Google Doodle today: Anne Frank was just 15 year old when she died in a Nazi concentration camp. Her life had been completely upended at a tender age by the Nazi hate against the Jew community. She tried to cope with the wanton persecution by writing diary entries. She wrote about her fears, her thoughts on World War 2, her hopes and aspirations, and tried to make sense of why her community had been subjected to the most sordid organised war crime in human history. Diary of Anne Frank was published by her heartbroken father after her untimely and tragic death. It is the most haunting and moving account of the genocide of Jews by Adolf Hitler's racially charged forces that killed millions of European Jews because of their senseless notion of racial superiority. Today's Google Doodle is the tribute to Anne Frank who maintained her composure in adversity.
Today's Google Doodle is a slide show that contains excerpts from her diary. It commemorates 75 years of the publication of the diary, considered one of the most important books of modern history.
Who was Anne Frank?
Anne Frank was just 10 years old when World War 2 started. She was born on June 12, 1929, in Germany's Frankfurt. However, her family moved to Netherlands to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews. As thousands of Jews were being murdered in cold blood daily in industrialised killing machines called concentration camps, her family went into hiding in a secret annex in her father's office building, in 1942.
The family had to leave everything behind. All Anne Frank had was a checkered notebook she received as a gift on her thirteenth birthday. Anne remained in hiding for 25 months. She wrote about her profound dreams and fears in the diary under one story titled “Het Achterhuis”. (“The Secret Annex”).
Her family was discovered by the Nazi Secret Service on August 4, 1944. They were taken to a detention centre and forced to do hard labor. They were then deported to the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. She was later shifted to the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany. The Nazis starved and dehumanised the captive Jews in these concentration camp and killed thousands every day through gas chambers specifically designed for this task. These prisoners lived in inhumane, unhygienic conditions, cramped in tight spaces. As a result diseases spread. Anne Frank too succumbed to a disease. She was just 15.
Her diary was published by her father after the war got over. It is one of the most widely read works of non-fiction ever published. It has been translated into more than 80 languages.
"Frank’s memoir is a staple in today’s classrooms, utilized as a tool to educate generations of children about the Holocaust and the terrible dangers of discrimination and tyranny. Thank you, Anne, for sharing a critical window into your experience and our collective past, but also unwavering hope for our future," the Google Doodle website wrote.
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