A Review of The Diary of Anne Frank

 

    The Diary of Anne Frank tells the melancholy tale of a young Jewish girl hiding from the Nazis. While her situation is genuinely dismal, Anne manages to maintain hope for a brighter future throughout her time in hiding. She ponders her dream of being a successful writer in the future, and never contemplates her end in her diary. She demonstrates that no one thinks they will die until they do. 

    The collection of letters Anne left behind has interested me for a while and I thought it would be a great time to better understand what a lot of Jewish people had to go through during WW2. I find this especially interesting as I have Jewish ancestors who had to live through WW2 and some that died because of it. 

    When I picked up the book and started reading I was surprised to be inside the mind of a normal teenager. She attended school before the war and had her own strong opinions. Her diaries were far from the dry historical texts I was expecting. I suppose the true power of her diaries is the illustration of events from the perspective of a human being with no political agenda. Too often history is written by those who benefit from the words they are forcing into people's brains, but Anne just needed someone to listen to her, and her best listener was paper. She even says, “Paper is more patient than man.” The sad part is that if Anne had not died a horrible death in a concentration camp just days before she could have been let free people would likely not find her diary interesting. 

    Most of her diary is not very remarkable. A lot of it is here simply discussing her family and what they plan to eat for dinner that night. If you had no context before reading the book you might think you are just reading a boring diary. 

    The diary itself is not that interesting, but the context makes it slightly creepy to read. By reading this book I learned that anything can happen at any time. Anne peacefully lived her life before being forced into hiding because of her religion. I also learned that it is impossible to know what someone is going through each day, and how a situation affects them specifically. Anne Frank’s dad Otto Frank was the only survivor and was shocked to read about Anne's complex thoughts and opinions after her death.

    I recommend reading this book if you want to see WW2 from the unique perspective of someone who had to live through it. I found the book to get a bit boring at times since there is not much to say about living in hiding after a while besides how rotten the potatoes are and how annoying people can be. If you have read this book before let me know what you thought. 

Thanks for reading!

-Sasha