Anne Frank

Annelies Marie Frank, better known simply as Anne, was a young Jewish diarist who chronicled her family’s daily life while in hiding from the Nazis. They were eventually discovered and sent to different concentration camps. Only her father, Otto, survived.

Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, but spent most of her life in Amsterdam. She was described by those who knew her as a cheerful, outgoing, and funny girl, with a penchant for cheekiness and creativity. It is believed that she died from typhus while imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, sometime between February or March of 1945. The story of Anne Frank — her experience of life under Nazi occupation as a Jewish person, her family’s attempt to stay safe, their betrayal, and devastating loss — has led to Frank becoming, in a way, “the face” of the victims of the Holocaust.

After her tragic death, Frank’s father decided to publish her diary to raise awareness not only for his deceased daughter but to teach people about what it was like to live under Nazi occupation and about the Holocaust. However, he heavily edited the manuscript and removed many passages which he found indecent or personally upsetting. 

Some of these passages, which came to light many years later, reveal that Frank was likely bisexual. She discusses her crushes on both boys and girls she knew, and her desire to kiss a female friend. Some have criticized the labeling of Frank as bi, but regardless of the terms she may have used in her own time, her diaries indicate clear romantic and sexual desire for both men and women.