A Weekend To Remember Lidice June 9-10, 1942 and Anne Frank June 12, 1929

The story of what happened to Anne Frank Norbert June 12, 1929, is among the most well-known of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. Her diary is the first encounter many people have with the history of Nazi Germany’s attempt to murder all the Jews of Europe during World War II.

KEY FACTS

1. Anne Frank and her family spent two years hiding in a secret apartment behind her father’s former office in Amsterdam.
2. The Franks and four other Jews who were hiding with them were discovered by authorities on August 4, 1944.
3. The only member of the Frank family who survived the Holocaust was Anne’s father, Otto, who later worked diligently to get his daughter’s diary published.

On August 4, 1944, the German SS and police discovered the hiding place. It has been long thought that the authorities acted after being tipped off by an anonymous Dutch caller. But a more recent theory is that the Germans discovered the hiding place while investigating reports that illegal work and fraud with ration coupons were occurring at the house.

One month later, on September 3, 1944, SS and police authorities placed the Franks and the four others hiding with them on a train transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau in German-occupied Poland. This was the last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz.

Anne and her sister, Margot were transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany in early November 1944. Anne Frank died in February or March 1945, shortly before British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945. Anne Frank died at the age of 15. Margot Frank died at the age of 19, also in February or March 1945. Both Margot and Anne died of typhus.

Only Anne’s father, Otto, survived the war. He was liberated from Auschwitz by Soviet forces on January 27, 1945. Otto was presented later with Anne’s writings, which were preserved by Miep Gies one of the Dutch citizens who had hidden the Franks. Otto Frank was integral to getting his daughter’s diary published.

LIDICE

Lidice was a small Czech town located about 12 miles (20 km) from Prague. In June 1942, German forces annihilated Lidice. They razed the town to the ground and murdered or deported its residents. The annihilation of Lidice was an act of revenge for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a prominent Nazi official.

KEY FACTS
1. On May 27, 1942, two members of the Czechoslovak resistance mortally wounded Reinhard Heydrich, a top Nazi leader. Heydrich died on June 4, 1942.

2. In retaliation for Heydrich’s death, the Nazis chose to annihilate the Czech town of Lidice. German police and SS officials shot the men and deported the women and children. The Germans tried to remove all traces of the town’s existence.

3. Beginning on the night of June 9–10, 1942, German police and SS officials destroyed the Czech town of Lidice. The Nazis destroyed Lidice as a reprisal action for the assassination and death of a high-ranking Nazi leader. The Germans shot the men of the town, and then deported most of the women and children. Next, they burned the town to the ground.

The annihilation of Lidice became an international symbol of Nazi war crimes.

Cite the “United States Holocaust Memorial Museum”