Anne Frank begins her diary

One of the most famous books in the world is started in Amsterdam

Seeking to escape the anti-Semitic persecution of the Third Reich, Otto and Edith Frank and their two daughters Margot and Anne left their hometown of Frankfurt am Main for Amsterdam in 1934. Otto Frank soon found a job as branch manager for a German company, and the family settled down to a new life. This all changed in 1940 with the German occupation of the Netherlands: new anti-Jewish laws were passed, and the Frank family sought to emigrate to the USA. However, unable to leave and threatened with arrest, the family went into hiding in July 1942, finding refuge in a building owned by the company for which Otto Frank worked, in the centre of Amsterdam.

A few weeks earlier, Anne had been given a notebook for her 13th birthday, and she used it as a diary. She began making entries on 14 June 1942, recording her hopes, fears and dreams. For more than two years, she described the difficult conditions in the cramped hiding place and the changes presented by the Nazi occupation. It is still disputed today whether her family was betrayed, but the Franks were arrested by the SS on 4 August 1944. Taken to Auschwitz, the Frank family was separated, and the two daughters were later transferred to Bergen-Belsen in Lower Saxony, where they died in February 1945, probably from hunger and disease. After the war, Anne’s diary was given to her father, the only surviving member of the small family. He arranged for the publication of the book, which is now part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.