Anne Frank Reading Comprehension Lesson

Life Before Hiding

Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany. She was a bright, curious, and talkative girl who loved reading, writing, and going to the cinema. Her father, Otto Frank, ran a successful business, and the family lived comfortably. Anne had an older sister named Margot, and the two sisters were very close. The Franks were a Jewish family, and in the early 1930s Germany was becoming an increasingly dangerous place for Jewish people.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany in 1933, and they began passing laws that stripped Jewish people of their rights, their jobs, and eventually their safety. Sensing the growing danger, Otto Frank moved his family to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, in 1934. Anne attended a Montessori school there and quickly made friends. She was known for her lively personality and her love of writing in her diary — a red-checked journal she received as a birthday gift in June 1942.

On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. Within days, the country surrendered. The Nazi occupation brought the same persecution that had driven the Franks out of Germany: Jewish people were required to wear a yellow star, were banned from restaurants, cinemas, and public parks, and were subject to curfews and random roundups. When Margot received a notice ordering her to report to a Nazi labor camp in July 1942, the Frank family made a desperate decision: they would go into hiding.

Two Years in Hiding

The Frank family hid in a secret annex of rooms above Otto Frank’s business at 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. The entrance was concealed behind a bookcase. Over time, four other Jewish people joined them: Hermann and Auguste van Pels and their son Peter, and a dentist named Fritz Pfeffer. For two years — from July 1942 to August 1944 — eight people lived in secret in the cramped annex, completely dependent on a small group of trusted employees who brought them food, news, and supplies.

During this time, Anne wrote faithfully in her diary. She wrote about her feelings, her dreams, her conflicts with the other people hiding with her, and her hope for the future. She wrote: “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” Anne also revised her diary entries, dreaming of publishing them as a book after the war. She was a thoughtful observer of her own inner life and of the world outside.

On August 4, 1944, German police raided the annex after an anonymous tip. All eight people in hiding were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. Anne and Margot were sent to Bergen-Belsen, where they both died of typhus in February or March 1945 — just weeks before the camp was liberated. Anne was 15 years old. Otto Frank was the only member of the group in the annex to survive the war. When he returned to Amsterdam, a friend named Miep Gies gave him Anne’s diary, which she had kept safe after the raid. Otto Frank arranged for it to be published. The Diary of a Young Girl has since been translated into more than 70 languages and read by millions of people around the world.

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