Even though the art of diary-keeping is no longer the vogue in our fast-paced 21st century world, but back in 1942, it was an element of average life. And the girl in focus here is Anne Frank.
Dear Diary
Who was Anne Frank?
Anne Frank was a German-Jewish teenager who was forced to go into hiding when Hitler’s Nazi government occupied Amsterdam, Holland because Jews were among those – even the main target – of Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror.
Shortly after receiving a diary for her 13th birthday, she started recording entries on June 14, 1942, and she continued writing down her impressions while confined with her family and four other fugitives as they hid behind a bookcase in a concealed attic space in her father’s office building.
The young girl’s entries were made in the form of letters to several imaginary friends and she also employed pseudonyms to conceal the identities of her fellow fugitives and accomplices, which consisted herself, her parents and elder sister, Margot; another family with their teenage son, Peter and a dentist.
What Did Anne Write About?
Like many other normal teenagers, Anne agonized over her conflicted feelings about her family and a possible romantic interest (with Peter mentioned earlier), as well as her evolving thoughts about life. But her extraordinary depth and fine literary ability, combined with her optimism in the face of such adversity made her account a literary and historical treasure.
One of her entries reads thus:
It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart… I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.
What Became of Anne?
Anne would end up spending two years and one month in the hideaway, before the group was betrayed and sent off to concentration camps. Of the eight persons in hiding in the attic, only her father would survive. Anne succumbed to typhus in Belsen-Belsen in March 1945. She was just fifteen, having been born on June 12, 1929.
And the Diary?
A family friend later retrieved the diary from the attic and presented it to Anne’s father after the war. Upon reading it, Otto Frank persevered to get it published.
The diary first appeared in Amsterdam in 1947 and was subsequently published in the U.S. and the United Kingdom as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl in 1952. Its immense popularity inspired award-winning stage and movie versions.
The book has sold more than 30 million copies in 67 languages. The original manuscript was bequeathed to the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, and there are events held in memory of her on the anniversary of her birth, June 12.
Interested in reading the account of this remarkable girl? You can find free e-copies of the diary, and I can assure you it will be well worth your time.
This article was adapted from teenkidnews.com
