Women's History Month: Digital Read In

Anne Frank (June 12, 1929 – February/March 1945) was a Jewish teenager and diarist whose writings became one of the most powerful personal accounts of the Holocaust. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, her family fled to the Netherlands in 1933 to escape rising Nazi persecution. When the Nazis occupied the Netherlands in 1940, Anne and her family went into hiding in a secret annex in Amsterdam on July 6, 1942, where they remained for over two years before being discovered and deported to concentration camps.

While in hiding, Anne kept a detailed diary, capturing her thoughts, fears, and hopes for the future. According to the United States Holocaust Museum, on March 29, 1944, she heard a Dutch government broadcast on the radio stating they wanted to collect diaries and war recollections after the war. Inspired by this, Anne began revising her diary, adding more context and rewriting passages, hoping that it might be published one day. Tragically, Anne was arrested in August 1944 and later died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early 1945.

Her father, Otto Frank, the sole survivor of the family, discovered her diary after the war and published it in 1947 under the title The Diary of a Young Girl. The book has since been translated into over 70 languages, serving as a universal symbol of resilience, hope, and the horrors of war. Anne’s diary humanized the Holocaust, giving millions of readers a deeply personal perspective on persecution, fear, and the enduring strength of the human spirit. Her legacy continues to inspire education, activism, and the fight against antisemitism and injustice worldwide.