“Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank

‘The most important message of the story is that all people have the right to live in freedom.’
“Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl” is the real diary of a teenage girl that begins on Anne’s 13th birthday (12 June 1942), when she gets a diary. It tells the story of her family who live in Frankfurt, Germany, and suddenly have to go into hiding as a result of Hitler and the Nazi Party’s treatment of Jews in Europe during the Second World War. They escape to Amsterdam, where they go into hiding with other Jews. The diary ends suddenly on 1 August 1944.
This book is a non-fiction, historic autobiography. In fact, it is a personal diary. Anne Frank adds different entries about exciting things that happen in her life. The book is set out in a journal entry format that allows the reader to feel as though they were reading an actual copy of Anne Frank’s diary. Every entry gets more and more interesting. Initially, she wrote it strictly for herself. Then, one day in 1944, Gerrit Bolkestein, a member of the Dutch government in exile, announced in a radio broadcast from London that after the war he hoped to collect eyewitness accounts of the suffering of the Dutch people under the German occupation, which could be made available to the public. As an example, he specifically mentioned letters and diaries. Impressed by this speech, Anne Frank decided that when the war was over, she would publish a book based on her diary. She began rewriting and editing her diary, improving on the text, omitting passages she didn’t think were interesting enough and adding others from memory. At the same time, she kept up her original diary. Anne Frank kept a diary from June 12, 1942, to August 1, 1944

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The last entry in Anne’s diary is dated August 1, 1944, when the eight people hiding in the Secret Annex were arrested. Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl, the two secretaries working in the building, found Anne’s diaries strewn all over the floor. Miep Gies tucked them away in a desk drawer for safekeeping. After the war, when it became clear that Anne was dead, she gave the diaries, unread, to Anne’s father, Otto Frank. After long deliberation, Otto Frank decided to fulfill his daughter’s wish and publish her diary.
Anne Frank is the author of the diary. Anne was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany, and was four years old when her father moved to Holland to find a better place for the family to live. She is very intelligent and perceptive, and she wants to become a writer. Anne grows from an innocent, tempestuous, precocious, and somewhat petty teenage girl to an empathetic and sensitive thinker at age fifteen. Anne dies of typhus in the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen in late February or early March 1945.
Anne’s elder sister Margot was born in Frankfurt in 1926. She receives little attention in Anne’s diary, and Anne does not provide a real sense of Margot’s character. Anne thinks that Margot is pretty, smart, emotional, and everyone’s favorite. However, Anne and Margot do not form a close bond, and Margot mainly appears in the diary when she is the cause of jealousy or anger. She dies of typhus in the concentration camp a few days before Anne does.
Otto, Anne’s father is practical and kind, and Anne feels a particular kinship to him. He was born on May 12, 1889, into a wealthy Frankfurt family, but the family’s international banking business collapsed during the German economic depression that followed World War I. After the Nazis came to power in Germany, Otto moved to Amsterdam in 1933 to protect his family from persecution. There he made a living selling chemical products and provisions until the family was forced into hiding in 1942. Otto is the only member of the family to survive the war, and he lives until 1980.
Edith Frank, Anne’s mother was originally from Aachen, Germany, and she married Otto in 1925. Anne feels little closeness or sympathy for her mother, and the two have a very baffling relationship. Anne thinks her mother is too sentimental and critical. Edith dies of hunger and exhaustion in the concentration camp in Auschwitz in January 1945.
Lastly, ‘Dear Kitty’ is the fictional character Anne Frank addressed many of her diary letters to. ‘Dear Kitty’ made her first appearance in Anne’s diary on 22 September 1942. By then, Anne had been in hiding in the Secret Annex for two months. Although life in hiding was not easy, the people there slowly developed new routines. For Anne, writing her diary became an important part of her routine. Kitty is Anne’s favorite imaginary friend.
Anne’s diary entries show from the outset that she is optimistic despite the threats and danger that her family faces. The tone and substance of her writing change considerably while she is in hiding. Anne is remarkably bluff and perceptive at the beginning of the diary, but as she leaves her normal childhood behind and enters the awful and unusual circumstances of the Holocaust, she becomes more shy, withdrawn and thoughtful. In her final diary entries, Anne is particularly lucid about the changes she has survived from, her ambitions, and how her experience is changing her. She has a clear perspective of how she has matured during their time in the Annex, from a young and stubborn girl to a more emotionally independent young woman. Anne begins to think about her place in society as a woman, and her plans for overcoming the obstacles that have defeated the ambitions of women from previous generations, such as her mother’s. Anne continues to struggle with how she can be a good person when there are so many barriers in her world. She writes with passion about her confusion over her identity, raising the question of whether she will consider herself Dutch, as she hears that the Dutch have become anti-Semitic. Anne thinks philosophically about the nature of war and humanity and about her role as a young Jewish girl in a challenging world. From her diary, it is clear that she had the potential to become an engaging, challenging, and sophisticated writer.
Anne’s diary contains a variety of symbols starting off with the diary itself. The diary is a symbol of comfort. It was a gift on her last birthday before she had to go into hiding, making it something she can cling to from her former life. It also enables her to maintain some privacy as she is living in a small space with seven other people and sharing a bedroom with a middle-aged man.
The Star of David is a religious symbol of the Jewish faith, but during the Holocaust, Jews were forced to wear a yellow Star of David, standing for those whose rights had been removed. Hanneli is one of Anne’s close friends, who comes in Anne’s dreams several times as a symbol of guilt. For Anne, Hanneli represents the fate of her friends and companions and the millions of Jews who were tortured and murdered by the Nazis. Anne continually struggles with the guilt that her friend is dead while she is still alive. Hanneli’s appearance in Anne’s dreams makes Anne turn to God for answers and comfort, since there is no one else who can explain why she lives while her friend does not.
Anne’s grandmother appears to Anne in her dreams. To Anne, she symbolizes unconditional love and support, as well as regret and nostalgia for the life Anne lived before being forced into hiding. Anne misses living a life in which she did not have to worry about her future. She imagines that her grandmother is her guardian angel and will always protect her.
Anne’s goal was to become a writer when the war ended. But she didn’t wait to start developing her dream. Anne saw firsthand what oppression and hatred could do to a person’s hopes and dreams. She also understood that one person could make a difference. So Anne did what she could. And although she didn’t live to see her eventual contribution, she really did start to improve the world in her own quiet way. Her book has been read by countless millions. It’s been translated into 70 languages and published in more than 60 countries. Its impact is beyond measure.
Throughout history there have been many people who have changed the world, but there have been few teenagers who have made an impact like Anne Frank. Although she did not know that writing a diary would be a piece of history forever, all of her writing has meant so much to everyone in the world. Anne Frank’s story inspires people because it is so powerful. She was a great writer and has made a huge impact on how we view the Holocaust. Anne chose to see the good and the positive in the situation and she considered writing a way to express how she felt.
I liked that Anne was a really happy and cheerful person even though she and her family were in an awful situation. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in reading historical, war or mystery books as it is so interesting and engaging. It would be suitable for people aged ten upwards since it can be pretty upsetting for younger ages, though.

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