Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany as the second daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Hollander Frank. Anne spent the first few years of her life in a mixed neighborhood of Christian and Jewish children, and spent many afternoons playing with her older sister, Margot. In March 1933, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party was elected in Frankfurt, and anti-Semitic measures were put into effect immediately. Otto Frank, fearing for his family’s safety, began to search for a new home in Amsterdam. Edith, Margot, and Anne moved to Aachen, Germany to stay with their grandmother until Otto Frank secured a new job and an apartment in Amsterdam. Otto was joined by the rest of his family in February 1934. Anne began school and attended a Montessori school where she enjoyed reading and writing.
Anne had a very good relationship with her sister, although their personalities were polar opposites. Anne was very outgoing, energetic and extraverted, while Margot was quiet, dedicated to her studies and introverted. The next few years in the Netherlands were relatively quiet, but the Franks kept hearing stories from friends in Germany about the deteriorating conditions for the Jewish population.
Otto Frank established a second company in June 1938 with Herman Van Pels, whose family would join the Franks in their hiding place. The Van Pels had also fled Germany in 1938 because of the escalating anti-Semitism. The escalating anti-Semitism also became evident in the Netherlands, and in May 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands, and immediately began to impose restrictions on the Jewish population. The restrictions included the registration of all Jews, segregation into Jewish schools, and the requirement that Jews wear a yellow star to distinguish them from other citizens.
In 1941, Anne started to attend the Jewish Lyceum, and had to leave many of her friends behind, and was discouraged to talk to them. The discriminatory laws continued to get worse over...