In July 1942, a thirteen-year-old girl and her family went into hiding in a concealed set of rooms above her father's office in Amsterdam, after Nazi Germany's occupation made it too dangerous for Jewish families to remain in their homes. For over two years, eight people lived in near-total silence during the day, unable to open a window or flush a toilet while workers were downstairs.
She had been given a diary as a birthday gift just weeks before going into hiding, and she began writing in it almost every day — not just about fear, but about her friendships, her disagreements with her family in cramped quarters, her hopes for becoming a writer, and her stubborn belief that people were fundamentally good at heart.
In August 1944, the hiding place was discovered and the family was deported to concentration camps. Anne died in Bergen-Belsen in early 1945, only weeks before the camp was liberated, at fifteen years old. Her father, Otto Frank, was the only one of the eight to survive the war.
After the war, Otto found her diary, preserved by one of the family's helpers, and had it published. It has since been translated into more than seventy languages and remains one of the most widely read personal accounts of the Holocaust, giving a name and a voice to millions who did not survive.