Biography of Anne Frank
Anne Frank was a diarist who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 1929. Before she died in Bergen-Belsen in 1945, she was able to maintain a two-year-long diary reflecting on her life under Nazi occupation in Amsterdam that has influenced literature since its first publishing in 1947. Otto Frank, a businessman and Anne’s father, had relocated the family to Amsterdam at the early beginnings of the Nazi regime, and in 1941, Anne was compelled to join a Jewish school. It was on the 12th of June in 1942 that she first wrote in her diary that would become monumental to Holocaust-related literature as well as Dutch and worldwide materials regarding the time period.
Anne’s sister, Margot Frank, was threatened with deportation and the entire family hid at the back of a warehouse that belonged to their father’s business. They were able to do this with the help of non-Jewish friends such as Miep Gies, who would smuggle food and supplies to the family. Four other Jews lived with the Franks, including Hermann and Auguste van Pels and their son, Peter, and Fritz Pfeffer (Beijersbergen & Vermeulen, 2019). Anne would write in her diary frequently during this period of time about the increasing fear of capture as well as typical annoyances. She would often discuss adolescent concerns and future aspirations, such as her dream to become a writer or journalist. Around the 4th of August in 1944, the Gestapo discovered the hideout where the Franks resided. The family was deported to Westerbork and later to Auschwitz. Anne and Margot were taken to Bergen-Belsen a month after. The Dutch government confirmed that Anne and Margot perished in a typhus epidemic in March of 1945, though recent evidence has suggested they may have died in February of the same year instead.
The Role of Dutch Authorities and People during the Holocaust
Germany invaded the Netherlands on the 10th of May in 1940, and four days after Rotterdam had been bombed, the Dutch army had surrendered. This was mainly done due to the fear of Amsterdam being subject to the same attack. The Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands had escaped to Great Britain and formed a government-in-exile to attempt to manage the escalating events. During Hitler’s rise in 1933, a large portion of German Jews fled to the Netherlands as it remained a neutral power for a certain period of time and many Jews believed they would avoid persecution by German forces. The Netherlands was home to at least 140,000 Jews but antisemitic sentiments began to rise with the presence of the German civil administration and the SS. Jewish newspapers were closed down, Jewish students were exiled from schools and universities, and Jewish civil servants were fired. A large number of Jews were also forced to register with the SS and many were sent to labor camps to provide for German war efforts. The Dutch police cooperated with German efforts and railway operators in the Netherlands administered the trains that deported Jews to concentration camps until 3rd September 1944.
Despite the fact that a majority of Dutch organizations worked under the Nazi regime, resistance was persistent and active throughout the war. One of the most prominent events includes the fight that broke out between Jews and occupying German police, which resulted in the arrest and transportation of 389 Jews to Buchenwald. A significant number of the Dutch population was outraged and many workers went on strike in the form of a protest. This resistance was met with violent suppression by the Nazis. A number of Dutch people also hid Jews from Nazis and another group resisted the occupiers through partisan actions.
Impact on Dutch Society
In order to gain complete insight into the effects of Anne Frank’s diary, it is essential to interpret her own description of Dutch society as well as the occurring events during the uprising of the Nazi regime in the Netherlands. Anne Frank’s diary serves as an essential document that outlines the lives of Jews in the Netherlands during which rapid change and detriments occurred. Through her diary, a general outlook can be garnered regarding the presence of Jews in the country and the relationships they had with non-Jews. Similarly, her work is essential to both Dutch literature and historical accounts of the Holocaust for its honesty and Anne’s personal insight.
As outlined in Frank’s writing, while resistance persisted and portions of the Dutch society, much of the country’s operations were swayed by Nazi rule. This initially began with segregation, which affected Frank directly as she began to attend a Jewish Lyceum and was no longer allowed to be educated with other Dutch children. Despite the mass antisemitic operations, Frank’s family was supported by the employees of her father who were her source of outside information and essential resources. Anne makes notes of events that she finds impactful and recollects news regarding Allied setbacks, German advances, fluctuating optimism of the adults, increased robberies of Jews, and decreasing supplies and food (Blakemore, 2022). She is able to reveal more of her personal grievances when she faces her identity as her German citizenship has been revoked but she cannot become a Dutch citizen due to the hostility many Dutch individuals possess towards Jews. This turbulence is reflective of the sentiments many Jews in the Netherlands had at the time.
The Netherlands found itself in a unique predicament regarding the Jewish population and the Nazi occupation and rule. The Netherlands, Belgium, and France had all been victims of the German invasion and the installation of German law and antisemitic rules. However, while the Dutch government had left to exile, which allowed for an authoritative vacuum that was filled with German officials, the Belgian and French governments were allowed to remain but were obligated to act under German direction. Around 75% of the Jewish population of the Netherlands perished, which is exceedingly high when compared to neighboring countries (Griffioen & Zeller, n.d.). This resulted in slowed liberation of Jews within the Netherlands as French and Belgian governments, while initially sympathetic to German causes, were able to dissolve ongoing operations and mitigate the killing of Jews at the closing of the war.
Frank often makes reference to not understanding the reasoning as to why the Dutch people are supporting the targeting of the Jews. As she begins to mature, she does not come to the conclusion that likely describes the reason for the severe persecution of Jews in the Netherlands but makes profound comments regarding being perceived as an individual versus an identity-less member of a persecuted group. This theme is essential to a majority of her thoughts regarding the events as it directly opposes the Nazi ideology of persecution and prejudice. The Netherlands had been under the direct control of Nazi operators and deeply affected by antisemitic sentiment. When this potential context is analyzed with Frank’s personal insight, the gravity of being Jewish in the Netherlands during the Holocaust becomes even more evident and vital to understanding why such hostilities developed.
Impact on World Literature and Historical Documentation
The Dutch minister of education, art, and science, who had been in exile in London, broadcast an important message that had affected Anne. He stated that “history cannot be written on the basis of official decisions and documents alone. What we really need are ordinary documents – a diary, letters.” (Anne Frank House Museum, n.d.). This caused Anne to turn her diary into a historical document containing detailed accounts of daily routines, her interactions with the other Jews in hiding, and her personal feelings and reaction to ongoing events. Anne herself was able to realize the importance of her work and historians that followed the events of the war treasured it as well. An account of the events from the perspective of the persecuted groups was rare, and Anne’s case of a perspective that came from a young writer was especially unique. As supported by the Dutch minister, personal accounts are of vital importance as they provide insights that are often lost and allow us to track and discover the lives even of those that have perished. Anne falls into such a category, as she had died prior to the publication of her work. It has impacted and informed not only historians but regular readers of the Netherlands as well as the world ever since.
Anne Frank has also been deemed an excellent writer and editor. This can be seen in her decision to turn her diary into a novel before her deportation to the concentration camps. Frank was able to rewrite parts of her diary in order to publish it when she had an opportunity to do so. The differences between her revision and initial efforts reveal both trivial and profound notions that she was attempting to express. Similarly, her observations contributed to the level of her writing and her optimism was especially prominent in a time that was extremely horrific. The context in which she wrote her work is deeply ingrained in the narrative of her work and has shaped not only historical reflections on the Holocaust but a wide array of fictive and non-fictive works throughout the century and beyond it.
The influence of her diary on many modern works is undeniable. From direct biographical pieces to more subtle inspirations, Frank’s writing has had a profound effect on the world of literature, film, and other arts. A number of books were written from a documentarian perspective, such as the novel Anne Frank and the Children of the Holocaust by Carol Ann Lee, which follows a number of stories concerning children during the Holocaust. Both the film and book The Freedom Writers Diary depict a scene in which students raise money to invite Miep Gies, one of the people that hid the Franks, to speak to them about Anne. This scene was based on real-life events. While these may be written and fictional works, they illustrate the fact that Anne Frank’s work continues to persist as deeply influential not only in literature and history but in the lives of many who encounter her story.
References
Anne Frank House Museum. (n.d.). The publication of the diary. Anne Frank House Museum. Web.
Beijersbergen, K. & Vermeulen, S. (2019). Anne Frank’s legacy lives on 90 years after her birth. NLintheUSA. Web.
Blakemore, E. (2022). Who was Anne Frank? Why her legacy is still fought over today? National Geographic. Web.
Griffioen, P. & Zeller, R. (n.d.). The Netherlands: the highest number of Jewish victims in Western Europe. Anne Frank House Museum. Web.