German-Dutch writer of a diary from age 14-15 while she and her Jewish family lived in total confinement, hiding in an attic from the Nazis where non-Jewish friends had sheltered them. Captured with her family, they died at Bergen-Belsen in March 1945, Anne and her sister Margot of typhus. Her father, who survived, returned after the war and found his daughter’s diary.
Anne began scrawling her diary on 12 June 1942, writing as a typical teen in many ways, childish and profound, thoughtful and painful, writing, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Her last entry was on 1 August 1944, three days before their hiding place was discovered and they were arrested.
In the Dutch (former resistance) paper “Het Parool”, 3 April 1946, the historian Jan Romein first mentions Anne Frank’s diary under the header of “Kinderstem” (children’s voice).
On 12 March 2001, a new edition of Anne Frank’s diary was released in Amsterdam with five previously secret pages that described Anne’s conflict with her mother, whom she wrote “had cold eyes,” and with whom she could not talk to unburden herself, and her lament that her parents had a loveless marriage of convenience.
Her diary remains as a poignant symbol of the millions whose lives and homes were lost during a tragic chapter in history. The stage play adapted from her diary in 1955 by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett was a sensation. In turn, it was transformed into George Stevens’ equally popular 1959 film. Translated into 54 languages with sales hovering around 25 million copies worldwide, her book is an established part of most high school educations. Putting a single face on the vast horror of the Holocaust, Frank served as a reminder of the quiet acts of heroism that were part of that high-water mark of evil.
Link to Wikipedia biography