Anne Frank's Arrest

August 4, 1944, started out as any other day during World War II, but it would turn out to be the final day of hiding for Anne Frank and her family. The Franks, along with the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer,  had been hiding from the Nazis in an office building’s secret annex for two years. Seventy years ago today, they were discovered, arrested, and sent off to concentration camps. Mental_floss has a timeline of what took place that day.   

8am: Miep Gies goes upstairs to get the shopping list. Anne greets her cheerfully and asks if there's any news.

Before 11am: Somebody places an anonymous phone call to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) office in Amsterdam, claiming there are Jews hiding at 263 Prinsengracht.

11am: A man in civilian clothing enters the office and points a revolver at Miep, Bep Voskuijl, and Johannes Kleiman, who are working in the front office. Plain-clothes Dutch policemen and a German officer in uniform arrive around the same time and force Victor Kugler to give them a tour of the building.

That’s just a small sample. When you read the rest of the story, realize that Anne was only 15 at the time, and may have still lived today if their hiding place had not been betrayed.


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