Anne Frank (1929-1945) was a woman whose diary revealed the atrocities of World War II.
Anne Frank (1929-1945) was a woman whose diary revealed the atrocities of World War II.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Luvvie Ajayi Jones. I’m a New York Times Best Selling author and host of the podcast Professional Troublemaker. I’m so excited to be your guest host for this month of Womanica!
This month we’re highlighting Prodigies: women who achieved greatness at a young age.
Before we begin, a quick warning - today's episode contains mentions of violence.
Today, we’re exploring the story of a woman whose writing revealed the atrocities of World War Two. Let’s talk about Anne Frank.
Anne was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on June 12, 1929, to a Jewish family. At that time, anti-semetic sentiment in Germany was on the rise. When Anne was four years old, the Nazi regime came to power. Anne’s parents, Otto and Edith Frank, decided to move to Amsterdam in the Netherlands to escape persecution. Anne’s father started a small business selling herbs, spices, and pectin, which is used for making jam.
Anne and her family settled into their new life. Anne learned Dutch, and attended the local montessori school. Then, on September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The Second World War had begun. Less than a year later, on May 10, 1940, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands.
After they invaded, the new Nazi government introduced regulations that limited the freedom of Jewish people. Jews could no longer appear in certain public spaces, like parks. Jewish children had to go to separate Jewish schools. It became illegal for Jewish people to operate businesses, so Anne’s father had to give up ownership of his company.
Anne’s parents began planning to ensure their safety. There was an empty section in the building where Otto ran his business – and he began furnishing it. He realized that it was big enough to hide his entire family – plus the family of his Jewish employee, Hermann van Pels. Four of his other, non-Jewish, employees agreed to help him and his family if they went into hiding.
Then, on July 5, 1942, Anne’s older sister Margot received a call to report to a ‘labor camp’ in Nazi Germany. Otto and Edith realized the time had come – and the next day, the Frank family went into hiding. They were soon joined by Hermann van Pels, his wife Auguste van Pels, and their son Peter. A few months later, a German Jewish dentist, Fritz Pfeffer also joined.
Right before they went into hiding, Otto and Edith gave Anne a diary for her 13th birthday. While Anne was in hiding, she wrote in her diary every single day. She documented her thoughts and feelings, she wrote short stories and the beginning of a novel, and copied passages from her favorite books. Her writing was wide and varied – she talked about her dreams of becoming a journalist or writer, noted her annoyances with her family, wrote candidly about her love for Peter van Pels, and described how her family managed to survive in hiding.
In 1944, the Minister of Education of the Dutch government in England started encouraging people to keep their war diaries. Heeding this call, Anne began rewriting her diaries into one story, called Het Achterhuis, which translates roughly to ‘The Secret Annex’.
On August 4, 1944, Anne’s writing was cut short. The Secret Annex was raided by the police, and everyone hiding there was discovered. Along with thousands of other Jewish people living in the Netherlands, Anne and her family were packed into cattle wagons and taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. They left all their belongings behind – including Anne’s diary.
Anne, her sister, and her mother were sent to a forced labor camp for women. Then, in November 1944, Anne and her sister were separated from their mother and taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The camp was overcrowded, cold, and unsanitary. Anne Frank died there, after contracting typhus, in early 1945.
On January 17, 1945, Otto Frank was freed from Auschwitz by Soviet troops, along with the other remaining prisoners. In June 1945, he finally made it back to Amsterdam. On the journey, he learned that his wife had died. By July, he had found out his daughters had also died in the camps.
Some of the people who had helped Otto and his family live in the Secret Annex gave him Anne’s diaries, which they had kept after the family was taken. As Otto read them, he was struck by the depth of Anne’s writing.
Eventually, Otto edited and then published Anne’s diary in 1947, giving it the same name that Anne had given it – The Secret Annex.
Anne’s words captured the world’s attention. Her diary was translated into more than 70 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. The diary was adapted into a Broadway play, and a movie. And in 1995, a new English translation of her diary was published, which included material that Otto took out of the original version.
Additionally, in 1957 Otto helped establish The Anne Frank House -- a museum that preserves the Secret Annex that Anne and her family lived in. Today, visitors can walk through the same rooms Anne lived and wrote in, and learn more about her story.
Anne’s diary documenting her life as a young Jewish girl in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands helped expose the horrors of Jewish persecution to the world. Her words continue to inspire young people across the globe to fight injustice, and fight for change.
All month, we’re talking about prodigies. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for inviting me to guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!