Anne and Samantha Day – December 21, 2026

History of Anne and Samantha Day

Anne Frank was a Jewish girl whose writings in her diary — “The Diary of a Young Jewish Girl” — impacted generations. Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 12, 1929, to Otto and Ruth Frank. The Frank family fled Nazi Germany and settled in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Netherlands, however, was seized by the Nazis in 1942. As a result, the entire family was forced into hiding and was surviving by hiding at the back of Frank’s company. That was when Anne wrote her diary.

Later in 1944, betrayal split her family apart, and the Germans forced them into hard labor under brutal conditions in concentration camps. Her father was the only family member to survive and he was also the one who discovered Anne’s diary. This diary became a book of hope and courage for many worldwide.

Samantha Smith was the daughter of an instructor of college literature and a social worker, Jane Goshorn Smith. She was born on June 29, 1972. When she was only ten years old, she wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov, who was the leader of the Soviet Union. In the letter, Samantha sought to understand the cause of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the letter was published in the Soviet newspaper, “Pravda,” she did not receive a response from Andropov.

On April 26, 1983, she received a letter from Andropov in which he answered all of the young girl’s queries. An invitation to the Soviet Union was also included in the response. Her ability to write made her a valuable asset in peacekeeping deployments. People started this day to have Anne and Samantha on postage stamps.