Annelies Frank was born on June 12th, 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany to a wealthy Jewish family. Anne's parents were Otto Frank and Edith Frank Hollander. Anne enjoyed a comfortable childhood with her older sister Margot. Together they spent many of their summers with their grandmother in Aachen, Germany. .
As Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933 the Frank family moved into a house on Medwedplein in southern Amsterdam. Mr. Frank established a food preservative business with an office and a warehouse in a building on the Prinsegracht Canal.("FRANK, Anne"). After the move Anne attended the Montessori school where she excelled and had many friends. After seven years, the Nazis began to invade the Netherlands. In five days, Holland surrendered to the German forces. With so many restrictions being placed on Jewish families, Anne was required to transfer to a Jewish Secondary School. Anne Frank Biography, October 18, 2002 http:www//.uen.org/utahlink/lp_res/AnneFrankBioShort.html .
On Anne's thirteenth birthday she received many presents; the nicest of all was a diary to record her daily life events. She named it "Kitty." Anne considered it odd to receive a diary at her age. "It's an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary.; not only because I have never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I-nor for that matter anyone else-will be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen year old schoolgirl." Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Otto Frank-Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Anne treasured Kitty and immediately took up accounting her daily events. .
Three weeks after Anne's birthday, Margot was summoned to a Nazi SS camp for work details. This frightened Mr. Frank, so he quickly organized a "secret annex" at his company headquarters. When Anne learned of the hiding, she and her sister packed their bags. "The first thing I put in was my diary, then hair curlers, handkerchiefs, schoolbooks, a comb, old letters; I put the craziest things with the idea that we were going into hiding.