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.

Sarah’s Key

 

Sarah’s Key (original title: Elle s’appelait Sarah) is an amazing French drama based on the even more amazing book by Tatiana de Rosnay. I really loved the book and the movie didn’t disappoint me either, but since it’s a while ago I read it this post will be only about the movie.

The movie is alternating between the past and the present and is about the Jewish Sarah Starzynski and the American journalist Julia. The little Sarah locks her brother up in a hidden closet to protect him of the police. She promises him she’ll come back for him but unfortunately she doesn’t know that she and her family are being deported from Paris to a camp. She holds onto the key of the closet and is determined to save her little brother. In the present Julia finds out that the house of her husbands family has a past: It once belonged to the Starzynski family. Julia is driven by curiosity and tracks Sarah down until she finally finds what she’d been looking for.

Like I said, the book is simply amazing. I’ll read it soon again and write a review about it. I’m always kinda scared that movies are gonna destroy the images I had in my head while reading a book. Surprisingly, Sarah’s Key did not. The first part of the movie I spent crying because I felt the fear and frustrations of the little girl. It’s just so intense. When the movie shifts to the present it isn’t all tears and drama. The story gets more and more exciting when Julia gets obsessed by Sarah and tries to track her down.
Movies about war are my weak point. It makes me so mad to see that so many innocent people got killed. I think this is a to-see movie, not only because it shows a little bit about the camps in France (not only the Germans did bad things) but also because it is a helluva story!

This movie is directed and co-written by Gilles Paquet-Brenner and produced by Stéphane Marsil. It came out in September 2010 on the Toronto International Film Festival and is starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance Niels Arestrup and Frédéric Pierrot.

I’d give this movie an 8 out of 10, because it shows the pain of the Jews in France during WWII while still entertaining the audience with a good drama movie.

What I didn’t like? The end! Just like in the book Julia is happy with the answers her search gave her and she’ll probably live happily ever after, just a little bit different than expected.