A Moment in time: July 6, 1942
This file photo taken on January 1, 1942, and released by Anne Frank Fonds shows a portrait of Anne Frank who died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in May, 1945, at the age 15.
ANNE FRANK FONDS VIA AFP / GETTY IMAGES
Anne Frank and her family go into hiding
The notification with the Nazi insignia arrived on July 5, a Sunday. Days after receiving her report card (“brilliant, as usual”), Margot Frank, 16, received a call-up notice from the SS ordering her to go to a labour camp in Germany. A secret family plan was hastily moved up: The Franks would go into hiding in an annex atop the warehouse Otto Frank used to own (but could no longer, as a Jew in German-occupied Amsterdam). Margot and her sister, Anne, packed their schoolbags with their most important things, including the diary Anne had recently received for her 13th birthday. “Memories mean more to me than dresses,” she wrote. On Monday morning Margot rode off on her bicycle. Anne and her parents left their home at 7:30 a.m. The only living creature Anne could say goodbye to was her cat. Suffocating under layers and layers of clothing, they walked in the pouring rain to the rooms behind the swinging bookcase where they would spend more than two years, living with four others. On Aug. 4, 1944, the secret annex was raided. The occupants were arrested and later sent to Auschwitz. Only Otto survived. And Anne’s diary, which has told this story to millions of people. Marsha Lederman
The Globe and Mail
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