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Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt/Main in Germany in 1929. When Hitler seized power in Germany, the Frank family emigrated to Amsterdam. Subsequently, Holland was overrun by the Nazis and persecution of the Jews began there, too. The Franks went into hiding together with two other Jewish families in a secluded part of Otto Franks business premises. The entrance to this part of the building was hidden by a moveable cupboard. For over two years the eight Jews remained in their hiding place, where at great personal risk they were cared for by Dutch employees of Mr. Frank's business.
Five years of Nazi rule in Holland were five years of oppression, terror, slavery, hunger and fear. Amongst the local population, there were many who collaborated but, at the same time, there was opposition and an active "Underground". They were years marked by the wholesale killing of innocent people.
In August 1944 the Franks' secret hiding place was betrayed. Anne and her family were deported first to Westerbork concentration camp in Holland and later to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister Margot were finally transferred to Bergen-Belsen in Germany. Anne Frank died there of typhoid fever in February or March 1945, not yet 16 years old. Only her father, Otto Frank survived the camps. On his return to Amsterdam after the war, he learned that the rest of his family had perished and Anne's diary was given to him.
Anne Frank wrote her diary during the 26 months in hiding, describing her life and the lives of her fellow Jews before their deportation to the death camps.
Through her diary she became a symbol for all innocent victims of racial and religious prejudice, not only during the terrible years of the Second World War but also for all time.
The "Diary of Anne Frank" first appeared in Holland in 1947. Since then it has been published in more than 50 languages. It has been made into a play and a film. The "Anne Frank House" in Amsterdam, where Anne and her family were hidden, is now a museum, administered by a foundation set up in 1957. The purpose of the foundation is to keep alive the memory of the Shoa and to fight and denounce intolerance, racism and anti-Semitism wherever and when ever they appear.
The design of the stamp is based on copyright photographs, with permission of the Anne Frank-Fonds, Basel Cosmopress, Geneva and the Anne Frank Stichting Amsterdam.
