“I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that remains.”- Anne Frank. The Holocaust was a tragedy in our world, millions of people were killed because of genocide. Adolph Hitler was the man who ran this plan, he discriminated against the Jews and wanted them killed or slaves. One person who was killed in this tragedy was Anne Frank. Anne Frank’s family was Jewish so they secretly hid in a secret room where their father used to work, which they called the Secret Annex. They hid there with another family for a few years till the nazis found them and separated their families into different concentration camps. Anne Frank died when she was 16 but her story is spread worldwide till today. Three challenges that Anne Frank had to face during her lifetime were being treated like a kid, concentration camps, and living in the annex.
To begin with 1 of the 3 challenges Anne had to face was people still treating her like a child. In the book “The Diary of Anne Frank” by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett it states “I suppose you can’t blame them, they think back to what they were like at our age they don’t realize how much more advanced we are when you think what wonderful discussions we’ve had!” (Hackett 268). In this scene, it shows that Anne is talking about how both of their parents don't know what it is like to be their age. Both Anne and Peter’s parents still treat them as a child, and they can’t trust both of them to be in Peter's room. Anne tells Peter that their parents can’t relate to them because of how much knowledge they both have at this age. They believe that it is an “advantage” to know more things than their parents and because of that, they aren’t children anymore. Anne believes that she shouldn’t be treated as a child, that this knowledge she has at this age doesn’t make her into a child, and that she should be treated as an adult. This acted as a challenge for Anne Frank because of one thing, she didn’t like to be treated as a child. She had a hard time with her parents because they treated her like a young girl. Anne doesn’t want to be treated as a child, she wants to be treated like everyone else in the room. She didn't want to take orders from her mom or be babied by her parents; she wanted to be independent. She struggled to show her parents that she was a grown lady; this was one of the challenges she wanted to prove to her mother. Another quote from the book “The Diary of Anne Frank” by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett it states “Things have changed. People aren’t like that anymore. “Yes, Mother” ``No Mother” “Anything you say, Mother” I’ve got to fight things out for myself! Make something of myself” (Hackett 236). In this scene it shows that Anne doesn’t want to follow her mother's rules, she doesn’t want to be proper, and she doesn't want to be treated like a kid. Anne wants to be an independent woman and wants to be treated like one.
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In the quote, she wants to figure things out herself she doesn’t want her mom to baby her and help her figure out things for her. She wants her mom to trust her that she can do things herself, she doesn’t want her mom to correct her on things or to correct Anne’s mistakes. This acted as a challenge for Anne because Anne always wanted her mother not to treat her as a child. She always wants to prove to her mother that she is a lady but every time her mom corrects what she does. She works so hard to prove that she is all grown up trying to act properly for her mother but still, her mom thinks that she is just a little girl. This was one of the challenges she tried to face while living in the annex for her parents to not treat her like a kid.
The second challenge Anne had to face was her being in the concentration camp. In the article “Anne Frank” it states “The conditions in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were horrible. The prisoners were hungry and cold, and many of them fell ill due to the poor hygiene in the camp. Anne became ill as well, with spotted typhus.” (22). This is important because the camp Anne went to had harsh conditions. People there would have to work day and night with limited food. People would often spread diseases which would lead others to death. Anne was one of those who got the disease that was spread in the camp; she died because of that cause. The officers there would often torture the prisoners to do more labor making it harder for them to focus on their work. There wasn’t a lot of water which made many of the prisoners hungry and cold. This was hard for Anne because she had to survive in this concentration camp. There was limited food and water there and others would fight for food. She was also separated from her father because in the concentration camp she went to they were separated by gender. As still a teenager this would have been hard for her because teenagers need a lot of food because they are going. Having less food and water and working day and night would have made Anne mentally and physically weak. She would have struggled to keep herself healthy enough to survive. Anne also got a disease from the camp where there was no medical person to treat her disease. Another quote from the article “Types of Camps” states “Inmates in concentration camps were also usually subject to forced labor. Typically, this was long hours of hard physical labor, though this varied across different camps. Many camps worked their prisoners to death.” (3). This means that the concentration camps people were in were used for labor. The Jews had to work in concentration camps for long periods. Many of these camps did not feed them well which would make them weaker to work. These camps also killed a lot of the prisoners because the prisoners were so weak from working and starved which would make them die.
There were types of camps too depending on the officers where they were mean, threatening most of the prisoners if they stopped working. Prisoners were just a thing to the Nazis they weren’t human to them so they expected them to follow their instructions. This would be hard for Anne because the camps made the prisoners do hard labor. The soldiers who ran the camp were also strict in telling people what to do. As we know Anne doesn’t like to be bossed around so this would have been hard for her. It would be hard for her to listen to these people to do hard labor when she knows the right thing is to fight back and get treated right. The Nazis were too powerful to fight back so all they can do is to survive and follow the soldier's directions.
Finally, the last challenge Anne had to face was living in the Annex. In the book “The Diary of Anne Frank” by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, it states “ Mrs. Frank- “ No NO NO Margot will come in here with us and he can have her bed. It’s the only way. Margot, bring your things in here. Help her, Anne. Anne- Why Margot Why can’t I come in here” (Hackett 238). The character is saying that Anne should share a room with Mr Dussel instead of her sister Margot. The Annex is very small and there are a lot of people living in it. Some people had to make a compromise so everyone had a place to sleep. Anne doesn’t want to share her room though she wants to stay in her parent's room instead and Margot with Mr Dusel. Her mother wants Margot to stay in their room instead of Anne. She gets mad at her mom because she wants Margot to sleep in their room instead of her sleeping there. This acted as a challenge to Anne because it was already hard for her to live in the Annex for a long time. She couldn’t go outside or anything, she only stayed there. The Annex was so small that there were not enough rooms for each person to sleep in so Anne had to give up her room for another person. She had to compromise with her parents and had to let another person in her room. Mr Dusell and Anne always had arguments about who gets the room for the day. She had to compromise with him that he would get the room these days and she would get it on those days. The living situation in the Annex was hard because Anne had to share a room and she couldn’t have time for herself to be alone. Another quote from the book The Diary of Anne Frank” states “.. from eight in the morning until six in the evening we must move only when it is necessary, and then in stockinged feet. We must not speak above a whisper. We must not run any water” (Hackett 224).
This means that while they were living in the Annex they had to be quiet and not make a peep. They couldn’t walk or talk or play in the house because the workers downstairs could hear everything if they did something. They couldn’t use water too because the water would go down the pipes which the workers downstairs would also hear. All of them had to stay silent for a long period before all of the workers would go home where they would start to talk, laugh, play, etc. This was hard for Anne because she had to stay quiet the whole time without talking to anyone. She couldn’t move a lot and couldn’t be active. They couldn’t go outside because it was dangerous they all could have gotten killed. Anne liked adventure and wanted to travel the world, so being stuck in the Annex would be a challenge for her. She couldn’t explore the outside world and only stayed there in the Annex for years till they got caught there. Anne also lived in fear in the Annex that maybe one day one of the Nazis would figure out their hiding place.
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