The Diary of Anne Frank

Grade Level: Recommended for middle schoolers and up due to slight references of sexuality and possible lack of understanding the setting of the book.

Book Review:

The diary of Anne Frank is beautifully written account of two years in one thirteen year old girl’s life. WWII is raging across the globe and Hitler’s noose is slowly tightening around the Jews. They only had a little time left...

The Franks were middle class Jews who lived in Amsterdam. Anne’s father, Otto, was a successful businessman who had made much of himself. Typical of the time, Anne’s mother was a housewife. Anne also had an older sister who she, like all teenagers, found difficult to relate to and get along with. Slowly, little by little, Otto created plans with four of his closest and most trusted friends as Nazi occupation became more and more of a concern.

The plan...a safe place to hide until all the horrible discriminations and acts against Jews finally ended. They weren’t sure how long it would take, but anywhere safe was better than being rounded up and carted off by the increasingly hostile military.

They found that refuge in the top floor annexes of Otto’s warehouse. The four close friends were not Jews and had nothing to fear as long as they could keep the Frank family safe.

Anne started writing her famous diary not long after her thirteenth birthday (it was her most treasured of the presents from that day). This diary chronicled the next two years of the lives of the Franks, a dentist named Mr. Dussle, and another family – the van Daan’s. The diary was written in, as Anne once wrote, “a variety of moods” as she goes through much of what all teenagers experience in those years where they are no longer children but barely beginning to understand and experience what it is to be an adult. Unfortunately, that was also compounded by a two year confinement with seven other people who, in turn had to deal with their own thoughts and feelings while going through the same circumstances. Issues with food rationing, sleeping arrangements, lack of privacy, and the ever present fear of being discovered consumed nearly every moment and led to many arguments among and between the families. It is no wonder Anne chose to pour her heart out to a volume she affectionately named “Kitty”. Within its pages are the childish rants of a girl and the incredible wisdom of a young woman whose life ended far too soon.

Once I picked it up, I had trouble laying it back down. It is a marvel to me how eloquently a thirteen year old could write. She captured her every thought, roiling emotion, and daily experiences so completely it was as if I watched her life through her eyes. As I had to settle for just reading her most private words I found the diary both amusing and so deeply poignant that I was laughing and sighing with sadness in turn. To be honest, Anne never became real to me until I came to her last entry and read her last words, an almost unfinished thought amongst a message of still clinging to hope. Turning that page to see the words “HERE ENDS ANNE’S DIARY” was a shock. The dispassionate summary of the end of her life following the phrase left me weeping. That was when Anne ceased being the main character of a book I was reading. Instead, she became a real girl with thoughts and feelings that my own life had mirrored on occasion, and a girl whose legacy has endured and become an inspiration to countless people.

About the Author:

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1929. She was thirteen years old when her family and four other people went into hiding with the help of four of Otto Frank’s trusted colleges. These four people did their best to keep the eight people living in the “Secret Annex” well hidden and supplied with food and company during their two years of concealment. Sadly, just three days following the last hope-filled entry in Anne’s diary, members of the SS broke into the warehouse, located the Secret Annex, and arrested the eight people inside. The Franks were transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Anne's mother, Edith, died. Anne and her sister were transferred from the Dutch concentration camp, Westerbork, to Bergen-Belsen where they both died of typhus just weeks before it was liberated by Allied armies. Otto Frank was the only survivor of the eight people who lived in the Secret Annex.

Anne Frank was very passionate about writing and planned to become a writer after the war. She started writing in her diary as a way of writing letters to a friend. She called this imaginary friend “Kitty”. During the two years in the Annex, Anne not only wrote in her diary, but wrote several short stories and kept a notebook filled with her favortie quotes. Later, though she continued to keep up her make-believe correspondence, she wanted to make sure the diary became a written record of their experiences. She even went back to her previous entries adding comments and explanations for future publication. She never finished it, but her father, after surviving the concentration camps and returning home, was given the diary by one of the “helpers”. Though it was difficult for him, he finally read Anne's diary and realized how little he knew of her while she lived. At last, he granted Anne’s wish and published it.

Historical Note:

Many people, like Anne and her family went into hiding as an attempt to escape Hitlers harsh laws. As Germany expanded, many of the countries these people fled too were soon conquered. Anyone disobeying Hitler's laws in the areas of Nazi control were either sentened immediately to death or arrested and sent to the concentration and death camps. Despite this, many people willingly risked their lives to go into hiding. Countless unselfish other like the "helpers" who aided the Franks also risked their lives in protecting and hiding these individuals.

Anne Frank's diary is not the only published eyewitness account or diary of the victims of the Holocaust. Check your local library for suggested reading. Keep in mind there will most likely be mature factors within the book, so make sure you get age appropriate suggestions from the librarian and/or parental approval before reading.

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