averilburystedmunds: Holocaust Memorial Day: January 27th, 2026

Inside the Auschwitz Extermination Camp 1942

The Remembrance Day date for honouring the

Anne's passport photo, June 1942

Holocaust was chosen to coincide with the date when Auschwitz was liberated on Jan 27^th,1945. Among the 8,000 remaining prisoners released, was Otto Frank, desperately ill like so many others. Otto was the only one of the eight people who hid in the Annexe [see below] to survive the war. Near the end of his life, he reflected, “I am now almost ninety and my strength is slowly failing. Still, the task I received from Anne continues to restore my energy; to struggle for reconciliation and human rights." The recent celebration of the Holocaust Memorial Day brought vividly to mind that most famous victim of the Holocaust, Anne Frank, born Anneliese Marie Frank on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, three years younger than her sister Margot. Her story continues to inspire.

Germany: Persecution of Jews 1933-1945

In the Thirties, in post-war Germany, poverty was rife and unemployment high, conditions which enabled Hitler and the Nazis to seize power and blame the national difficulties on the Jews. In view of the poor economic situation and the rampant anti-Semitism nationally, Otto and Edith Frank, Anne’s parents, decided to leave Germany and move the family to Amsterdam where Otto founded a company dealing in pectin, Opektra, a gelling agent used in jam-making. The move was successful and the family enjoyed life in Amsterdam where they learned Dutch, made friends and Anne happily atttended a Dutch school near her home.

Behind the enemy powers, the Jew

In 1939, on September 1st, when Anne was ten, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and launched WW2, with the Nazis invading the Netherlands on May 10 1940, when the Dutch army quickly surrendered. Almost immediately, anti-Jewish legislation commenced in the Netherlands and Jewish lives quickly became difficult and soon, dangerous. For instance, Jews could no longer visit parks, cinemas, non-Jewish shops and could not own any business while Jewish children could only attend separate
Jewish schools. Otto Frank, like many others, had to relinquish his company, while Jews were forced to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes; outward symbols of the Jew-hatred which led to the systematic deportation of Jews from the Netherlands. When Margot, Anne’s big sister, received a call-up to report for re-location to a labour camp in Nazi Germany on 5 July 1942, this was a clear warning which alerted Otto who brought forward his plan for his family to hide in an annexe of his canal-side business premises at Prinsengracht 263 which they did on Monday 6 July.. He had already begun furnishing a hiding place there. This achterhuis [Secret Annexe] was a three-storey space entered from a landing above the Opektra offices where trusted colleagues and employees of Otto worked. The Franks’ apartment was left in deliberate disarray to suggest a hasty departure and Otto left a note hinting the family had gone to Switzerland, also asking their neighbours, the Kupers, to take care of their cat, Moortje. The door to the achterhuis was finally covered with a heavy bookcase.

Otto Frank at the entrance to the achterhuis hidden
behind the bookcase. 1964. He had lost Anne,
Margot and Edith almost twenty years earlier.

Four employees from Otto’s business, plus the father of one and husband of another, were the sum total of people who knew of the hidden Frank family. This little group comprising Victor Kugler, Johanne Kleieman, Miep Gies, Bep Voskuikl, kept the Franks informed of the war's progres and of any political developments and supplied them with food and any other requirements. Anne wrote of their huge help in her diary, and of their dedication to keeping up the Frank morale as they all tried hard to avoid discovery and certain death.

On 13^th July 1942 the Frank family was joined by the Van Pels family, Hermann, Auguste and 16-year-old Pieter, and in November by Fritz Pfeffer a dentist and family friend. Tensions quickly developed within the group forced to live in such confined conditions with the shared fear of lethal discovery. For Anne’s thirteenth birthday on 12 June 1942, Anne had received an autograph book bound with a red and white chequered cloth and with a small lock on the front. She loved it and decided to use it as a diary which she named, Kitty. Many details known of Anne’s wartime life and the restrictions placed upon Dutch Jews by the Nazis, were found in her diary.

Blue and Yellow Stars of David: Some details:

On November 23, 1939, Hans Frank, the Nazi Governor-Generral of occupied Poland, decreed that all Jews in Poland over the age of 10 were required to designate themselves as Jewish by wearing a white arm badge with a blue Star of David whenever they went out in public. It was the first time that the Nazis had legally required Jews to distinguish themselves in appearance from the rest of the population. This ruling was later implemented across Nazi-occupied Europe but Frank's order was only the beginning. On September 1, 1941 Reinhard Heydrich ordered all Jews over the age of six in Germany, Alsace, Bohemia-Moravia and the German-occupied areas of Poland, to wear a yellow Star of David in public. This command extended the public labelling of Jews into every part of Nazi-controlled Europe with the exception of Southern France and Denmark. The rule stipulated that the Star must be worn on the left side of Jews' outer clothing, and on their backs for easy public identification. Each badge was supposed to measure four inches in length and the word Jude was written in the local language necessary and used a font to imitate the appearance of Hebraic type.