Anne Frank: Google celebrates 75th anniversary of ‘The diary of a young girl’ with a doodle

Anne Frank Google Doodle: Google commemorates the 75th anniversary of Anne Frank’s Journal ‘The diary of a young girl’ by Anne Frank, with an animated slideshow of her life in the book. The Google Doodle depicts moments with her family and friends.

Anne Frank was a German-Dutch diarist of Jewish heritage who was hiding herself, family, and friends for over 2 years, during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War 2. At the time of World War 2, Anne was only 10 years old. Soon after the start of the war, Germany invaded the Netherlands which brought war to the doorsteps of her family. Nazi regime targeted the German people and imprisoned, executed, or forced them to relocate to inhumane concentration camps. Millions of Jews were forced to flee from their house or go into hiding.

Like others, Anne’s family was also forced to leave nearly everything behind to seek protection. Among Anne’s couple of assets was a checkered hardback journal, a present she had gotten on her thirteenth birthday celebration.

After spending 25 months in fear, she had composed a journal in the ‘secret annexe’ from small details to her most significant dreams and fears. At that time, she was around 13 years old. She was confident that her diary could be published after the war. She merged her composition into one strong story ‘Het Achterhuis” (“The Secret Annex”).

On August 4, 1944, her family was found out by Nazi Secret Service and taken to a detention centre where they were forced to do hard labour. After some time, they were forcibly deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland where they lived in cramped, unhygienic conditions.

A few months later, Anne and her sister, Margot Frank were transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany where they died a few months later. The brutal, intentional killings of prisoners spread diseases quickly and Frank’s family members were forced to live in such circumstances.

Anne could not survive for long, and passed away at the age of 15. She got fame after the publication of The Diary of a Young Girl (originally Het Achterhuis in Dutch, lit. ’the back house’; English: The Secret Annex), which is available in upto 70 languages. It is one of the world’s best-known books and is being used as a tool to educate the new generation about the Holocaust and the terrible dangers of discrimination and tyranny.