Anne Frank
The Diary

 

The Angel Anne Frank, the beautiful, gifted young girl so full of life, optimism and creativity hiding from the Nazis simply because she was a Jew, a victim of the greatest Crime Against Humanity in the history of Homo Sapiens.

Betrayed by an unknown sub-human she was sent to Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp where she died in early 1945 not long before the camp was liberated by the British Army - but unlike millions of others not simply executed and burned. Instead she caught the typhus that swept through the camp, and so this extraordinary light of creation was extinguished just a few weeks before she might have tasted freedom.

Thanks to those who loved her and cherished her memory the diary she wrote has survived to become a world literary icon and treasure: an eternal reminder of Man's potential for unimaginable evil. She will forever be a symbol of the millions of Nazi victims, whose story is of course equally tragic. ALL OF THEM WERE INNOCENT, but they were the wrong race. To this day it remains almost unbelievable that Humans could act in this way - but happen it did, and must never so so again.




 

Anne with her friends on her tenth birthday, 12 June 1939. From left to right: Lucie van Dijk, Anne Frank, Sanne Ledermann, Hannah Goslar, Juultje Ketellapper, Kitty Egyedi, Mary Bos, Ietje Swillens and Martha van den Berg.

On June 14, 1942 Anne celebrated her thirteenth birthday. She invited various boys and girls from her class at the Jewish Lyceum, her neighborhood friends and her new friend Hello Silberberg. Anne took seriously the question of who would be allowed to come to her party and her parties had the reputation for being exceptionally exciting and entertaining. Edith served strawberry cake and milk and Otto helped with the games.This year, the high point would be showing the film "Rin Tin Tin - Lighthouse by the Sea". Otto then showed a film he himself was very proud of: an advertising film for Opekta.