HISTORY LESSON 101

In between my PROJECT KINDNESS articles, I am going to also work on another installation of articles. I am going to be doing a segment called HISTORY LESSON 101, and in the segment I will do an article on a topic of interest from History. Today, my article is going to be about Anne Frank.

We all know and read the book called Anne Frank A Diary of a Young Girl in school, and we have done projects or assignments revolving around Anne Frank. But do we really know Anne Frank?

I have recently been reading a magazine book from the Centennial Features about Anne Frank. It is a magazine book, that I have bought before, the other one being Marilyn Monroe, and I have learned new information about Anne Frank that I didn't know.

Anne Frank was born June 12, 1929, and lived until the early part of 1945. It isn't exactly known when she had passed away, except by the time of her passing, she was sick with Typhus, a disease that was very prominent through out the concentration camps. April 15th, 1945, the concentration camp, Bergen-Belson, where Anne Frank and her sister Margot Frank were being held, was liberated. By that time Anne and her sister Margot has succumbed to Typhus.

Anne had gotten a diary for her 13th birthday, and would begin her tale of her life in hiding from the Nazi's. With fears of being found and sent away to the horrors of the concentration camps, the Frank family, went into hiding at 263 Prinsengracht, along with four other people, the Van Pels family (Herman, Auguste, and Peter) and a dentist named Frits Pfeffer. In what is known as the Secret Annex, the Jewish occupants in hiding were able to live undiscovered from July 16th, 1942 until August 4th, 1944, which is 2 years, 2 weeks, and 5 days.

The occupants, had to stifle any noise that could be made, while workers were working in the warehouse below, they had to live in a cramped 800 square foot annex, and had to severely ration their food and other supplies as the war progressed on and on.

As everyone who took social studies, or history in school, Adolf Hitler rose to power in January 1933, and began persecution of the Jewish race. Hitler had moved in his Nazi's to destroy any and all Jewish business, and had ordered that the Jews be rounded up and forced to live in unhealthy living spaces called the Ghettos. Shortly after the Ghettos were formed, Hitler ordered all Jews be deported to what he called "Work Camps". The Jews would be gathered and put onto train cars, called cattle cars, which were meant to hold up to 50 people, but instead were filled to over the maximum limit.

As Hitler raged across Europe to seize power and control, and in 1940, Hitler defeated the Holland Army, and occupied the country. Thus began the persecution of the Jews.

As Anne and her family, and the Van Pels, and Pfeffer all lived in the small annex, above Otto Frank's business, life consisted of fear of being found, and Anne was documenting it all.

From her 13 year old stand point about life in Nazi occupied Holland, we catch a glimpse of the horrors that befell the Jewish religion.

Anne frequently talked about her love of literature, and her growing body. Before she went into hiding, Anne was considered a social butterfly, and loved to learn. From Greek mythology, to kings and queens, Anne talked about becoming a novelist. Little did she know, she was already a novelist, and sadly would not live to see her work becoming a true work of art.

In the Centennial Features magazine book, there has been a new investigation into who had betrayed the family to the Nazi's. The Frank's had five people that they trusted to help them during their time in the annex. Miep Gies, Bep Voskuijl, Victor Kugler, and Johannes Kleiman. The women would gather the food, and household essentials for the family, and the men would focus on the finances for the family and the family business.

There is a lot as far as information as to who betrayed them. There are many viable suspects, yet we cannot pinpoint one sole person who is responsible. It has been said that there were many Jewish people that would cut deals with the Nazi's in order to save themselves and their families. In hindsight, it was a matter of life and death, one cannot say whether they would or would not do the same.

As far as the discovery of the secret annex, there is a museum now, that you can go and see the annex and see what life was like for the occupants. https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/secret-annex/, this website will also show you pictures of it, and will even tell Anne Franks story.

But, at the end of the day, we should not only remember the fear, the horrors, and the struggles one faced during Hitler's reign over the people of European countries, and even though we may learn about different people that have made their mark on history for their brave and courageous action, let us not forget the people that were sent to their deaths by a man so blinded by power and hatred, and even though we may not know their lives, or their names like we know Anne Frank's, we should remember the people that never saw their demise coming. We see or read that eventually, the Jews had gotten word through many different people, or actions from the Nazi's that the Jews, had caught on to what was really happening. Some say they were oblivious until the end, but I think that they found out, and it was their time to make an escape, or hide until it was over.

We may never know the true extent of the crimes, and atrocities done, but with evidence that has been found to help us understand what really went on, we can step into their shoes, and see life as they did.

Over 6 million, maybe more than we already know...from Jews, to Gypsies, to the people that opposed the Nazi's and Hitler, we will never truly forget their demise, and their lives that were abruptly ended.

This article is the first installment of a series I will be doing called HISTORY LESSON 101, which will be a 10 part segment from the beginning of time, to 2019, stay tuned for more. The next segment will focus on Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt.