by Catherine Morris

Created on: August 02, 2008   Last Updated: September 04, 2008

More than eleven million human beings perished under the Nazi regime in The Holocaust. The Diary of Anne Frank provides a valuable resource when teaching young people today about the atrocities and persecution of minority groups in Germany during World War II. This book and its backdrop allow today's pupils an opportunity to connect with a young girl who writes with enthusiasm about her thoughts and hopes for the future. Ambitions that were, sadly, never to be fulfilled.

When Anne was given a small notebook and new fountain pen on her thirteenth birthday she was eager to begin writing straight away. In this notebook she began to write a diary, an account of her innermost thoughts written to an imaginary friend called Kitty. These writings reveal an energetic teenage girl who manages to remain optimistic despite living under the threat of Nazi persecution. It is a story that has reached into many people's hearts.

Anne Frank was born on 12th June 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany, where her father ran his own small business. She was the second daughter to be born to Otto and his wife, Edith. Her sister Margot was three years older having been born on February 26th 1926. When the Nazis came to power in Germany Otto realised that the family's Jewish heritage placed them in danger of persecution from the Nazis even though the family were not devout, practising Jews. In an attempt to ensure the family's safety, he took the decision to move his business and family to Amsterdam from Frankfurt.

On arrival in their newly adopted homeland, Anne and her sister, Margot, settled into their new lives. However, in 1940, the Nazis invaded Holland and Otto Frank's plans for a new life for his family were threatened. Suppression of Jews began. Undeterred, he made secret plans to take his family into hiding in an attempt to evade Nazi arrest.

In her diary Anne recounts her feelings during the time of the Nazi occupation, though at the time unaware of her father's plans. Her writing reveals an insightful, intelligent young girl who is only too well aware of change in attitudes towards Jews and the marginalisation of Jewish families.

When Margot Frank was summoned to report for work in Germany, Otto Frank put his next plan into action, taking his wife and daughters into hiding in the secret annexe above his offices. Anne's diary now becomes even more of a source of comfort to her. In it she tells of how other Jews went into hiding with her family, of her teenage crush on Peter van Pels and

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