Anne Frank’s family takes refuge in ‘Secret Annex’ of Amsterdam warehouse to hide from Nazi occupiers 80 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Jul 6 1942)


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(Monday, July 6, 1942, 7:30 a.m. Central European Summer Time; part of The Holocaust during World War II) — One day after Margot Frank, a 16-year-old Jewish girl living in Nazi-occupied Holland, received a call-up notice to report to a work camp in Germany, the Frank family (Anne, 13, and her parents, Otto and Edith), went into hiding today in rooms above and behind the premesis of her father’s business in Amsterdam, where some of his most trusted employees would help them survive.

Anne had been writing in her red-and-white-checkered diary for less than a month when Margot the call-up notice around 3:00 p.m. CEST on July 5, 1942. Although the Frank family had planned to go into hiding on July 16, 1942, they decided to leave almost immediately.


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At 5:30 a.m. on July 6, 1942, Anne Frank awoke for the last time in her bed at their apartment. The Frank family dressed in numerous layers so as to take a few extra garments with them without having to cause suspicion on the streets by carrying a suitcase. They left food on the counter, stripped the beds, and left a note giving instructions about who would take care of their cat, Moortje.

Margot was the first to leave the apartment; she left on her bike with one of Otto Frank’s trusted employees, Miep Gies. The rest of the Frank family left on foot at 7:30 a.m.


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Anne had been told that there was a hiding place but not its location until the day of the actual move. The Frank family arrived safely at what became known as the “Secret Annex,” located in Otto Frank’s business at 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdam.

Seven days later (July 13, 1942), the van Pels family arrived at the Secret Annex. And on Nov. 16, 1942, Friedrich “Fritz” Pfeffer became the last one to arrive.

The eight people hiding in the Secret Annex in Amsterdam never left their hiding place until the fateful day of August 4, 1944, when they were discovered and arrested, and sent to concentration camps where all but Anne’s father, Otto, would perish.