arrest, her last diary entry is regarded as her last recorded words. This entry ended with her saying, "if only there were no other people in the world".

Other Interesting Facts About Anne Frank

Unfortunately, the Gestapo (German Secret State Police) discovered the hiding place of Frank and her family on Aug 4, 1944.

Anne's father, Otto, was a German merchant who served in the German army during World War One. Anne's father, Otto, was also the only survivor of the hiding place by the end of the Holocaust. He was imprisoned at Auschwitz's concentration camps until its liberation in January 1945, during the Second World War.

The Frank family lived with another Jewish family and Anne's diary in their hiding place and she often mentions people she lived with and didn't like. Otto's coworkers, Victor Kugler, Miep Gies, Bep Voskuijl, and Johannes Kleiman, helped the family live silently, albeit fearfully, indoors for two years.

Fritz Pfeffer, Peter Van Pels, and Auguste were some of them in the hiding annex.

Anne's sister Margot was just three years older. Anne's elder sister, Margot Frank, died of typhus in March 1945, just weeks before the camp was freed by the British army on Apr 15.

Their mother, Edith, also died in the Auschwitz camp in early January 1945. Anne and Margot are thought to have caught typhus in the gas chambers, Bergen-Belsen.

Anne Frank was known to Gena Turgel, a survivor of Bergen Belsen. Turgel told the British publication The Sun in 2015: "I was just around the corner from her bed. She was delirious, terrible, burning up". She also said that she had brought Frank water to wash with before Anne's death.

The precise date of Anne Frank's death is still unknown. Did Anne Frank die in early 1945? Yes, this was the approximate period when Anne died, as is believed by most. Around February 1945, both the Frank sisters are believed to have died, and their bodies would have been thrown in a mass grave.

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