Life For Jews In Germany example essay topic

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on June 12, 1929, the second daughter of Otto and Edith Frank. Anne's sister, Margo was three years older. There are photographs of the family that show the comfortable, normal and happy life they led there surrounded by many friends. The Frank sisters grew up speaking German and playing with Catholic, Protestant and Jewish children. The Frank family expected to live their lives in Frankfurt as Otto Frank's family had done for generations but conditions of life in Germany were changing. In March 1933, the National Socialist (Nazi) party was elected to lead the municipal council in Frankfurt.

The Nazis, whose power was spreading throughout Germany, expressed strong and violent feelings against the Jews. With Adolf Hitler as their leader, the Nazis banned all other parties. Anyone who opposed them was beaten or imprisoned. Soon, the prisons were so overcrowded that new ones, called concentration camps had to be built. The concentration camps were so called because in them were concentrated Jews, Communists and enemies of the Nazis.

Hitler continued to incite hatred of the Jews, launching Anti-Semitic campaigns on the radio, in films, in newspapers, magazines, and posters. He enacted laws against Jews, segregated Jewish school children, and deprived Jews of their jobs and property. Otto and Edith Frank knew that as long as the Nazis were in power, life for Jews in Germany would become more and more dangerous. They feared that their normal life could not continue. They decided to move to the Netherlands where Otto had an offer to start a new company. Otto went to Amsterdam in 1933 to find a new home for his family and start up the business.

Anne, Margo and Edith went to live temporarily with Edith's mother in Aachen, near the German border with Holland. In the autumn of 1933, the family was reunited in their new home in Amsterdam. Anne was four years old. In Amsterdam, Anne and her sister had a busy and happy life, quickly learning Dutch, attending the local Montessori school, and making many new friends. They were bright girls and were encouraged by their parents to study and learn whatever subjects interested them. Otto Frank prospered in his new business, which made pectin, a fruit extract used in making jams and jellies.

He watched the developments in Germany with growing anxiety and began to take further steps to protect his family. In May 1940 the Nazis invaded Holland and soon began to place limits on the economic and social freedom the citizens had enjoyed. Jews had to register with the authorities so the Germans knew the names and addresses of every Jew in Holland. Jewish children were forced to attend only Jewish schools.

Everybody was issued identity cards. Those issued to the Jews were stamped with a "J" and they were often stopped by the police and made to show the I.D. card. Jews were required to hand over their bicycles and barred from riding trolleys or using cars. Jews were set apart from other citizens and association between Jews and Gentiles was forbidden. Aware that his company was in danger of being taken from him by the Nazis, Otto Frank transferred ownership to Gentile co-workers and began to make plans to go into hiding. He prepared a set of secret rooms behind his office and warehouse at 263 Prinsengracht.

He furnished it simply and began to stock it with food and supplies for the day when he and his family might be forced to use it. In 1942 Jews in Holland were required to wear yellow stars made of cloth attached to their outer clothing. This meant that they could be instantly recognized as Jews. In June of the same year the Nazi leaders announced that all Jews were to be transported to labor camps in Germany.

Otto knew that this was the time for him to disappear with his family. Wearing many layers of clothing, instead of carrying suitcases or bundles that would attract attention in the street, the Frank family left their home and set up house in the secret rooms he had prepared. The rooms where they hid became known as the secret annex or " the house behind". In June, on her thirteenth birthday, Anne received a diary that she took with her into hiding. The diary became more and more important to her as time passed because she had no contact with the outside world, no friends except her family and three family acquaintances who went into hiding with them, Hermann, Auguste and Peter van Pels. Anne wrote inside the front cover of her diary: "I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope that you will be a great source of comfort and support".

She gave her diary the name "Kitty". It became her closest friend and confidant during her time in hiding. In it, she wrote about her restricted activities, tensions with her mother and sister, worries about the safety of her Jewish friends outside, her fear of discovery, her longing for independence and freedom, and her dreams for the future. She also shared with "Kitty" reports of Nazi persecution and confided the growing awareness of herself as a sexual, moral, political and philosophical being. She felt a strong conviction that she wanted to become a writer. After hearing a broadcast from London in which the education minister of the Dutch government in exile urged his fellow citizens to keep accounts of what they were experiencing under German occupation, Anne decided to revise her diary for publication after the war.

She rewrote and polished the style of her diary, fictionalizing names and weaving it all together in a more readable form. While in hiding she also wrote several short stories.