Anne Frank part 2: How Anne Frank Settled Into Her New Life in Amsterdam Before the War

Anne Frank part 2: How Anne Frank Settled Into Her New Life in Amsterdam Before the War

Today I want to find out about Anne Frank and her childhood in Amsterdam.

When Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main on the 12th of June 1929, Germany was still recovering from the First World War and the Depression. But in 1933 when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. His government quickly introduced policies that targeted Jewish people. He blamed them for many of the country's problems.

The Frank family were soon affected by these changes. Jewish businesses were boycotted, Jewish professionals lost their jobs, and discrimination became all too real. Otto Frank, who had built a successful business in Germany, knew that it was becoming increasingly dangerous for his family. He knew that they could not stay and be safe.

Rather than waiting for their conditions to get worse, Otto made the difficult decision to move to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He hoped that his wife Edith and their daughters, Margot and Anne, could live in safety. 

Otto left Germany in July 1933, and moved to Amsterdam in August 1933 to establish his business, Opekta, before the rest of the family joined him. Edith joined him in December 1933, Margot followed later that month, and Anne arrived on the 16th of February 1934. 

Anne’s grandmother, Rosa Holländer, also left Germany and settled in Amsterdam, where she lived with the Franks for a short time until she died in 1942. The Franks were able to rent a pleasant apartment and employ domestic help occasionally. The Netherlands had a long tradition of religious tolerance and was home to around 140,000 Jewish people, many of whom were well integrated into Dutch society. While antisemitism did exist, it was far less widespread than in Germany at the time and most Dutch people did not support Hitler or his racist ideology.

Anne soon settled into her new life. She went to the Sixth Montessori School in Amsterdam. Lessons encouraged children to think independently and to learn through curiosity rather than discipline. Anne learned to speak Dutch, made many friends, and became known as a clever, lively and talkative pupil. She loved to read, tell stories and making people laugh, and for a while she enjoyed the happy, carefree childhood her parents had hoped to give her.

 Sadly, that sense of safety came to an abrupt end when Germany invaded the Netherlands on the 10th of May 1940, bringing with it anti-Jewish persecution.

Next time, we’ll find out more about how life in Amsterdam changed after the German invasion of the Netherlands, and how the occupation gradually stripped Anne Frank and her family of the freedoms they had hoped they had found

Do you think Otto Frank realised just how much danger his decision to leave Germany had saved his family from, even if only for a few precious years?