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Entity admires one of the famous women in history Anne Frank.

In our ongoing series, #WomenThatDid, ENTITY profiles inspirational and famous women in history whose impact on our world can still be felt today. If you have a suggestion for a historical powerhouse you would like to see featured, tweet us with the hashtag #WomenThatDid. 

The sale of a short poem written by Anne Frank for almost $150,000 has served to remind the world  what an important and enduring figure the young Jewish diarist remains as a symbol for Holocaust victims.

Her eight-line poem was addressed to Anne’s old school friend, Christiane van Maarsen, and dated March 28, 1942, just four months before the Frank family was forced into hiding after the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Anne’s message of hope in the midst of terrible adversity undoubtedly makes her one of the #WomenThatDid.

Name: Anne Frank

Lifetime: June 12, 1929 – March 1945

What She’s Known For: Anne Frank was a victim of the Holocaust, the author of “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” and a human rights advocate through the publication of her diary.

Why We Love Her: Anne’s family moved to the Netherlands when Hitler gained power in the early 1930s. Ten years later, Germany invaded the Netherlands and the Frank family was forced into hiding. The family, along with her father Otto’s business partner Hermann van Pels and his wife Auguste and son Peter, would hide in a secret annex for more than two years. During these two years of isolation, Anne would spend much of her time writing in her diary, which she said helped “shake off all [her] cares.” She recorded everyday life in the annex and her budding relationship with Peter van Pels.

It is not known who betrayed the Frank family and their companions, but on August 1, 1944, the members of the annex were arrested. From a punishment camp, the Franks were transported to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister were soon transferred to another camp, Bergen-Belsen.

Although spared from the gas chamber, Anne was a victim of a camp-wide Typhus epidemic which killed 17,000 people. She died just weeks before the camp was liberated. Of the 107,000 Dutch Jews in the camp, only 5,000 survived, including Otto Frank, Anne’s father. One of the women who helped to support the Franks while they were in hiding found Anne’s diary and papers and passed them to Otto after the war. He published her diary, fighting to ensure that his daughter’s story was told. Since then, “The Diary of Anne Frank” has been translated into 67 languages and sold over 30 million copies, according to the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect.

Fact: In her diary, Anne expressed the desire to become a journalist after the war. Unknowingly, she would become one of the most important journalists of the 20th century, writing about the loss of humanity during WWII.

Edited by Ellena Kilgallon
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