Anne Frank House

Many of Anne's diary entries were written in letter-form, addressed to Kitty. Scholars still debate whether Kitty was a pre-war friend or a character from Anne's favorite book.

There were eight people in total who hid in the famous secret annex. Otto Frank, Anne's father, was the the only one to survive.

Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who helped hide the Franks, said she would have destroyed the diary had she read it, since the contents incriminated everyone involved, herself included.

She heard Dutch Cabinet Minister Gerrit Bolkestein on the radio: "History cannot be written on the basis of official decisions... What we really need are ordinary documents."

The Franks hoped the war wouldn't come to The Netherlands at all. As the threat grew, Otto and his family tried unsuccessfully to emigrate to England and the USA.