The Holocaust

(The Diary of Anne Frank)

This booklet will guide provide you with some basic knowledge of the Holocaust. The Diary of Anne Frank is the film of choice. The film is based in the time period of the Holocaust, Anne and her family are hiding from the Nazis, for if they are caught they will be brought to concentration camps. Anne and her family are accompanied by another family, the The hidden staircase behind the bookshelf, where the 8 van Daans, and then shortly after, a dentist lived for 2 years. named Mr. Dussel. The eight of them hid up in an attic for 2 years, living in little rooms, just barely big enough for one or two people each. The total square footage for the attic was 500 square feet. The real characters, The Frank family on top, Mr. Dussel and the van Daans.

Background Information
The Holocaust
The Holocaust started in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came into power in Germany, and then ended in 1945 when the Nazis were finally defeated by allied powers. The term holocaust originally comes from the Greek work holokauston which means sacrificed by fire, referring to the way the Nazis persecution and planned slaughter of the Jews. In addition to the Jews many Nazis also targeted Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovahs Witnesses and the disabled for persecution. Anyone that resisted was sent to forced labor or was murdered. The term Nazi is an acronym for Nationalsozialistishe Duetsche Arbeiterpartei (National socialist German Workers Party). The Nazis used the term the final solution to refer to their plan to murder the Jewish people. It is an estimated 11 million people died during the Holocaust, in which 6 million of these were Jews. The Nazis ended up killing approximately two -thirds of all Jews living in Europe. There were about 1.1 million children that were murdered in the Holocaust. On April 1, 1933, the Nazis instigated their first action against the German Jews by announcing the ban of all Jewish run businesses. The Nazis continued to issue anti-Jew laws over the next several years. Some of these included excluding Jews from places like parks, firing them from civil service jobs, and preventing Jewish doctors from working on anyone who wasnt Jewish. After World War II, the Nazis began to order that all Jews wear the yellow Star of David on their clothing so that they could easily be recognised and targeted. After the beginning of World War II, Nazis began ordering all Jews to live within certain, very specific areas of big cities, called ghettos. The largest ghetto was in Warsaw, with its highest population reaching 445,000 in March, 1941. There were many different kinds of camps, like concentration camps, extermination camps, labor camps, prisoner of war camps and transit camps. The first concentration camp to open was Dachau, which opened on March 20, 1933. Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp and extermination camp built; it is an estimated that 1.1 million people were killed there.

Plot Summery
The film The Diary of Anne Frank is based off of real life events that took place during the Holocaust. Anne and her family go into hiding in the attic above her fathers business, and though it was small, another family joins them along with another man by himself. In total there were 8 people living up there. The two families plus the single man hid up there for 2 years, before being discovered by the Nazis and taken away to camps.

Characters in the film

Anne Frank

Margot Frank

Albert Dussel

Otto Frank

Edith Frank

Peter van Daan

Herman van Daan

Petronalla van Daan

Vocabulary you may need to know

Nazis: An acronym for Nationalsozialistishe Duetsche Arbeiterpartei (National socialist German Workers Party). Adolf Hitler led this party. Would capture Jews along with others and either kill them or send them to concentration camp. Adolf Hitler: The leader of the Nazi party, was the dictator of Germany and was in power for 12 years. The Victims: The victims of Hitler and the Nazis, mostly Jews, but there were Jehovahs witnesses, Gypsies and homosexuals. Often sent to concentration or labor camps, but sometimes were just killed on the spot. Ghettos: Tiny, overcrowded corners of a city. They were cordoned off by walls and barbed wires. Camps: There were various types of camps, concentration camps, labor camps, transit camps and extermination camps. Many victims were forced to work long hard hours with little rations, many people died from starvation. Those who didnt die from starvation were beaten to death, burned or were gassed. Persecution: Before the Nazis started their mass killing of the Jews, they created a number of laws that separated Jews from society. The most potent law was when the Jews were forced to wear the yellow Star of David. Resistance: The Jews fought back, with limited weapons, but they found creative ways to fight back. They blew up gas chambers in Auschwitz, revolted at the Sobibor death camp, ect..

Some other facts: Peter van Daan, died in Mauthaussen Camp, May 1945 Petronella van Daan, died in transit to Theresienstadt Camp, April 1945 Hermann van Daan, died in Auschwitz, Novemeber 1944 Albert Dussel, died in Neuengamme Camp, December 1944 Edith Frank, died in Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp, January 1945 Otto Frank, survived Auschwitz, died Augest 1980 Margot Frank, died in Bergen-Belsen Camp, March 1945 Anne Frank, died in Bergen-Belsen Camp, March 1945

They hid in the attic for 2 years, before being found.