“I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains”, written by Anne Frank. Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl born on June 12th, 1929. She lived in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Her family consisted of her father Otto Frank, sister Margot and mother Edith. Anne and her family lived a carefree life until Adolf’s sudden rise to power became more real and threatening. The family soon left Germany and moved to the Netherlands in Amsterdam.
In Netherlands Otto quickly started up a business called Opekta that sold spice and pectis. Anne attended Montessori school while her sister Margot went to a public school. Anne’s father tried repeatedly to emigrate with the family to the USA, Cuba or England. Because of Nazi Germany declaring war on the USA in December of 1941 no one was allowed to depart in or out of the USA. Anne’s parents had been preparing a hiding spot for the family in case something was to happen. June 10th of 1942 Anne received a checkered diary from her father for her 13th birthday, the diary was later written in daily. It becomes her escape from awful events happening in her life. July 5th Margot received a notice for her deportation to a forced labor camp, the family went into hiding the next day.
The hiding place was referred to as the “Secret Annex”. The Secret Annex consisted of three stories of rooms at the back of a house. Right below were her father’s business offices which were occupied during the day. On the first floor was the bathroom. A staircase led to the second floor where there was a large room and small room. The small room had a ladder that led to the attic.
The Franks had people they trusted mostly employees that knew they were hiding. These people brought food and information about the war daily. About seven days after going into hiding a family named the Van Pels joined Anne’s. There were Mr. and Mrs. Van Pels and their son Peter. Anne was very much happy about the extra company. In November 1942 , Fritz Pfeffer who was a dentist, joined the two families. Margot moved into her parents room and Anne shared hers with Mr.Pfeffer. Anne didn’t like Mr.Van Pels or Mr.Pfeffer she felt they ate too much of the food and hated sharing her room with him.
Anne wrote her strongest feelings in her diary. She wrote about her crush on the quiet and shy Peter Van Pels that hid with her family. Anne also wrote about every other relationship with people in the secret annex. Anne had written negatively about her mother in the early time during hiding. Anne matured a lot over the time in hiding and the relationship between her and her mother changed. Anne became closer to her sister too. Anne and her sister both agreed on how much they missed school and friends so often they would do school work. Anne’s last diary entry was August 1, 1944. She was fifteen years old.