The Secret Annex: Anne Frank

One of the days we were in Amsterdam we visited the Anne Frank House. The Franks were a family of Jews that went into hiding during the Holocaust. We got to go into their house which was part of a museum and learn all about her life. Before going, we’d also read The Diary of Anne Frank.

The family hid above the dad’s (Otto’s) office in a place called the secret annex; the entrance to the annex was hidden by a bookcase on hinges. They were in the Annex from July 9, 1942,  to the morning of August 4, 1944. They were arrested that morning and taken to prison. A few days later they were all put on the last train that went to Auschwitz (Poland). At the end of October, Margot (Anne’s sister), and Anne, were transported to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp near Hanover, Germany. They both died of Typhus when the disease spread through the camp. Of the eight people in the Annex, only Otto Frank survived the concentration camps.