Thursday Thirteen

Today, for Thursday 13, I write about Anne Frank.

1. Anne Frank's full name was Annelies Marie Frank. She was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany. If she had lived, she would be 96 years old today.

2. Anne received her famous diary on June 12, 1942, as a birthday gift. She would go on to fill it with immortal words that still reach hearts today.

3. Her family moved to Amsterdam in 1933 to escape Nazi persecution, which referred to the systematic oppression, discrimination, and violence carried out by Adolf Hitler's regime against Jewish people and other targeted groups. As antisemitic policies intensified in Germany, Jewish families, including the Franks, sought safety in other countries.

4. She and her family went into hiding on July 6, 1942, after her sister Margot received a call-up notice. They hid in a secret annex above her father’s business for over two years.

5. Anne aspired to be a journalist or writer, and her diary reflects her literary talent. She wrote about daily life, emotions, and hopes for the future in her diary. Her diary was originally an autograph book, which she repurposed for writing.

6. She celebrated two birthdays while in hiding, receiving books and poems as gifts.

7. The annex housed eight people, including the Frank family, the van Pels family, and dentist Fritz Pfeffer.

8. Anne wrote letters to an imaginary friend named "Kitty", which became a key part of her diary. She revised her diary in hopes of publishing it after the war, inspired by a radio broadcast.

9. The annex was discovered on August 4, 1944, and all residents were arrested. The raid was carried out by members of the German Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst), who entered the building between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. They questioned Victor Kugler, one of the helpers, before discovering the entrance to the hidden annex. The eight people in hiding, along with two of their helpers, were taken into custody. During the arrest, SS officer Karl Silberbauer emptied Otto Frank’s briefcase, scattering Anne’s diary papers on the floor. Later, helper Miep Gies collected the papers and kept them safe, eventually giving them to Otto Frank after the war.

10. Anne and Margot were sent to Auschwitz, one of the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camps during World War II. Located in German-occupied Poland, Auschwitz was a complex of camps where prisoners were subjected to forced labor, inhumane conditions, and mass executions. It became a central site of the Holocaust, with over a million people, mostly Jewish victims, perishing there. Upon arrival, prisoners were often separated, with many sent directly to gas chambers. Anne and Margot were later transferred from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen, where they tragically lost their lives.

11. Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen in February 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated. Bergen-Belsen was liberated by British forces on April 15, 1945. When the British 11th Armored Division arrived, they found approximately 60,000 prisoners, most of them severely malnourished and suffering from disease. The soldiers also discovered thousands of unburied corpses, revealing the horrific conditions of the camp. Despite immediate relief efforts, many survivors continued to succumb to illness in the days following liberation.

12. Her father, Otto Frank, was the only survivor of the annex residents. Otto published Anne’s diary in 1947, fulfilling her dream of becoming a writer.

13. Her diary has been translated into over 70 languages, making it one of the most widely read books in the world.

The annex is now the Anne Frank Museum, visited by millions each year.

Anne’s story remains one of the most powerful accounts of resilience and hope ever written. 

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 911th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.