BySIMCHA PASKO

Anne Frank and her family went into hiding on July 6, 1942: 79 years ago today.

As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis began to take power, the Frank family moved from their home in Germany to live in Amsterdam, which was soon occupied by German forces.

On July 5, they received a letter that Anne's older sister would be deported and possibly sent to a labor camp, like many Jews during the Holocaust. The next day, they went into hiding. 

The family — father Otto, mother Edith, older sister Margot and Anne — hid in an attic apartment behind Otto Frank's business, where he produced a gelling substance used to make jam. Anne called this the "Secret Annex."

They were soon joined by the van Pels family, the father a business associate of Otto. They were aided by several non-Jewish friends who brought food and supplies, including Miep Gies.

Their hiding spot was found by the Gestapo on August 4, 1944, after two years of hiding, due to an anonymous tip. The family was separated and taken to concentration camps.

Anne Frank recorded the "Secret Annex" experience in her diary, which her father published in America after her death in 1952. It was titled "The Diary of a Young Girl."  

She received the diary for her thirteenth birthday on June 12, 1942, less than a month before they went into hiding, writing that she hoped to confide in it because she never had anyone to confide in.

Her diary has been translated into about 70 languages and adapted for stage and screen. The Diary premiered on Broadway in 1955, and in 1956 won the Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for best drama. 

The "Secret Annex" was turned into the Anne Frank House, open for visitors.

Anne Frank famously wrote: “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are really good at heart.”