GOOGLE DOODLE TODAY: Today’s slideshow Doodle honours Jewish German-Dutch diarist and Holocaust victim Anne Frank. Although only written between the ages of 13-15, her personal account of the Holocaust and events of the war remains one of the most poignant and widely-read accounts to date.
Illustrated by Doodle Art Director Thoka Maer, 14 slides features real excerpts from her diary, which describes what she and her friends and family experienced in hiding for over two years. Today is the 75th anniversary of the publication of her diary, which is widely considered one of the most essential books in modern history.
The excerpts begins with a warning: “This post includes mentions of the Holocaust, which may be sensitive to some readers.”
CHECK THE REAL EXCERPTS FROM HER DIARY HERE
ANNE FRANK’S EARLY LIFE
Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany, but her family soon moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands to escape the increasing discrimination and violence faced by millions of minorities at the hands of the growing Nazi party.
World War II ignited when Anne was 10 years old, and soon after, Germany invaded the Netherlands, bringing the war to her family’s doorstep. Jewish people were particularly targeted by the Nazi regime, experiencing imprisonment, execution, or forced relocation to inhumane concentration camps.
Unable to live and practice freely and safely, millions of Jews were forced to flee their homes or go into hiding. In the spring of 1942, Anne’s family did just that, hiding in a secret annex in her father’s office building to avoid persecution.
THE SECRET ANNEX
The Frank family, like millions of others, were forced to act quickly and leave nearly everything behind to seek protection. Among Anne’s few possessions was an unassuming gift she had received on her thirteenth birthday just weeks earlier: a checkered hardback notebook. It soon became her vehicle to change the world forever.
Over the following 25 months in hiding, she filled its pages with a heartfelt account of teenage life in the “secret annex,” from small details to her most profound dreams and fears. Hopeful that her diary entries could be published after the war, Anne consolidated her writing into one cohesive story titled “Het Achterhuis” (“The Secret Annex”).
DIED AT 15
On August 4, 1944, the Frank family was found out by the Nazi Secret Service, arrested, and taken to a detention center where they were forced to perform hard labor. They were then forcibly deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland where they lived in cramped, unhygienic conditions.
A few months later, Anne and Margot Frank were transported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. In addition to the brutal, intentional killings of prisoners by Nazi forces, deadly diseases spread rapidly. Eventually, Anne and Margot succumbed to the inhumane conditions they were forced to live in. Anne Frank was just 15 years old.
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK
Although Anne Frank did not survive the horrors of the Holocaust, her account of those years, commonly known as “The Diary of Anne Frank,” has since become one of the most widely read works of non-fiction ever published. Translated into upwards of 80 languages, Frank’s memoir is a staple in today’s classrooms, utilized as a tool to educate generations of children about the Holocaust and the terrible dangers of discrimination and tyranny.
