About the author
The author of the diary, Anne Frank, was a jewish girl in her teenage. Born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany, she spent her early years with her parents and Margot, her older sister by three years. The family moved to Holland, In the summer of 1933, because the Nazis and Adolph Hitler had come to power and began begun to persecute Jews in Germany leading to a critical situation where they resided.
In Amsterdam, Anne at first attended a Montessori kindergarten and grade school. After the Nazis invaded Holland in 1940, however, she had to leave her school for a Jewish one due to the anti sematic law of the German regime. Anne made a smooth transition in the new school and was a good student.
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Throughout her childhood, Anne was compared to her older sister, Margot, and judged to be less intelligent, talented, and beautiful. She was aware that her parents thought she was inferior and resented their attitude about her. In truth, Anne was a much more lively and personable girl than her sister and this is evident after reading her memoir. It is, therefore, fitting that her name, rather than that of Margot, is the one remembered by millions of readers.
Anne’s father, Otto Frank, was a wise, and resourceful man and also a prosperous businessman . After the Nazis invaded Holland, he made plans for the family to go into hiding, hoping to avoid arrest and imprisonment and that is where the family survived for a better part of 2 years. In July of 1942, Anne and her family entered the secret attic that Mr. Frank had prepared in the Amsterdam office building where he had worked. They remained in hiding there for more than two years and were joined by the van Daans and Mr. Dussel.
For the time she was in hiding, Anne recorded in a red checkered diary each and every observable fact, coupled with her own reflections. The entries reveal her to be a sensitive and thoughtful human being and a gifted writer. Though she was died in a concentration camp, her diary survived to tell of the horrors she experienced during the war and to reveal her amazing, indomitable spirit as a young teenage girl. Anne Frank’s diary of her family’s time in hiding, first published in 1947, has been translated into almost 70 languages and is one of the most widely read accounts of the Holocaust.
On August 4, 1944, the Gestapo, acting on a tip, arrived at the office building to conduct a search for the members. Even though the Dutch protectors tried to distract the Nazis, they did not succeed. The bookcase hiding the door to the annex was moved and the hideout was discovered. When the Nazis entered, the occupants stared in frightened silence. They did not Offer any resistance, simply packed a few things and left with Gestapo Security Service. Anne’s diary was left behind and was discovered at a later date.
One of Bep Voskuijl sisters may have been the one to betray the location of the safe house in in which Anne Frank and her family were hiding before ending up in the concentration camps, to the Nazis in 1944. Bep Voskuijl was one of the people who helped hide the Frank family.
The entire group, including Koophuis and Kraler, were taken to their headquarters, where they remained for questioning for a few days. They were then sent together by train to Westerbork, a retaining camp in Holland. During the journey, Anne, who had longed for two years to see the outdoors, stared out the window of the train, watching the passing scenery. Upon arrival at Westerbork, they found the conditions to be bearable; even though there was overcrowding and a lack of food, there were no gas chambers, firing squads, or crematoriums.
It was also reported that Anne and Peter spent their time with each other while they were at Westerbork and seemed relatively happy. After all, they were enjoying more freedom than they had experienced for the last two years preceding the hiding place, and they were probably both too young and naïve to understand the full danger of their position they were in. It has also been reported that Mr. Frank was allowed to visit Anne in her barracks at night but only a limited opportunity was granted.
On September 2, the Franks and van Daans were gathered into a large group because they were to be sent to concentration camps. They were herded into cattle cars, which were sealed after entering. After a couple of days they arrived at Auschwitz, where the men were separated from the women, and the children were separated from the adults. It was the last time Otto Frank would see his family.
Anne, Margot, Mrs. Frank, and Mrs. van Daan marched together with the other women into the horrid concentration camp, where their heads were immediately shaved bacuse that was the procedure to be followed before sending them to the concentration camps. They were also stripped and given only a sack dress to wear. It is reported that when the weather turned cold, Anne Frank managed to find and wear a set of men’s long underwear under her sack dress.
The women in the camp were divided into groups of four or five for purposes of work assignments and food distribution. Although Anne was the youngest in her group, she became its leader. She often was given the assignment of distributing bread to each barrack, which she always performed cheerfully and fairly. She also displayed a great deal of compassion for the prisoners who were less fortunate than she.
On October 30, 1944, all the women in camp were stripped and displayed before a searchlight. Those that appeared healthy were separated from those that were old, sick, or weak. The latter group, including Mrs. Frank, were obviously destined to be sent to the gas chambers. Anne and Margot were selected to be sent to the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany. They were again crowded into cattle cars that were sealed and traveled for several days.
At Bergen-Belsen, there were no regular work assignments. Neither were there regular food distributions, so most prisoners were starving to death. Typhus was also rampant, and many prisoners fell gravely ill and died. While there, Anne’s condition deteriorated rapidly. By the time she encountered her girlfriend Lies, Anne was ragged, emaciated, staving, and miserable. When Lies tried to give her food and clothing, they were stolen by other prisoners.
Margot contracted typhus during a camp epidemic and was critically ill for a long while. Then in late February or early March of 1945, she fell into a coma and died within days. Anne, who was also sick, was not even told about her sister’s death. Anne herself died a few weeks later, just a few weeks before the British Army arrived and liberated the camp on April 15, 1945. Her father Otto was the only one of the annexe's eight occupants to survive World War Two.
Documents revealing the desperate efforts of Anne Frank's family to escape to the United States and Cuba from Nazi-occupied Holland in 1941 had been discovered and the same were rejected by the united states government.
As she had hoped, Anne’s diary was preserved and first published in 1947. It is a usual day-to-day accounting of most unusual circumstances. Simply written, it is an outpouring of feelings and thoughts during the most trying of times for a young Jewish teenage girl during World War II. It is also a noble testament to Anne’s bravery against Nazi cruelty.
The writings of Anne Frank have touched millions of lives since her diary was first published in 1947. She has become a symbol of humanity amid the darkness of the Holocaust.
Introduction
In 1942, Anne Frank, a girl of 13 receives a diary as her birthday present. Here lies on her writings of how she lived through the course of World War II at Amsterdam in Holland beside Germany where Jews are force to emigrate to.
The first part of Anne Frank's diary contained events of a normal girl's life such as school, crushes, and social interactions with friends and her life and family but after some time these would change. Fear was imminent because of the German Gestapo arresting Jews for no reason whatsoever, so they went into hiding. Anne Frank's father Otto had thought of a perfect hiding place for his family, spaces behind his office building and they called it the Secret Annexe. Coursing through time more people went into hiding at the Secret Annexe, with the Van Daans and Mr. Alfred Dussel The Diary of Anne Frank provided illustrations and narratives of how they lived their lives during the World War II, their stories of everyday as they interact with each other, and the experience they had to deal with during the war. The Diary was found after the arrest of the people hiding in the Secret Annexe by Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide and shelter Anne Frank andthe people who resided in the Secret Annexe and helped Otto Frank, the only surviving member of the residents to share Anne Frank's Diary with the rest of the world.
Persistent efforts, however, have also been made to counter the most sentimental and misleading aspects of the “Anne Frank mystique.”
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The background setting for Anne Frank’s diary is World War II, which was started by Germany and lasted from 1939 - 1945. Having lost World War I, Germany dreamed of revenge and the recapture of lost territories; but the Republic of Germany, known as the “Weimar Republic,” was unable to cope with post-war problems and gave rise to a dictatorship. Hitler and his Nazi party rose to power by appealing to the many discontented German citizens and quickly suppressing their adversaries. On March 23, 1930, Hitler, with his totalitarian regime, assumed total control of the country. He immediately outlawed all other political parties, churches, and labor unions. He also formed the Gestapo, a regimented military police organization, to enforce his new laws. At the same time, radio, newspapers, and even motion pictures were seized by the government to issue Nazi propaganda.
With a strong belief in ethnic cleansing, Hitler began his attempt to purify Germany by eradicating all but the true Aryan (Germanic) race. False arrests, tortures, illegal imprisonments, and even murders were commonplace. He then created concentration camps to house the many prisoners who were opposed to his government or who came from the wrong race; when the prisoners arrived in the camps, their heads were shaved and their arms were tattooed with their identification number. In the camps, many of those interred, especially the Jews, were exterminated through starvation, sickness, unmerciful beatings, firing squads, and gas chambers. Those who were not killed were totally humiliated and forced into hard labor, including the children. The women were often sexually abused and raped.
By the time that Otto Frank left Germany to live in Holland with his family in 1933, the Nazi persecution of the Jews had already begun, and Hitler had started to re-arm Germany for a future war, in blatant violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Then in 1938, he invaded and annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia, telling the world it was a move towards peace. When Hitler began an invasion of Poland in l939, France and Britain finally declared war on Germany, and World War II had begun. Hitler, however, had amassed a mighty and well-armed fighting force, and by 1940, he had overrun Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France. In 1941, Hitler launched an attack against Russia. Throughout the next few years, the persecution of the Jews intensified, and virtually all of Europe was controlled by the brutal Nazis. By the time that Hitler was defeated and the war ended in 1945, more than six million Jewish men, women, and children had been killed, which was over 60% of the total number of Jews in the world.
SETTING
Anne Frank’s diary is written and set in Amsterdam, Holland during the World War II years of 1942 - 1944. Anne’s family (the Franks) and the van Daans are Jews hiding in a small area of two to three rooms, with a single window, located in the attic of an office building in Nazi occupied Amsterdam; Anne refers to it as the “secret annexe'. For two years, these close quarters serve as a shelter and protection for the families against the Nazis.
THE FINAL OUTCOME
In the Epilogue to the diary, it is revealed that the Franks (including Anne), the van Daans, and Dussel were arrested by the Gestapo on August 4, 1944, and sent to German concentration camps. Koophuis and Kraler were also arrested for having aided the Jews and were sent to Westerbork. Mr. Frank, Kraler, and Koophuis were the only ones to survive their interments. Anne died in Bergen-Belsen in March of 1945, two months before the liberation of Holland. After Anne’s arrest, the diary was found by Miep and Elli. After Mr. Frank emerged from the concentration camp and returned to Holland, it was given to him.
It was learned that a charman had discovered the secret annex and sold the information to the Nazis for a few coins. Miep and Elli were in the office during the arrest. Later, Miep tried to rescue them by bribing some officials, but his attempts were useless.Mr. Koophuis was the first to be released because of medical conditions.
Tragically, the Franks, the van Daans, and Dussel were included on the last shipment of a 1000 Jews from Holland, which departed on September 4, 1944. They were huddled in a freight train bound for Auschwitz in Poland. At the end of the train journey, the men were separated from the women; it was the last time for Mr. Frank to see the rest of his family.
Mrs. Frank was detained in Auschwitz. She became mentally unbalanced during her interment and died in Auschwitz.Anne, Margot, and Mrs. van Daan were interred in Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp that was infested with typhus.
At Belsen, Anne was reunited with Lies, her girlfriend whom she wrote and worried about in the diary. Unlike Anne, Lies survived the Belsen camp. She later married and had two children. Anne, Margot, and Mrs. van Daan all died at Bergen-Belsen, supposedly from typhus.
Analysis
When Anne Frank is given a diary for her thirteenth birthday, she immediately fills it with the details of her life: descriptions of her friends, boys who like her, and her classes at school. Anne finds comfort writing in her diary because she feels she has difficulty opening up to her friends and therefore has no true confidants. Anne also records her perceptions of herself. She does not think she is pretty, but she is confident that her personality and other good traits make up for it. Through her writing, Anne comes across as playful and comical but with a serious side.
Anne’s diary entries show from the outset that she is content and 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 forthright and perceptive at the beginning of the diary, but as she leaves her normal childhood behind and enters the dire and unusual circumstances of the Holocaust, she becomes more introspective and thoughtful.
During her first year in the annex, Anne struggles with the adults, who constantly criticize her behavior and consider her “exasperating.” Anne feels extremely lonely and in need of kindness and affection, which she feels her mother is incapable of providing. She also wrestles with her inner self and considers what type of person she wants to become as she enters womanhood. Anne tries to understand her identity in the microcosm of the annex and attempts to understand the workings of the cruel world outside. As she matures, Anne comes to long not for female companionship, but intimacy with a male counterpart. She becomes infatuated with Peter, the van Daan’s teenage son, and comes to consider him a close friend, confidant, and eventually an object of romantic desire.
In her final diary entries, Anne is particularly lucid about the changes she has undergone, 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 an insolent and obstinate 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. Anne continues to struggle with how she can be a good person when there are so many obstacles in her world. She writes eloquently about her confusion over her identify, 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.
Conclusion
“Public figures of every kind, from politicians to religious leaders, regularly invoke[d] her name and quote[d] lines from her book. In all of these ways, her name, face, and fate [were] kept constantly before us.”
Though the events within the diary offer only a glimpse of the horrors done to the Jewish people because of the war, fear is still evident and illustrations of war life is greatly exemplified.I believe that there are a huge number of messages that could be grasped reading this book but I think the central theme was freedom. Freedom in a way of Jews being liberated from war torn and difficult life as well as freedom in a way that race and religion would not be the basis of discrimination among humanity. Freedom which they long for, freedom which they would like to have, freedom which they choose to fight for.Anne Frank, a 13, 14, 15 year old girl living in World War II Amsterdam, hiding behind an office building, writing in her diary which she received as a gift for her birthday, using her pen as her ultimate source of expressing herself, is an inspiration worldwide to fight for what they believe in, obliterate not people, but discrimination, destroy not homes but fear, uplift not power, but humanity and love. A 13 year old girl communicates in all walks of life, in all courses of time, in the phase of History.
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