Students chat as they go about their work, busy as bees. The set slowly transferring from imagination to that of reality. Milhous, the theatre teacher, gives instructions as the students work.

“I’m testing a theory,” Milhous says as he tries a new idea for what appears to be. “On. Off.” A girl in jersey says, a light flickering behind her. Another student drills a wooden piece to a huge tower of them, much like a fence on its side extending towards the sky. The student studies it, before a loud boom sounds through the air as the piece falls back to the ground, the student going back to work. Words began to take shape on the boards, as each student writes a line. This is the work that is bringing the story of Anne Frank to Holt’s stage.

Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who went into hiding during WWII to escape the tyranny of the Nazi Regime. Anneliese Marie Frank was born to Edith and Otto Frank in the German City Frankfurt am Main in 1929. At the time, tensions were high in starving Germany due to the growing popularity of Adolf Hitler and his party. Hitler hated Jews, as many know. Due to this and the awful conditions, the Frank family moved to Amsterdam, there Mr. Frank founded a trading company for pectin, a gelling agent in making jam. As time passed, the family grew accustomed to living in the Netherlands, like acquiring language skills in Dutch and Anne even made friends.

However it was not to last, as on September 1, 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland and later invaded the Netherlands. Anne was only 10 years old. Taking control of the government, Nazis began introducing law after law, each further restricting the Jews. Anne’s father lost his company due to this, as Jews became unable to run their own businesses. The laws went as far as require those of the Jewish faith to wear the Star of David on their clothing. On July 5, 1942, Anne’s sister, Margot received a letter regarding her to report to a “labour camp” in Nazi Germany. Anne’s parents were suspicious, so they decided to go into hiding. Luckily in the spring, Anne’s father, with the help of a few of his former colleagues, had started making a hiding spot in an attic apartment behind his business at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam. To avoid detection, the family created a fake trail leading Nazis to believe they had fled to Switzerland. This place became known as the Secret Annex. Eventually, the family of 3 was joined by 4 others (the Van Pels family; Hermann van Pels, one of Otto’s associates), Auguste (Hermann’s wife), and their son, Peter along with Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist). This made it a little cramped. Before they went into hiding, Anne had her thirteenth birthday. Anne had received a diary. During the two year hiding period, she wrote about everything from her thoughts to short stories. She later began writing diary entries. But, on August 4, 1944, they were all discovered and arrested by the Gestapo, the German secret police. Police also arrested two of the helpers.

But by a chance of fate, two other helpers had saved some of her writings before the hiding spot was emptied. Anne and her family were deported to Auschwitz. The three day journey was harsh and there little food and water. When they arrived, the newcomers were checked over to see who could handle heavy labor. Those who were unfit to, around 350 of them, were taken to the gas chambers and killed. Those passed were separated by sex and sent to separate labor camps, Margot, Anne, and their parents among them. In November of 1944, Anne and Margot were sent to another concentration camp by the name of Bergen-Belsen. There the sisters contracted and died of typhus in March of 1945. Several weeks later, on April 15, 1945, the camp was liberated by British forces. Otto Frank was the only member to survive. When he returned to Amsterdam, Mieps Gies, one of the people that helped the family during the two years, gave him Anne’s salvaged works. With the knowledge that his late daughter had wanted to become a journalist or author, he later compiled the writings into a manuscript and published it.

Anne Frank’s diary became famous worldwide and is a required reading in schools to this day.

To Holt, the play is of great excitement. “This is my absolute favorite play, and I’m so excited to go and see it! Two of my friends are in it, and from what they’ve told me, it’ll be a great production,”  Isabella Weiler (‘22) said. Out of a survey of 39, 74.4 % of people know her story and 38.5% along with a possible 35.9% may see the play April 17-19.

Go See the Holt’s Production of Anne Frank April 17-19.