Jan. 27, 2021
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Today, on International Holocaust Memorial Day, the Anne Frank House participates in the #everynamecounts project and calls on everyone to contribute. The project is an initiative of Arolsen Archives and was set up to build a digital memorial to the victims of Nazism with the help of volunteers from all over the world.
Since its launch, in January 2020, over 10,000 volunteers have digitised over 2.5 million documents. Anyone can participate in the #everynamecounts initiative by digitising the names and biographical data of victims of Nazism, making these names and data digitally searchable. The digitisation process is simple and does not require specialist knowledge.
Join #everynamecounts
Once you log on to the website of Arolsen Archives, you are guided to randomly chosen archived documents and asked to transcribe the names and details from these documents and enter them into the database.
30 million documents
These documents, approximately 30 million in all, including the so-called Red Cross cards, were gathered from the former concentration and extermination camps. The goal is to create the world’s most comprehensive digital archive about Nazi persecution in order to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and promote respect, diversity, and democracy.
The people from the Secret Annex
The names and biographical details of the eight people who lived in hiding in the Secret Annex have already been entered into the digital archive: Otto Frank, Edith Frank, Margot Frank, Anne Frank, Hermann van Pels, Auguste van Pels, Peter van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer. Their first and last names, dates of birth, places of birth, occupations, if any, and places of imprisonment can now be found in the archives.
Otto Frank was the only survivor
Otto Frank was the only one of the eight people from the Secret Annex to survive the concentration camps. Hermann van Pels was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau in October 1944, Auguste van Pels died during transport from Raguhn to Theresienstadt in April 1945, Peter van Pels died in Mauthausen on 10 May 1945, Fritz Pfeffer died in Neuengamme on 20 December 1944, Edith Frank died in Auschwitz-Birkenau on 6 January 1945, and Margot and Anne Frank died in Bergen-Belsen in February 1945.
Photo: Anne Frank’s Red Cross card (Red Cross Netherlands)
