June 12, 1929. That is the short answer. If you are just looking for a calendar date to win a trivia night or finish a school project, there it is. But honestly, just knowing when was Anne Frank born doesn't tell you much about why those four numbers—1-9-2-9—actually matter in the grand, messy scheme of the 20th century.
Anne came into the world at the Maingau Red Cross Clinic in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was a Wednesday. Her mom, Edith, and her dad, Otto, already had one daughter, Margot, who was three years older. To the neighbors in their quiet, liberal neighborhood of Marbachweg, the Franks were just another middle-class German family. They were Jewish, sure, but they were also deeply integrated into German culture. Otto had served as an officer in the German army during World War I. He was a patriot. He thought of himself as German first.
Then the world broke.
The Frankfurt Years: A Brief Window of Normalcy
Most people jump straight to the "Secret Annex" when they think of Anne. It makes sense. That’s where the drama is. But you have to understand the first few years of her life to realize what was actually stolen from her.
Between 1929 and 1933, Anne lived a relatively "normal" life. She was a chatterbox from the start. Family friends often described her as "lively" or "mercurial." While Margot was the quiet, studious one, Anne was the firecracker. She loved stories. She loved attention. If you look at the photos from her toddler years in Frankfurt, you see a kid who looks utterly safe.
But 1929 was a terrible year to be born in Germany.
While Edith Frank was holding her newborn in June, the global economy was screaming toward a cliff. The Great Depression hit Germany harder than almost anywhere else. Unemployment skyrocketed. People were desperate, angry, and looking for someone to blame. This economic collapse provided the perfect oxygen for the Nazi Party to grow. By the time Anne was blowing out the candles on her fourth birthday in 1933, Adolf Hitler had become Chancellor.
The timeline is chilling. Anne was born in June 1929; the stock market crashed in October 1929. Her entire infancy was backdropped by the rise of extremism.
Moving to Amsterdam
The Franks weren't naive. Otto saw the writing on the wall earlier than many. In 1933, as the Nazis began passing laws to strip Jews of their rights, the family decided to flee. They didn't go to America or the UK—visas were incredibly hard to get even then. Instead, they moved to Amsterdam.
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Otto started a business, Opekta, which sold pectin for making jam. For a few years, it seemed like they had escaped. Anne went to the Montessori school. She made friends like Hanneli Goslar. She learned Dutch. She was just a girl living in the Merwedeplein neighborhood, riding her bike and dreaming about movie stars.
The Birthday That Changed Everything
If you want to pin down the most important moment in the "when was Anne Frank born" saga, it’s not 1929. It’s June 12, 1942.
That was Anne’s 13th birthday.
By this point, the Nazis had occupied the Netherlands for two years. Life was closing in. Jews had to wear yellow stars. They couldn't go to the movies. They couldn't use streetcars. They had to go to separate schools. But for her 13th birthday, Otto and Edith gave Anne a small, red-and-white checkered autograph book with a small lock.
She decided to use it as a diary.
"I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone," she wrote in that first entry. It’s haunting to read that now. She had no idea that in less than a month, her family would disappear into the attic of her father’s office building on the Prinsengracht. Margot had received a "call-up" notice for a "labor camp" in Germany. The family knew what that really meant. They went into hiding on July 6, 1942.
Life in the Annex
For 761 days, Anne lived in silence during the day. No flushing toilets. No talking above a whisper. No looking out the window.
Think about being a teenager. You're moody. Your hormones are going crazy. You're trying to figure out who you are. Now imagine doing that in a few hundred square feet with seven other people, including your parents and a guy (Peter van Pels) you're starting to have a crush on.
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Anne’s writing evolved rapidly during this time. The girl who started writing about her schoolmates in June 1929 grew into a sophisticated, cynical, yet strangely hopeful philosopher by 1944. She edited her own diary. She hoped to publish a book called Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) after the war.
She never got the chance.
On August 4, 1944, the Gestapo raided the Annex. We still don't know for 100% certainty who betrayed them, or if it was just a random discovery during a raid for illegal ration cards. The residents were shipped to Westerbork, then Auschwitz-Birkenau, and finally, Anne and Margot were sent to Bergen-Belsen.
The Tragedy of the Timeline
When was Anne Frank born? 1929.
When did she die? Early 1945.
She was only 15. If she had been born just a few years earlier or later, or if the British and American troops had reached Bergen-Belsen just a few weeks sooner, the world might have known Anne Frank the adult author, not Anne Frank the martyr.
She died of typhus in February or March of 1945. Her sister Margot died just days before her. The camp was liberated by British forces on April 15, 1945. They missed her by roughly a month.
Otto Frank was the only person from the Annex to survive. When he returned to Amsterdam, Miep Gies—one of the "helpers" who had risked her life to hide them—handed him Anne’s notebooks. She had saved them from the floor of the Annex after the arrest, hoping to give them back to Anne one day.
Common Misconceptions About Anne's Early Life
People get a lot of things wrong about Anne’s birth and childhood.
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- She wasn't Dutch. Many people think she was born in Amsterdam because that's where the museum is. She was a German refugee. The Nazis actually stripped her of her German citizenship in 1941, making her stateless.
- She wasn't "poor." Before the war, the Franks were comfortably middle-class. This makes the transition to the Annex even more jarring. They went from a nice apartment with a view to a cramped attic.
- The Diary wasn't a "secret" from her father. Otto knew she was writing, but he didn't realize the depth of her thoughts or her criticisms of the family until he read the notebooks after her death.
Why 1929 Still Matters Today
When we look at the date June 12, 1929, we aren't just looking at a birthday. We’re looking at a warning.
Anne was born into a democracy. She was born into a society that prided itself on art, science, and philosophy. Within four years, that society had voted to dismantle that democracy. The speed of the collapse is what should scare us.
Anne’s diary has been translated into over 70 languages. It’s one of the most-read books in human history. Why? Because she represents the "everygirl." She wasn't a saint. She was snarky. She was annoyed by her mom. She was obsessed with her hair. She felt like no one understood her. By being so human, she forces us to realize that the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust weren't just a statistic. They were six million Annes. Six million people with birthdays, favorite foods, and complicated relationships with their parents.
Actions You Can Take to Honor Her Legacy
If you're researching Anne Frank, don't let it end with a date. There are several ways to engage with her history that go beyond a Google search.
Visit the Sources
Read the "Critical Edition" of the diary. There are different versions (Version A is her original diary, Version B is her own edited version for publication, and Version C is the version edited by her father). Seeing how she changed her own writing shows her growth as a real literary talent.
Support Holocaust Education
Organizations like the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam or the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) work to keep these stories alive. They offer digital archives that allow you to see her actual handwriting and the photos Otto took of her.
Check the Context
Look into the "Stumbling Stones" (Stolpersteine) project. These are small brass plaques placed in the pavement in front of the last known residence of choice for victims of the Holocaust. You can find them in Frankfurt at the site where Anne was born.
Identify Modern Parallels
Anne wrote extensively about the "stateless" experience. Today, there are millions of refugee children in similar positions. Supporting groups like the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a direct way to help the "Annes" of the 21st century.
Anne Frank would have been 96 years old if she were alive today. Imagine the books she could have written. The life she could have led. By remembering that she was born in 1929, we remember a life that was supposed to be long, but was cut short by a world that forgot how to be human. Keep her story alive by speaking up when you see the same patterns of hate emerging today.
Key Historical Timeline
- June 12, 1929: Anne Frank is born in Frankfurt, Germany.
- January 1933: Nazis take power; the Frank family begins planning their escape.
- February 1934: Anne moves to Amsterdam to join her father.
- May 1940: Germany invades the Netherlands.
- June 12, 1942: Anne receives her diary for her 13th birthday.
- July 6, 1942: The Frank family goes into hiding in the Secret Annex.
- August 4, 1944: The Annex is discovered; the residents are arrested.
- February/March 1945: Anne dies in Bergen-Belsen.