On Sunday, September 6th, was the 66th anniversary of the deportation of Anne Frank, the teenage author of the famous Diary, to the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. At the age of 15, the girl, with her parents and sister, was transported with the last group from the occupied Netherlands.

The Franks had lived in Germany for generations but they emigrated to the Netherlands after Hitler came to power. After the Nazis began the occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, and Jews started to be persecuted, the Frank family decided to stay in hiding. They got help from people who used to work in Otto Frank’s office.
However, in August 1944, the family were denounced and moved to a temporary concentration camp, Westerbork. On September 5th, 1944 they arrived to Auschwitz, where 549 Jews out of 1019 were murdered. The Frank family, together with others, were placed in the concentration camp. Anne’s mother died just before the liberation of the concentration camp in 1945. Only Anne’s father survived the Holocaust. Anne and her sister Margot were moved to another concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen, where they died of typhus in the beginning of March 1945.

When she was in hiding, Anne wrote the Diary. The last note was made three days before the family were arrested. Anne Frank’s Diary was first published in 1947. It was translated into 70 languages.

In January 1963, Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, established the Anne Frank Fonds, which after his death has the right to publish the Diary, and protects the legacy and memory of the author. Its aim is also to spread knowledge about help given to Jews during the Holocaust, as well as supporting the dialogue between nations and religions.

Moreover, the Ann Frank Fonds runs a unique medical support programme for the Righteous Among the Nations, the largest single group being those from Poland.