The only existing footage of Anne Frank

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany and spent most of her life in or near Amsterdam. Frank was born as a German citizen but lost her citizenship in 1941 and that made her officially stateless. Anne Frank’s birthplace, the Maingau Red Cross Clinic Photo Credit

 

Anne Frank in 1940

Anne and her family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in the early 1930’s.

The apartment block on the Merwedeplein where the Frank family lived from 1934 until 1942 Photo Credit

 

They moved when the Nazis gained control over Germany.By May 1940, the Frank family was trapped in Amsterdam due to the German occupation that was happening in the Netherlands. In July 1942, the Frank family decided to hide and escape the increased persecutions against Jews. They hid in secret rooms that were situated behind a bookcase in the place where Anne’s father worked.

They stayed hidden until August 1944, when someone betrayed them and the family was ta en to concentration camps. Anne and Margot (her sister) were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and died there.It’s suspected that they died from typhus in 1945 (February/March) and sadly, just weeks before that camp was liberated, in April that year.

Bergen-Belsen is infamous around the world for the poor conditions the prisoners endured at the camp during World War Two. Disease and malnutrition were rife, and thousands of prisoners died due to poor hygiene and illness.

The treatment of prisoners in the camp was heavily documented once the British liberated the place in 1945, with many photographs taken to record the atrocities and cruelty committed by the Nazis against the prisoners there.

Many soldiers were scarred by the horrors they saw at Bergen-Belsen, however, much of the camp lifestyle and even many of the prisoners remain a mystery due to the Nazis destroying thousands of documents before liberation to hide their activities.

Around 120,000 prisoners passed through Bergen-Belsen in the war, but 55,000 of them aren’t even known by name.

Here is another fascinating story from our vault:Lost possessions of Holocaust victims discovered in Poland

This video is the only known footage about the existence of Anne Frank.

Bergen-Belsen was initially a camp created to house the workers who were constructing what was the largest military complex in Germany at the time, a training camp for the army. They were there from 1935 when construction began until 1938/1939 when work was finished. The complex is now known as the Bergen-Hohne Training Area and is still in use today by NATO armed forces.