The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank

 

“I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.”
– Anne Frank

Anne Frank. Almost everyone knows about this Jewish teenager who lived in an annex for a couple of years during world war two, until she and the others were betrayed, discovered and sent to the concentration camps. From June 12^th 1942 until August 1^st 1944 Anne kept a diary. She tells about the limits for Jews before she and her family had to hide and about her feelings. When the family moves to their hiding place she keeps writing her diary, which has become her best friend named Kitty, and tells about her life in the annex.

I read the diary once before. I was 10 years old and very curious. I remember I was both impressed and shocked by this book and went to the Anne Frank House with my mom to get to know more about Anne. History repeats: 11 years later I decided that I should read it again. This book is one of the most important books in the world and I think everyone should read it. If more people who are living in inhuman conditions would publish their diaries (without trying to make it a best-seller) I think we would all appreciate our own lives more. At least I do now I’ve read it again.

In the diary Anne talks in all honesty about her feelings. She dislikes her mom Edith, loves her dad Otto and doesn’t really know if she really likes her sister Margot. The other hiders who live with them; Auguste, Hermann and Peter van Pels (Petronella, Hermann and Peter van Daan in the diary) and Fritz Pfeffer (Albert Dussel in the diary), drive her up the wall often and she puts all her resentment in the diary. The first year she is an angry young girl. She talks badly about her mom and loves talking about how many admirers she used to have. But while life in the annex goes on she starts to change: she grows up very fast and starts to fall for Peter. She keeps reading and studying and waiting for the day she can finally go back to school. Unfortunately, that day never came…
She always talks very positive about the helpers: Miep Gies, Bep Voskuijl, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman, who risked their own lives for her and the others.
I’m not gonna discuss the whole diary, because I think you should read it yourself.

What I think about Anne.
Anne Frank was deep, funny, honest, cocky and a dreamer. I think I would get crazy if I were in her shoes, but instead of getting grumpier by the day she tried to learn from her mistakes. She’s an example for everyone! This girl loved movie stars, history, royal families and writing. While keeping her diary she discovered she enjoyed writing and started a couple of short stories. She wrote more than once that she wanted to go on living after her death:

“I don’t want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!”

 

August 4^th 1944 Anne, her family, the van Pelses and mr. Pfeffer got arrested and sent to the concentration camps, where 7 of the 8 hiders died. Otto Frank was the only survivor. He received Anne’s diary and some of her notes from Miep Gies, who had saved them to give them back to Anne. Otto decided to fulfil his daughter’s dream to become a famous writer and published her diary.

If you’d like to read the book (again) – and I recommend you do – you could order it online

If you go to Amsterdam don’t forget visiting the Anne Frank House! You can see where and how Anne lived and learn more about her and the other hiders.

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is one of the most famous books in the world and of course it is made into a movie more than once. Last week I saw the movie (a mini-serie by the BCC) by Jon Jones starring Ellie Kendrick, Iain Glen and Kate Ashfield a.o.

I think I shouldn’t explain what the movie’s about because I hope everyone already knows, but in order to give a good review I’ll give a short summary:

World War II, Amsterdam 1942. The 13-year-old Anne is Jewish and starts keeping a diary because she’s missing a best friend in her life. Life for Jews in Holland is getting worse every day. Jews are not allowed to go to the movies, drive a car, travel by tram… They are all aware that they can be sent to one of the labour camps. When Anne’s sister Margot receives the message she must go to one of the camps the family decides to hide. They move into ‘the annex’, a small house above the company of Anne’s father Otto. His employees risk their lives by taking care of them while they stay in until war is over.  After a couple weeks the Van Daan family joins them and so does Mr. Dussel. They must be quiet during the day and cannot go outside or open a window. For two years they live in fear and boredom. Anne keeps writing her diary because ‘Kitty’ is the only person who’s not judging her all the time. While the years pass by Anne starts to fall in love with Peter van Daan. She notices that her body and thoughts are changing and she even kisses for the first time on the attic with Peter. When she’s writing her diary for the last time the police discovers them and takes them away to the camps. Someone has betrayed them.

Wow. What a movie. I was reading The Diary of a Young Girl at the time and I recognized everything that Anne wrote down. It is so confronting. I really liked how Anne’s thoughts and the actual scenes blended so perfectly. The anger that she shows in her diary isn’t really shown in the movie, but her good moods and feelings perfectly rendered. Ellie Kendrick did an amazing job performing Anne Frank. She acted like I pictured Anne when I was reading her diary. I’d loved to see more about the special connection with her father and the hate she feels for her mother, but for such a short movie they’ve done an amazing job showing what Anne Frank’s life was like. The romantic scenes are so good that I almost forgot I was watching a total different kind of movie and every time the hiders are scared you can really feel their fear. I cried my eyes out when they were caught by the police. The worst part is that their names, the camp they went to and their date of death is shown when they leave the annex. Otto is the only one who survived the camps and that is something we must never forget. So many innocent people got killed, just because of their race. This movie has given a face to some of those people. And just when you started to know them, they were taken away.

I give this movie a 9,5 out of 10. I think they could’ve done a better job when the movie would be a little bit longer, but those 100 minutes are worth watching it if you’d like to know what Anne Frank’s life was like.