All language subtitles for YTDown_YouTube_A-Tale-of-Two-Sisters-Episode-1-The-Diar_Media_F6p85Qkx0LA_002_720p

On June 12, 1942, a young girl received
a diary for her 13th birthday.

The gift was given during one of the
most turbulent and bloody chapters in

modern history, just a decade before a
terrifying force had been unleashed in

Germany.

The Nazi party, led by Adolf Hitler,
took power and began to systematically

persecute the German Jewish population.

It was really very scary to go out in
the street to do your shopping, and

many people disappeared. Many, many were
arrested.

Forced emigration, imprisonment and
murder were becoming daily threats for

And as World War II broke out and Hitler
gained more and more territory in

Europe, those Jews who fled persecution
found themselves under threat once

again, unable to escape.

After several weeks and months, the
measures against the Jewish population

started to bite.

She was not allowed to go into parks,
she was not allowed to go to movies, she

was not allowed to use public transport,
which was a very visible measure also

in terms of the persecution of the Jews.

The girl in receipt of the diary was
Anne Frank, a young German Jew who had

with her family from Frankfurt in 1933,
but now found herself trapped in

occupied Amsterdam.

For some, she's a victim.

For some she is a source of inspiration.

For some she is a brilliant writer.

As she put pen to paper to record her
experience, she could never have

that it would lead to one of the most
well -known works of literature the

has ever seen.

People said, well, who is interested in
a diary of a young girl?

Nor could she have realized that it
would also be the document to a

and ultimately tragic story of
persecution inflicted on a child who had

the symbol of millions of others.

It's a remarkable fact that a book has
been able to inspire so many people in

so many different ways.

To her, of course, the world is learning
about what has happened.

The story of Eva Schloss, also an
immigrant to Amsterdam, would run in

to that of Anne Frank.

She could not have imagined, however,
how inextricably their lives would be

linked.

One day a little girl came to me and
introduced herself and she said it was

Frank.

Separately, Eva and Anne would spend two
years hiding from the constant threat

of the Nazis.

These two young girls would share
similar experiences, but their lives

have very different outcomes.

There are one and a half million
children murdered, but if you talk about

people can't imagine.

So Anna has become a symbol for all
those one and a half million victims.

Ava survived to tell her story, but the
legacy Anne Frank left would end up

having a global impact.

In the Holocaust, Anne has become the
most important victim, actually.

Anne was born to a German Jewish family.

Her father's family had lived in
Frankfurt for seven generations.

They were very culturalized. They were
very settled in Frankfurt.

Her mother was Edith Hollander, also
from a Jewish family.

Anne's father was Otto Frank, seventh
generation German Jew, who had actually

fought in the First World War and been
decorated with the Iron Cross.

Three years before Anne was born, her
sister Margot was born.

Anne was born on the 12th of June 1929.

She was a pretty normal girl growing up
in a German family.

The lives were very much like kids live
their lives today, playing in the

street, going to birthday parties, a
very normal childhood.

In 1933, the Nazi party seized power in
Germany.

Hitler's anti -Semitism meant that
Jewish persecution was implemented

immediately and the very normal
childhood experience by Anne and

other Jewish children in Germany would
be changed forever.

She came with her family to the
Netherlands in the year beginning of

The Nuremberg Laws were introduced and
life became increasingly difficult for

German Jewish families.

All books of Jewish authors are ordered
burned in the public squares.

Authors, scientists, artists are driven
from Germany.

1 ,600 have fled to Holland, 12 ,000 to
France, 1 ,200 to Spain, 3 ,000

to Czechoslovakia.

The Franks chose to move to Holland and
in 1934 arrived in Amsterdam.

Otto knew people in the city.

and went originally himself to see if he
could find work, start a business,

which he did.

Anne and Margot both enrolled in Dutch
schools and both seemed to adapt well to

life in Amsterdam.

Basically, she was raised as a Dutch
girl in the 30s, went to school. She was

fond of reading. She read a lot of
books.

She was actually quite precocious,
though, for a 13 -year -old.

and quite self -absorbed. She was the
chatterbox in the class and always

into trouble with the teacher.

The family quickly settled into their
new surroundings.

The Netherlands became their home and a
normal life could once again be resumed.

Throughout the 1930s, Hitler made
several territory gains in Europe, one

the Anschluss in Austria in 1938.

Eva Schloss, a child living in Vienna at
the time, found herself having to move.

I was born in Vienna in 1929, and I had
an older brother who was three years

older than me. We were a very happy
family there, and all this ended up

when the Nazis came in.

and we were lucky enough to be able to
get out in time.

They first fled to Belgium before
finally settling in Amsterdam, another

family fleeing from persecution.

Amsterdam was a lovely city. The people
were very welcoming to refugees.

I went back to school. I got a bicycle.
We were together again as a family, and

it looked as if life was going to get
back to some kind of normality.

The years in Amsterdam before 1940 were
very peaceful, very normal, and they

felt that they had found a haven of
safety from the Nazis.

We moved on to the Merwedeplein, a
modern square in Amsterdam.

Well, it was actually more a triangle.

The apartments were on both sides, and
it was a big open space where all the

local children came to play after
school.

And one day, a little girl came to me
and introduced herself, and she said it

was Anna Frank.

We were 11 when we met. I was more a
tomboy.

I like to play with the boys and as well
tricks on the bicycle.

And Anne was a more sophisticated little
girl, interested in her clothes, in

hairstyles, in film stuff, and as well
in boys already.

She said her family comes from Germany
and I couldn't speak much Dutch yet, so

she took me up to her apartment and I
met her family.

During this meeting between Eva and Anne
on the square of the Merwede plan,

neither would be able to comprehend how
their lives were going to be intertwined

and their idyllic life in Amsterdam
would soon be turned upside down.

They chose Amsterdam because in the
First World War, Holland was neutral and

they felt that there would be a refuge
for Jewish people in Holland.

Unfortunately, in May 1940, the Germans
invaded that country as well.

Towns and villages were in flames as the
invaders rolled on at a breathless

pace, encircling the defenders and
slashing their armies, destroying in the

of a new order the homes and chops of
those who had dared to resist.

The Nazi machine broke the back of Dutch
resistance in four days.

After the occupation of the Netherlands
in May 1940,

Life seemed to stay pretty normal and
pretty much the same as before.

Life continued, but I must say we were
afraid what would happen.

And after several weeks and months, the
measures against the Jewish population

started to bite.

Jews not wanted. Jews keep out.

Even in parks, if Jews are allowed at
all, special yellow benches are set

labeled Or Jews.

She was not allowed to go into parks.
She was not allowed to go to the movies.

She was not allowed to use public
transport.

Not theater, swimming pools. Those were
things which upset us children.

And then we had to leave our school.

And we had to wear a yellow star.

Which was a very visible measure also in
terms of the persecution of the Jews.

And then they started to arrest people,
especially young people, male.

So it was really very scary to go out in
the street to do your shopping or

anything like that.

And many, many people disappeared in
1941. Many, many were arrested.

The turmoil and persecution faced by the
Jews in Amsterdam was beginning to

become unbearable, but it would be a
letter sent to all Jewish youths which

would decide the fates of both Anne and
Ava. After two years, in July 1942,

about 10 ,000 young people got a call
-up notice to be deported to Germany to

work in German factories.

My brother Heinz, who was 16 at the
time, and Anna Sister Margot, and many,

others of their friends got this call
-up notice.

Many parents sent their young people,
but they didn't end up in Germany

in factories. They were sent to
Mauthausen and just murdered there.

So it was very, very difficult, but
nothing, of course, what was going to

up.

What came next would see tragedy beyond
compare for Ava and Anne.

Both their lives would play out to the
backdrop of war and mass genocide.

The takeover of Germany by the Nazi
regime in 1933 and the subsequent

of the Rhineland, Austria, the
Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia caused

Jewish population to emigrate to avoid
persecution.

The Netherlands was one of many
countries that took in Jews from

areas of Europe, and both the families
of Anne Frank and subsequently Ava

Schloss would establish their home
there.

Unlike World War I, where they remained
neutral, Holland would find itself a

Nazi -occupied territory in 1940, and
once again the Jews who had fled

persecution found themselves the
persecuted.

Life for both Ava and Anne would become
increasingly hard.

but it would be a letter sent to their
older siblings which would have

irreversible consequences.

That was the time that my father and
Otto Frank and many other parents

they wouldn't send their children, but
they would go into hiding.

Well, they tried to leave the impression
that they had to leave for Switzerland,

where the family of Anne's father lived.

Otto decided because where he worked was
a warehouse with rooms above.

The annex to the house was pretty much
unused, so it was an empty space.

These annexes, they are a common feature
in Amsterdam.

There were lots of sort of staircases
and rooms at the back that could be

obscured. So he started making plans in
1942 that should

there be an eventuality, the family
would go into hiding. Now it came more

suddenly than he had anticipated.

After Ava's brother had received his
letter, Ava's father, like Otto Frank,

would decide that hiding would be the
only option.

Without having prepared a hiding place,
Ava's family would have to seek an

alternative method which would see her
family divided.

We had to split up. Nobody wanted to
take a family of four.

So I went with my mother and my father
and brother went to a different hiding

place.

Anne Frank and her family entered the
hiding place at 263 Prinsengracht on

6th, 1942.

A few weeks later, the Van Pels moved
in.

Herman Van Pels was Otto Frank's
business partner.

His wife August and their son Peter all
joined the Franks in the annex.

The last person to enter the annex was
Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist from Berlin who

emigrated to the Netherlands after the
Kristallnacht in 1938.

So you imagine there were, in the
limited number of rooms, there were

people in hiding.

I think Anne's relationship with these
people is very much influenced by the

fact that she was 13, 14 years old. She
was a young teenage girl and with a very

lively character.

really felt trapped.

I was more an outdoor child, so I found
it very, very difficult to sit still day

in, day out. Missed my father and my
brother and my friends.

So I think the strife for freedom is
very much dominant in the diary.

The living conditions in the secret
annex were extremely cramped.

Anne, having been forced to share a room
with Fritz Pfeffer, who in the diary

she refers to as Dr. Dussel, would find
solace in her writing.

Her writing was partly an act of
catharsis, as with many teenagers, but

also spurred on by a radio broadcast
that she happened to hear on the BBC

Service.

There was radio broadcast because you
were not allowed to listen to the BBC,

people did.

Somebody from the interior minister, I
believe it was, said everybody who can

should write a diary about what happened
to them during this occupation.

It's very important for the future.

The first entries in the hiding place
reflect a sort of sense of adventure and

excitement.

However, the boredom and tedium soon set
in, followed by the fear as they heard

the bombing raids.

When you read the diary, you read about
all these scenes and all her emotions

when it comes to her relation with the
other people. She loved her father. She

had kind of a difficult relationship
with her mother.

Her relationship with her sister,
Margot, was down and off.

During the course of those two years,
she also falls in love with Peter.

the boy in the secret annex.

However, towards the end of the diary,
she's outgrown him, and she's

concentrating more on her personal
philosophy, how difficult it is to have

ideals when everything around her is
crumbling.

The Germans made house searches in the
apartments because they really wanted to

catch every Jew.

So we had a hiding place within the
hiding place.

The people from the resistance came and
built hiding places where we could go

when they came at night to search for
us.

Otto had secured a loyal group of his
workforce to aid the Franks in hiding.

They were Miep Gies, the office
administrator, Jo Kleiman and Victor

office managers, and Otto's secretary,
Beb Foskiel.

Well, the four employees of Otto Frank
enabled them to stay here for 25 months.

They provided them with food, with
drinks, with books, very important for

To look after eight people for over two
years was an incredible burden of

responsibility.

they made a choice to risk their own
lives in order to save that of others.

Throughout their time in the annex, the
eight of them would often tune in to

radio broadcasts to listen to the
progress of the war.

They were heartened to learn that on
June 6, 1944, the Allied force it had

landed in Normandy.

More than 800 ,000 Allied troops entered
occupied France by the end of June.

which along with the Russian forces to
the east would create a two -front war

for the Nazis.

This was the beginning of the end of
World War II.

The invasion was a great source of
motivation to Anne and all those in

They could see the light at the end of
the tunnel.

Otto would listen for news of the
advancement, and plot it on a small map

Normandy hung on the wall of the annex.

Eva, however, would not hear of the
Normandy landings and Allied

she and her mother Elfriede, along with
her father and her brother Heinz, had

been betrayed and captured in May 1944.

After two years, we were betrayed by a
Dutch nurse who pretended she was a

member of the resistance, but she was
really working with the Nazis.

Unlike Eva Schloss and her family, it
would be and continue to be to this day

complete mystery as to the identity of
the person who betrayed the Frank

There was a telephone call on the
morning of August 4, 1944, where they

that it was the woman's voice who...

which said that there were Jews hidden
in 263 Prinzachach.

The Franks, the Van Pels and Fritz
Pfeffer were all getting along with

restricted daily routine when the Dutch
police and a Gestapo officer, Karl

Silverbauer, entered the office and
asked the staff at gunpoint to open the

bookcase. They knew from the anonymous
tip -off exactly what was going on in

building. They went up to the annex.

and all were arrested, including two of
their helpers, Joe Clyman and Victor

Kugler.

Meep Geese had managed to evade arrest.

She knew that the authorities would soon
be coming to clear the annex, so

managed to rescue what she could.

It was then she found Anne's diary.

Knowing that Anne was a budding writer,
she placed it safely in her desk drawer.

It was there the diary remained, lying
dormant, waiting to be reunited with its

owner.

Eva's capture had happened on May 11th,
1944, her 15th birthday. They were

settling down to breakfast when there
was a knock at the door.

The Gestapo barged in and arrested Eva
and her mother and took them to the

Gestapo headquarters.

We were first sent to Westerbork, which
was a holding camp, and we were

immediately put on a list and
transported to Auschwitz.

It was in Auschwitz where Eva and her
family would be kept for the duration of

the war.

After their capture in June, the Frank
family would follow Eva's route to

Westerbork work camp in the Netherlands
and then east to Auschwitz.

Anne and Margot were transported to
Bergen -Belsen. There was no food. It

pretty much abandoned.

It was riddled with disease. So you
imagine the combination of despair, of

of... starvation and disease it was
pretty impossible to survive Bergen

Anne and Margot's health deteriorated
rapidly in Bergen -Belsen. In March 1945

typhus epidemic swept through the camp
and although there are no records it is

this which is believed to have killed
firstly Margot Frank and then two days

later Anne Frank.

The real tragedy lies in that just a few
weeks later, Bergen -Belsen would be

liberated by British forces.

Despite German attempts to cover up, we
found these in the open field.

Clear -cut evidence of beatings and
outright murder was on every hand.

Nameless victims were numbered for
records which the Germans destroyed.

This was Bergen -Belsen.

Eva and her mother Elfride, along with
Otto Frank.

all of whom were still in Auschwitz,
would each find themselves seeing out

final days and felt the relief as the
Russian troops liberated the camp.

All three would not foresee at that time
how inexplicably their lives would

become linked, not to just each other,
but to Anne Frank and the legacy she

would leave.

The lives and experience of Anne Frank
and Avid Glass had mirrored one another

throughout the Nazi occupation of the
Netherlands.

Both had been forced to hide, and both
had been betrayed, captured, and sent to

concentration camps.

This is where the similarities end,
however, as Anne Frank, along with her

sister Margot, tragically perished in
Bergen -Belsen just weeks before the

liberation.

Despite the death of her father, Erich,
and brother, Heinz, Eva and her mother

both managed to survive the horrors of
Auschwitz, along with Otto Frank, Anne's

father. As the Allied troops advanced
from the west and from the east, World

II drew to a close.

We were liberated by the Russians on 27
January 1945.

And Otto Frank was liberated with us in
Auschwitz, and he did the same journey

as we did.

We saw him several times, but there were
several hundred people.

It took him five months to get back to
Amsterdam.

And the Germans were fighting very, very
hard in Poland.

So the Russians took us away from
Auschwitz.

And the only way we could travel was
eastward, always in cattle trucks, till

ended up in Odessa.

And there we waited for the end of the
war.

And we were, of course, very anxious to
get back to Amsterdam.

And in Odessa, we waited for a troop
transport ship to come.

which came eventually, and then we went
to Marseille, and then all the way up

through France, through Belgium, and
eventually back into Amsterdam.

So from end of January till June, we
were all the time travelling,

really.

Otto knew that his wife Edith had passed
away, but he still believed there was

some hope for his two daughters, Anne
and Margot.

But he didn't know about his two girls.

So he always said he had great hope that
they would be alive.

And we, of course, as well, my father
and brother.

Eva, her mother, Otto Frank and hundreds
of others would sail from Odessa in the

Ukraine to Marseille in southern France.

From Marseille they travelled north back
to Amsterdam.

They arrived in Amsterdam in June 1945,

six months after they were liberated
from Auschwitz.

The Amsterdam they came back to was not
the same place they had left the

previous year. The threat of the Nazis
was no longer there, but their

had taken its toll.

It had suffered a lot, of course. The
last year was the hunger winter, because

the Germans took everything the Dutch
produced to feed their own people, and

many, many thousands of Dutch people.

perished from starvation. So we were not
well received, actually. Not because

they didn't want us to come back, but
because they had suffered and they

really know what to do with more people
who needed help.

Returning to Amsterdam, Otto Frank found
that his family home in the Medvede

plan was no longer available.

He couldn't move back in his own
apartment because other people had moved

had nowhere to go.

Survivors came back. It was like
arriving here from another planet.

So Otto moved in with Miep Gies, who was
one of the helpers. It was still around

the corner from the Marietta plan.

Ava and her mother, however, found that
their apartment was still there for them

to move into.

We were lucky we were able to get into
our own apartment, because when we came

to Amsterdam, it was a furnished
apartment belonging to a Christian, and

gave it back to us.

And we waited for news of our family.

Finding refuge with Meep Gees, Otto
Frank was still unaware of the fate of

daughters. The thought of being reunited
with them kept his hopes alive.

So he went to the central station every
day where people arrived from wherever

they had been and whatever camp they had
been in order to look for them, in

order to know about their fates or about
their whereabouts. And he came to visit

everybody who was connected with Anne or
Margot.

to try to find out if they knew
anything.

There were lists of people who went to
different camps.

He appealed in a newspaper for news of
his daughters, and we still have that

advertisement.

And then he was introduced to two women
who were in Bergen -Belsen, in the same

barrack as the Frank girls.

Otto Frank came to tell us as well that
he had heard that both his girls had

perished in Bergen -Belsen.

Eva and her mother had also been living
in hope that Eric and Heinz would be

found, but they would receive the same
news as Otto.

In July, we got the notification from
the Red Cross that both my father and

brother had perished in Mauthausen,
several days before the American army

to liberate that camp.

Edith Frank, having witnessed her
children being taken away from Auschwitz

Bergen -Belsen, died in the January of
1945.

Both Anne and Margot were to die within
days of each other, with Anne having to

witness her older sister's death.

From the eight people who were in hiding
in the annex of 263 Prinzengracht, only

one survived.

That was Otto Frank.

When he came first to tell us that the
girls had died, he looked as if he

couldn't carry on with his life.

He went back to tell Miep, and Miep went
to the drawer where she'd been keeping

Anne's diary.

And she said to him, here you are, Mr.
Frank.

Here is the legacy of your daughter.

She went into the secret annex after
those who were in hiding.

were captured and taken away from here,
and she managed to save lots of the

diary papers.

Miep knew that within a couple of days
everything would be taken away.

She kept them with her until after the
war, and when she learned that Anne

not return, she gave these papers,
notebook sheets, to Anne's father.

Meep hadn't read it, it was Anne's
private diary. Otto went into another

and quietly read it.

He came out ashen -faced and said, Meep,
I never knew my daughter.

Otto and Elfride would begin to see more
of each other, offering support from

their shared experiences and losses.

One of the first people to hear Otto
read extracts from Anne's diary was Eva.

A few days later he came with the diary.

and opened the packet very carefully,
and he read a few sentences, but he

burst into tears. He couldn't read it in
one go, and it took him three weeks to

read it. He told us that.

He agonized for a long time as to
whether he should publish it. She wanted

a writer. She wanted to be a published
writer.

But at the end of the day, it was a
private diary.

And she said things that were maybe not
suitable for other people to read.

She wasn't very nice about her mother.

Everybody told him he should publish it,
and especially a history professor told

him he has to publish it. It's his duty.

Otto was paying more and more visits to
Eva and her mother.

During these encounters, Eva would start
to witness Otto's philosophy, which

would be the driving force for his
life's work.

And Otto came very often.

My mother cooked him a meal. He was very
lonely. We talked a lot, and he told me

that he who had lost everybody, really,
he had no hatred.

He said, you know, if you hate, you'll
be so miserable.

Otto Frank dedicated the rest of his
life to the diary of Anne.

I think what is remarkable was that he
managed to do so in a very special

way, not just being that a memory of
what had happened and how his family had

suffered, but very much as a message to
young generations to build a new future.

Otto would find that global recognition
would initially come from America.

Firstly with a hit Broadway stage show
and then an Academy Award winning film.

Obsessions of Anne's which would seem
fitting for her legacy.

Otto Frank had lost everything.

The hope he carried with him as he made
the epic journey back to Amsterdam was

soon evaporated when he heard the
devastating news of the death of both

daughters, Anne and Margot.

At the same time, Otto was given the
diary which Miep Gies had kept.

Eva Schloss with her mother would
witness firsthand the rise of what would

become one of the world's most regarded
works of literature, one of the world's

most tragic stories, and the creation of
a symbol of hope and equality in the

face of persecution.

I knew they liked each other, Otto and
my mother, but I had no idea how close

they were.

I was a very difficult teenager.

I didn't want to do any housework.

I was quite obstinate. I was too
miserable.

Otto came and, you know, they talked and
he helped me a lot. Then when I

finished with school, I didn't know what
to do with myself.

And Otto and my mother decided I should
become a photographer.

which I couldn't really care what I was
going to do, but I agreed.

So Otto said, it would be good if you
would go abroad for a year, which I did

London. Otto came to visit me quite a
lot and he kept an eye on me.

So he already took the part a bit of a
sort of stepfather.

Otto and Elfriede grew closer and closer
over time and would marry in 1953.

Eva received the news whilst living in
London.

He said, well, your mother and me have
fallen in love and they were married for

27 years, so longer than they were
married to their first spouses.

Otto had already decided that the diary
of Anne Frank must be published.

He showed it to a few people and gave
their opinions.

And then a professor called Jan Romijn
from the University of Amsterdam read

And he published an article in the
newspaper Het Parool saying that

should read this diary.

It was this article that led to the
first publication on June 25th, 1947.

A third of the diary was actually taken
out, removed for two reasons. First of

all, Otto wanted to preserve the memory
of his late wife and the others in

hiding from some of the not quite nice
things Anne said about them.

But also, the publishing company itself
deemed some of the things that Anne

wrote about as unsuitable.

When the diary was first published, it
had not such a great impact.

It was very much a book like...

many other books that dealt with the
occupation of the Netherlands.

When the Dutch book came out, he gave it
to everybody who had known Anne. It was

very, very generous, of course. He
wanted everybody to read it.

And it was published in a time that
people were focused on the future. They

wanted to forget about what happened
here between 1940 and 1945.

They had suffered a lot, and people
wanted to

You don't have to forget about it. In
Europe, people didn't really want to

about what had happened, about Auschwitz
or anything like that. But of course,

the diary is not really about this.

So only after the mid -50s, the diary
became a great success.

It came out in 1952 in America.

Great difficulty finding an American
publisher as well, because people said,

well, who's interested in a diary of a
young girl?

The publisher who picked it up in
America was Doubleday. They had taken a

as no one really knew whether there
would be any interest in it. It took an

article by the novelist Maya Levine to
really popularize the book.

Maya Levine became a friend of Ottern
who loved the diary. He wrote a big

article in the New York Times how
wonderful it was, and it became an

bestseller in America.

The stage play was dramatized by Francis
Goodrich and Albert Hackett and opened

in the Court Theatre on Broadway on
October 5th, 1955, and was played by

Strasberg. The production grew and grew
in popularity, which was helped in part

by the attendance of many Hollywood
stars of the time.

Ava witnessed its instant success.

The play was a great success in New York
first, then in London, then it was

translated, was in Germany.

Then a film was being made.

The film was released in 1959 to great
critical and commercial acclaim.

It was directed by George Stevens and
the screenplay was written also by

Goodrich and Hackett. The lead of Anne
Frank was played by Millie Perkins.

However, it was Shelley Winters who won
an Academy Award for her portrayal of

August van Pels. The world wanted to
know more about Anne Frank and Otto was

eager to tell her story and continue to
spread her philosophy.

Many Americans came to Amsterdam.

and always knocked on the door of the
house and wanted to see where Anne had

been hiding.

It was considered a great idea to think
about preserving that hiding place,

but not as a museum.

Otto's vision was to see Anne's legacy
as one of bringing people together.

The foundation goes back to 1957.

in order to purchase the house and to
open it to the public. So it took three

years to prepare it. What he did invest
his time and energy bringing together

people from around the world for
international student conferences.

The Anne Frank House was first a study
group for young people, people from all

over the...

The world came together and they had
conferences to talk about what they can

to change the world. The basic feature
of this house is its emptiness, which

the deliberate decision of Otto Frank
that this place should remain empty. It

represents the absence of Anne Frank.

The success of the play, the film and
the opening of the house fuelled the

proliferation of readers of the original
diary.

As people were getting to read the
diary, particularly youngsters, they

so much to Anne and they started writing
to Mr Frank.

They saw him in the diary as a very
caring person.

Having known Otto for 27 years, I can
see, you know, he was really a

humanitarian.

And Anne being two years cooped up with
him helped her a lot to become who she

was.

The point of entry when you read the
diary is usually your own life. When I'm

inspired by Anne Frank, it's not because
my life is similar to hers in any

respect. And that goes for...

Actually, everyone. So it's about a book
that was able to inspire people,

although their lives are completely
different from her life.

Through her, of course, the world is
learning about what has happened, and

is, of course, very, very important.

We have her diary as a kind of silent
messenger of someone who is not there

anymore, and who is not there anymore
because of what has been done to her.

So we have to explain.

To young people, how dangerous it is if
we prejudiced against other human

beings.

In preserving the memory of his daughter
and also the act of persecution

inflicted on her, Otto, through single
-minded determination, managed to

Anne Frank from a young, talented writer
the victim of a terrible chain of

events, to become not just a face, but
the symbol of the Holocaust.

She has also become a figure of
acceptance, forgiveness and equality,

universal themes which all human beings
can relate to.

Her thoughts evolved into Otto's
philosophy, which today is still

through the Anne Frank Foundation and
the Anne Frank House, reaching out to

millions across the world.

Behind the global popularity of her
story is the diary of a young girl, an

individual with her own aspirations and
ideas who happened to be caught in

extraordinarily tragic circumstances.