Anne Frank was a Jewish girl, born June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt am main and lived through the time that Hitler was ruling Germany. Her family escaped to the Netherlands, to start a new life where they could do what they wanted. She had a father, mother, and a sister that was three years older than her. She was in the Netherlands at the time she celebrated her 13th birthday. On that day she received the best present anyone could give her...a diary.

Then Hitler and the Nazis invaded and took over the Netherlands. The Jews had to wear a special star, so everyone could see who they were, and they had new rules to live by. They weren't allowed to do much of anything that they used to be able to. They even had a curfew. The Frank family continued on with their lives until her Sister was ordered to go to a concentration camp. The family went into hiding in the attic above Otto Frank's office. They had friends bring them food and keep them hidden. The only people who knew about the hiding place were Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep Gies, and Bep Voskuijl. They didn't want anyone to find them, so they had to keep extra quiet. They shared the attic also, so it was very crowded.

On September 28, 1942 she wrote: I can't tell you how oppressive it is never to be able to go outdoors, also I am very afraid that we will be discovered and shot. Anne spent a lot of time with Peter Van Pel, a boy that was in hiding with her. They became very close. The last entry Anne wrote in her diary was on August, 1, Three days after this was written, the German police found their hiding place, and they were taken to concentration camps. The diary was left behind. Margot and she were forced to work horrible jobs, such as smashing batteries. The acid burned her fingers. In 1945, Margot (sister) died of typhus, followed just a few days later by Anne, also from typhus. Anne mostly wrote in her diary. They had to keep the windows blacked out; their only sunlight was a skylight that Anne would spend hours looking out of. She hated being trapped in that small space.

During the 2 years and 1 month Anne Frank spent hiding in a secret Annex in Amsterdam during World War II, she kept a diary. Anne Frank’s Diary, which was published by her father after the war and has been read by millions of people around the world, chronicles both the tension and difficulties on living in such a confined space for that a long duration as well as Anne’s struggles with becoming teenager. Since the publication of her diary, Anne Frank has become a symbol of the children that were murdered in the Holocaust.