March is Woman's History Month

ANNE FRANK

German Stamp of Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank

is the most widely read written works

of non-fiction in the world 

and is translated in 67 languges.

 After the war, her father, Otto Frank,

 revisited the "Secret Annex" where

they hid for 25 months and

found five of her notebooks

and 300 loose pages.

In 1946, Otto Frank had the diary 

published in Amsterdam.

Anne recieved the dairy on her 13th birthday in 1942. 

She addressed each passage to "Dear Kitty"

 and  immediately began to record her

hopes, fears,  and experiences 

as if speaking to her most trusted friend.

 She was an ambitious young lady and worked

very hard to perfect her craft   

   and develope her talent as a credible writer.

The " Secret Annex"

Anne Frank was a  young woman who

courageously lived the last 2 years of her

 life in hiding from the Nazi Regime.   

 As a attempt to remain safe amidst the

 increasing anti- Jewish measures, the

Franks went into hiding with another

 family and another friend on July 8, 1942. 

Their hiding place was actually  2 hidden floors

 in Otto Frank's office building on 203 Prinsengracht.

 Four of Otto's employees helped them with

food and supplies until the two families 

 were found and arrested on August 7, 1944.

Another view of the  "Secret Annex"

 It is hard to comprehend what

 it must have been like for Anne,

at age thirteen, to live for 25 months

 in the cramped, small space 

of the "Secret Annex". 

The bookcase that concealed the

entrance to the "Secret Annex"

The war continued all around them,

 as day after day they lived in

fear of being caught.

Anne learned to live in absolute silence,

 hearing the aircraft bombs,

weathering the heat in the summer

 and the cold in the winter. 

Close up of the entrance to the Anne Frank House

She yearned to be outside to

 feel the sun on her face

 but knew that was a possibility

 she could not entertain. 

And yet, she made the best of

those two years in hiding by writing her

innermost thoughts and feelings in her dairy.  

The tree outside of the Anne Frank House

that she wrote about in her diary

No matter how dire her situation became,

 she held steadfastly to her dream of

surviving the war to become a published author.

She could have given up so many times

and allowed the desperate feelings of

fear and frustration overwhelm her life

and destroy her  young spirit but

she held on with the strength and

determintation to endure and survive. 

The Statue of Anne Frank in Amsterdam

HOW? 

Her life was precious to her.

At such a young age,

she understood through her trials,

that life is a gift to be greatly appreciated,

even in the worst of circumstances.

The Statue of Anne Frank in Utrecht

She held up bravely until the end,

 where witnesses at the

Bergen-Belson Concentration Camp 

 reported that  she displayed 

great strength and courage.

 Her confidant spirit often enabled her

to aquire extra rations for her

mother and sister while in the

Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

She died of Typhus in the Bergen-Belson

 in March of 1945, just weeks

 before the camp was liberated. 

The Memorial at Bergen-Belson

The Memorial at Anne Frank's

childhood home in Aachen, Germany

***Quotes***

--Everyone has inside of him a

piece of good news.

The good news is that you

don't know how great you can be!

 How much you can love!

What you can accomplish!

 And what your potential is!

--How wonderful it is that nobody need

wait a single moment before

 starting to improve the world.

--I can shake off everything if I write; 

my sorrows disappear,

my courage is reborn.

--I don't think of all the misery

but of the beauty that still remains.

--In spite of everything I still believe that

people are really good at heart.

I simply can't build up my hopes on

 a foundation consisting of

confusion, misery and death.

 --Think of all the beauty still left 

 around you and be happy.

--The final forming of a person's character

 lies in their own hands.


***Credits***

The 11 free images posted on this
 site today are courtesy of :
http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Anne_Frank
http://commons.wikipedia.org./wiki/Category:Anne_Frank_House