10 Interesting Anne Frank Facts

Over one million children under the age of sixteen died in in World War II, not because of the bombs, but because they did not fit in as Hitler’s image of the “perfect” German. Many children and their parents living in countries, which had been invaded by the Germans, were imprisoned and killed because they were Jewish. Jewish people follow the religion known as Judaism. Anne Frank was an ordinary German Jewish girl. She enjoyed playing with her toys, riding her bike and going to the seaside. Anne Frank is well known because of her diary. It was first published as a book, in Dutch, in 1947. Since then, millions of people have read the thoughts and hopes of one young girl and have been inspired by them. Here is 10 interesting facts on Anne Frank

1. On Anne Frank’s thirteenth birthday she received a diary, she named it “Kitty” which she liked the best out of all her presents. She loved to write in “Kitty.”

anne frank diary open

2. She loved playing pranks with her sister Margot. Margot is three years older than Anne, and seems quieter and more serious than Anne. She, too, keeps a diary. She and Anne grow closer throughout the course of their hiding, but it is with Peter that Anne shares her hopes and fears.

Margot Frank, mei 1939.

3. Anne Frank died at age 15. In March 1945, a typhus epidemic spread through the camp and killed approximately 17,000 prisoners. Witnesses later testified Margot fell from her bunk in her weakened state and was killed by the shock, and a few days later, Anne died.

memorial of anne

4. Anne and her family lived in the Annex for two years. The annex was in Amsterdam. There were 7 other people living in the small annex with her, only 3 others were family members.

secret annexe

5. Anne did not get along with her mother. She finds her mother cold and often condescending. She has an idea of what the perfect mother should beand Mummy does not fit the image. It upsets her that Mummy always takes Margot’s side, and seems to prefer her.

anne's mother

6. Her father Otto kept her diary and two years after she died, in 1947, her father published it unchanged. In 1959, a movie was filmed about her diary. In her short life she was able to writing short stories and some short fables. She is remembered most for her diary that has been published in over 30 languages. Many children all over America read the “Diary of Anne Frank” in school.

anne's father

7. Anne kept her diary from June 12, 1942 – August 1, 1944. Although it was an autograph book, bound with red-and-white checkered cloth and with a small lock on the front, Frank decided she would use it as a diary, and began writing in it almost immediately.

anne's diary

8. Anne originally wrote the diary for herself, but then heard on the radio that people were looking to collect eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust.

The Diary of a Young Girl

9. Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl helped the families (they were secrataries in the office with the entrance to the annex). Mep and Bep were the ones who found the diaries, after Anne and the 7 other people living there were arrested, they gave them to her father, Otto, after it was apparent that Anne was dead). The members of the annex did not allow people to speak German, they thought it was an “uncivilized’ language.

miep

10. Anne Frank facts was arrested on August 4, 1944. The Achterhuis was stormed by the German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified. The Franks, van Pelses and Pfeffer were taken to the Gestapo headquarters, where they were interrogated and held overnight. On 5 August, they were transferred to the Huis van Bewaring (House of Detention), an overcrowded prison on the Weteringschans.

arrest