Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Reviewed By: Shannon Day (about the authors) (back to main page)

            Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is the diary that Anne Frank kept while in hiding in Amsterdam for two years during the Holocaust.  The diary, which was a gift for her thirteenth birthday, begins a month before she entered hiding in June of 1942, and ends in August of 1944 when the secret attic was discovered by the Nazis and she was sent to the concentration camps.  The seven other people who were in hiding along with Anne were her parents, her sister Margot, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan and their son Peter, and Albert Dussel.  By reading this book of her diary entries a story emerges about the life and experiences these people had while in hiding.  Anne goes into detail of the events that occurred in the "Secret Annex," her feelings about life, and the horrible things that were going on in the outside world.  For more information about the timeline of Anne Frank's life, diary excerpts, and a scrapbook of her pictures, go to http://www.annefrank.com/1_life.htm.

            I first read this book when I was a young girl myself.  I was very touched by the story, as I still am today.  However, my feelings about the book and its message have changed over time.  When I was younger, I accepted the book for its surface meaning.  To me, Anne Frank was a nice girl with a family and friends just like me who didn't deserve the things that happened to her.  She was an inspiration to me, and the book made me appreciate more things in my own life.  Today, as I read it and know more of the historical background of the Holocaust, I am still inspired by her story, but I am aware that many other horrible things happened to people just like her in the outside world.  While Anne was hiding in the attic with her family, other Jews were living in ghettos, being beaten on a daily basis, watching their family and friends being taken away, and working for years in the concentration camps.  Now, I realize that Anne Frank's story is just one of many.  However, her diary and this book are still amazing to read because they provide an emotional story to the raw facts that we know about the Holocaust.