Book Report on 'Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary'

The book Anne Frank Beyond the diary is written by Ruud Van Der Rol and Rian Verhoeven. Both the authors of this were workers in the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. The two worked on current problems of racism and discrimination in student programs. Ruud Van Der Rol was a sociologist and Rian Verhoeven was a historian. The two people helped publish the Anne Frank Journal.

The parents of Anne Frank, Otto, and Edith got married on May 12, 1925, and started their family. On February 16, 1926, their first daughter Margot was born. Then on June 12, 1929, they had their second daughter, Anne. The family was Jewish. The Frank family lived in a neighborhood with a lot of different religious backgrounds. The Frank family didn't care about what religion they were they actually allowed the kids to join them in the Hanukkah celebration because the kids were curious. The Frank family was doing great and had a good life until Hitler came into power in January 1933.

The Nazi party also came into power. The Nazis believed that the German race was superior to other races, they believed they were smarter and stronger than any other race. They also blamed the Jews to be dangerous. Otto and Edith were getting worried because of all the stuff going on like them making segregation laws and trying to put the Jews in poverty. The worry that Edith and Otto felt led them to move out of Germany when Hitler came to power. Otto and Edith are very good parents who did everything to keep their family safe.

On July 6, 1942, the Frank family left their home and a lot of their belongings and went into hiding. There were helpers for them to get into hiding Meip Gies was one of them she was someone the Frank family could really trust. The Frank family dressed in as much clothing as possible because they were unable to take suitcases for fear of being noticed. They also brought their school books. Education was very important to otto, he did not want the children to fall behind in their studies. The family wasn't supposed to go into hiding yet but the event of Margot getting a call-up notice pushed it forward. A call-up notice is when they get a date and time that their train is leaving and what they can bring. They will come to invade your home if you don't show up.

The secret hiding place was at Otto’s office it was a complex at the top of the building. The Franks shared the complex with multiple people a family known as the Van Pels and a man named Fritz Pfeffer. There were 8 people living in the annex. The families realized how their lives were going to drastically change. Like not being able to use the faucet or toilet between office hours and having to walk quietly and be quiet so no one in the office would hear them. The kids could not go to school anymore and had to be taught in the annex. The adults couldn't go to work anymore or to the grocery store. They couldn't go to the doctor if they got sick. Even with taking all these precautions they had to live with the constant fear of being caught.

There were many struggles in the annex. There were food shortages causing them to barely have enough food to feed everyone. Anne had struggles with going into hiding and leaving her whole life behind and started acting out. The people in the annex always compared her to her older sister Margot. Anne says that the only one in the annex that understands her is her father. Another thing is that the people in the annex had no communication with the outside world except through their helpers. The eight people in the annex were getting into little arguments because of sharing such a small area and not being able to leave.

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The living conditions in the annex weren't great. There was not much room in the annex there were three rooms but they made it work. Anne and Fritz shared a room, Margot and her parents shared a room, and Peter and his parents shared a room. There were really bad rats in the attic because that is where they stored their food. One day peter went to the attic to get some newspapers. When he was going down the stairs he tripped and fell he tried to catch himself and his hand landed on a rat and it bit him very badly.

There were many times in the annex that the people thought this was the end, such as the incidents like burglaries and noises downstairs.” One evening at eight the bell rang loudly everyone was terrified they wondered if it was the end.. carpenter was in the house to check the fire extinguishers and did not have time to warn them”(page 63). These things made them think that their time in the annex was over.

There did come a time when their time of hiding in the annex came to an end. One summer morning Otto went upstairs to practice studies with Peter a great summer morning quickly changed. They heard a noise downstairs and were in shock when they saw 5 men one from the german police. The men allowed them to pack a few things and then they stole anything valuable. The 8 people were taken to a tuck to the german police station. The family spent 4 days at the station locked in a holding cell. Then they were taken to Westerbork camp and then sent to a death camp in Poland in September. The next day all the kids under 15 were sent to be killed in gas chambers. Anne had just had her 15th birthday so she was not sent to be killed in the gas chambers.

Life in a concentration camp was awful. The people got barely any food so hundreds died of starvation. The people also did not get medicines so many died of diseases. New groups of people were sent to the gas chambers. The families were separated because the girl and boys' camps were separate. The concentration camps were killing people and they couldn't even be with their families to say their goodbyes. The guards clubbed and beat the people for no reason. One from the annex survived except Anne and Margot's dad Otto.

Hermann Van Pel was murdered in a gas chamber shortly after his arrival at Auschwitz Birkenau. Fritz Pfeffer ended up in the Neuengamme concentration camp where he died in December 1944. Margot and Anne had to leave their mother in Auschwitz. Edith later died on January 6, 1945. Peter Van Pel died on May 5 1945 in Mauthausen a camp in Austria. Anne and Margot fought to stay alive but Anne thought both of her parents were dead. People said that if they would have known their dad was alive still they would have fought harder to say alive. Margot died in March of 1945 and a few days later Anne died. Otto Frank the father of Margot and Anne was the only one to survive.

After the war ended Otto went back to Amsterdam. Otto had heard his wife had died but he still had hope that Margot and Anne were alive. After two months of hoping they were alive, he got word that both his daughters Margot and Anne had died. Map wanted to give the diary back to Anne but since she had died she gave the diary to Anne's father. Anne's father worked hard to publish the diary and now the diary she wrote impacts millions of people around the world.